Town hall meeting talks are on again.
In reference to the idea of town hall meetings discussed at council recently, councillor Dan Yake wanted clarification of was being suggested.
He asked the mayor if he was suggesting holding meetings in other locations, or what.
Mayor Mike Broomhead said the idea is holding more information meetings.
He said he was sending letters out to 10 local community groups or organizations and giving them the offer if they want to have one member or all of council make a short presentation to them.
“We’ve had so much go on in the past two years, and while I wouldn’t say the people on the street are upset … but there are people who have a lot of questions.” He said there seem to be a number of people “not getting the type of answers they want to get.”
Broomhead used the example of people questioning how the municipality will pay for various projects, or what the township’s plans are for the future. He used the example of a northern Wellington County Newspaper reporting “the rumour mill has it that …”
All that did, Broomhead said was get him bombarded with questions from the public about Shoppers Drug Mart.
“But there is an answer to those questions. The answer is – yes we are looking for development on that corner and yes we are negotiating with them. We’ve had planners involved. Most people are happy with that kind of answer,” he said.
But, he added, “[residents] not knowing anything about what is going on bothers me because then the rumour mill gets going about what’s going on and what’s not going on.”
He said then people start asking questions about issues such as environmental assessments and such have been done.
Broomhead said while councillors may have concerns, it is not the municipality’s job to undertake those studies. He said a lot of people do not understand that, and he contended council could get out and explain who is responsible for what in the environmental assessment process, and some of citizens’ concerns could be alleviated.
Councillor John Matusinec said the thing with public meetings is “You still have to get people out.” He cited a public meeting in Arthur where only a dozen people showed up.
Matusinec said everyone gave up a Sunday night, “and what did we accomplish?”
Broomhead said when he originally became mayor of Wellington North, he tried to hold town hall meetings. He said meeting at the Mount Forest fire hall was well attended, but only about eight arrived for a meeting in West Luther and only one person in Arthur.
“That’s why I’m bringing this up tonight,” Broomhead said.
Potentially, there would be meetings where only a few councillors would need to attend where specific issues are involved, but for larger issues he said all of council might need to be there. He cited a meeting held at the Royal Canadian Legion about a year ago. Broomhead said people had a lot of good questions, and afterwards a number expressed appreciation for his attendance.
There were so many rumours, and they appreciated hearing exactly what was going on, Broomhead said.
“To a certain point,” Yake said. “I mean you still can’t spill the beans. It’s hard to take things that are written in the paper or in the News and try to … when you can’t really say everything.”
“It’s the same with letters to the editor. People write letters to the editor and they have a complaint, a concern, or an issue. I don’t think anybody here has replied to a letter to the editor that’s been contradictory or very negative towards council. Letters to the editor are what they are … people’s opinions. Based on, most of the time, little facts.”
Yake said he is not opposed if someone wants him to talk to someone, or to a group.
“But it has to be worth our while to do it.” He said council has to be able to provide the requests with the proper information, to not waste that person’s time as well.
“I think it’s a good idea that we try to get out there more, but we don’t want to be leading people on if we cannot tell them the whole story.”
Councillor John Matusinec wondered about going back to the traditional mayor’s Newsletter.
Broomhead is still planning to put one together for the first part of next year.
“I’ve actually started writing it already,” he said.
Broomhead used the example of the development of the intersection of Birmingham and Main Street in Mount Forest. He said there were News articles referring to the facades.
“But that was all taken care of,” Broomhead said. “It was addressed almost seven weeks ago,” within the site plan control agreement.
But that discussion happened in a closed session of council. He suggested information meetings give councillors a chance to say what issues have been addressed, and how.
