HEATHER BOA Bullet News GODERICH – A handful of councillors will take over the job of working through a list of 64 recommendations for sweeping changes to the way Huron County conducts business.
Huron County Council has already considered about a dozen recommendations from a 220-page governance report presented by George B. Cuff and Associates Ltd. in May of last year that resulted in a dramatic change in the county’s senior management team, possible recall of Visa cards and vehicles given to senior managers, and extension of the warden’s term from one year to two beginning after the next election. Today council tasked a new committee of five councillors to continue working through the recommendations, delegating tasks to staff and making recommendations to full council.
“All we’re trying to do here is prioritize what’s left to do. Some of the small things we can just get done,” said George Robertson, who is the county’s warden. He said the committee would refer any policy changes to staff to move forward.
Council has picked away at some of the recommendations in the report, but progress has been hindered by a lack of staff, Robertson said.
On Sept. 11, chief administrative officer, Larry Adams, director of finance and deputy CAO, David Carey, and director of human resources, Darcy Michaud, employment ended with the county. Its clerk, Barb Wilson, handed in her resignation on Sept. 5.
The committee will begin meeting after the county’s new CAO, Brenda Orchard, starts her job Jan. 28. Committee members include: Robertson and councillors Bernie MacLellan, Ben Van Diepenbeek, Art Versteeg and Dave Jewitt.
One Comment on "Committee focuses on changing how county conducts business"
The first thing they should look at is how much all these committees are costing. The County procedural/ remnumeration by-law does not have a provision in it that allows for a half day remuneration Everything that is done within the County Council is either a Council or committee meeting, including adhoc committees approved by Council, which are paid as a full day. For example the Council meeting of yesterday (Jan 9th) made up of 16 Councillors members started at 9 a.m. and ended at 10:18, including the 10-minute break. Quick math 16 Councillors x $260 = $4,160 plus mileage, this does not include the attendance of Senior Staff and the preperation time for the meeting. I know the argument will be there was nothing to discuss because of the Christmas/ New Year break, so my argument is why have the meeting and why not a half day remnumeration vs. a full day? During my one year at County Council I brought this issue up but did not receive any support for discussion beyond the fact that “it messes up a whole day when you are required to attend any meeting” ?? Many Muncipalities are reviewing procedural bylaws and remnumeration should be a part of it, how many meeting (5 x $260 = $1,300) will it take these Councillors to address 64 recommendations, is there a sunset clause or is there a “Santa Clause” ???