Council here is delaying action on a township facility service review.
On July 24 council deferred 23 review resolutions from the parks and recreation committee.
“When I read the report it was me that asked for the deferral,” CAO Manny Baron told council.
“It would be a tough discussion to have … to … choose which of the recommendations we should … go with and not go with, and I think it would be a lengthy conversation.”
He suggested parks and recreation staff review the report and come up with “a solid recommendation, and we can either approve or deny the recommendation.”
Baron also said committees should not dictate to or add work for staff.
“We like recommendations but there was a lot of work that was given to the department here and I’m just not comfortable with … that process and I’d like to talk about that at the next committee meeting,” Baron said.
“But our job is to come in with a solid 100 per cent recommendation that we back, not to ask council to pick and choose which ones we want to do.
“I just feel for fairness to [pubic works director Sam Mattina] and public works (and) the other staff that we can recommend the exact number of recommendations .. and just present one full recommendation.”
The recommendations in the report, prepared by Mattina, range from creating a policy for when heaters should be run at the PMD arena to installing a meter at public facilities and establishing a summer ice rental rate at the arena.
Councillor Mike Martin said all the recommendations of the parks and recreation committee were already approved by council.
“The committee hasn’t been directing anything,” Martin said. “These resolutions have already come to council and have already been approved before staff could do work on them.
“I think in this particular case most of these recommendations that Sam’s pulled forward have already been discussed by council … I don’t think there’s anything new here. Speaking for myself, certainly none of the recommendations that came were unexpected, they were all stuff that we had spoken about already.”
Councillor Lori Woodham agreed she didn’t think anything in the report had changed.
Mattina explained the idea was to further consolidate the recommendations.
“There’s 23 resolutions on this report and (Baron’s) just trying to consolidate what it is,” Mattina said.
“Many of the changes that were recommended are here and have been made and most of this is good to go …
“What he’s trying to say is, ‘let’s consolidate this to a smaller number of resolutions that can be understood and incorporate the edits that were agreed upon by council.’”
Martin asked if there could be a discussion about whether public facilities should continue to have a permanent liquor license. He said there may not be enough use for the license to make business sense, but may add a convenience factor.
Baron said township officials could discuss it with their legal advisors and see if it could in included in the edited report.
“The next council meeting we come in with one full package, no edits and approve the package in total,” he said. “I think that’s a better way and best practice …
“Staff is here to provide you with the best advice and I’m extremely confident that when that final package comes for approval, it will reflect all of the changes that the committee and council would like to see.”
