Council here has directed township staff to conduct a service review in response to public concerns expressed through the recent Township of Mapleton Council Report Card.
In October council members passed a resolution to conduct a survey aimed at obtaining feedback on their first year in office. A total of 55 responses were received and results presented at the Jan. 26 council meeting.
Asked to rate council’s overall performance, about 13% of respondents indicated they were very satisfied, 26% were satisfied, 34% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, 19% were dissatisfied and 8% were very dissatisfied.
With a minority of respondents indicating satisfaction and a number of pointed questions asked by citizens about government operations, Mayor Neil Driscoll suggested council hold a meeting to go over survey results and provide a response to questions and concerns raised through the survey.
Comments and questions from respondents included:
– “why was our CAO fired?”;
– “Re: replacement of senior positions (director of public works). What accountable/transparent committee consists of the mayor and CAO only?; and
– “quit wasting (money) on consultants – paying for second consultant to find works director after consultant for CAO?”
Following a special afternoon meeting on March 8 prior to a regular evening council meeting, Driscoll said the service review would serve as council’s response, along with increased communication efforts through the township website and other methods.
“We’ll use it for growth,” said Driscoll, noting various council members commented they learned a lot through the exercise.
Driscoll noted some respondents provided encouraging comments through the survey.
“You seem to be getting more done in shorter amounts of time. Bravo,” wrote one respondent.
“From what I have read in the Newspaper, it appears that council is basing some decisions on what is good for all taxpayers not just one person’s concerns. Feel there is a desire to spend money wisely,” stated another.
“It was nice to see there were some positive comments along with the negative,” said Driscoll.
