Derek E. Silva

Spreading knowledge & understanding

  • Council Preview: Feb 6, 2019

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    Another Wednesday, another Middlesex Centre Council meeting. 😉 Here is the full agenda. This will be our sixth Council meeting of 2019 thanks to a few special Council meetings that were scheduled in for January. After Feb 6, we will go back to our normal bi-weekly (roughly) cadence until Summer.

    Delegations, Presentations & Petitions

    Only one item here, that being residents from the Ilderton area seeking for a reduction in their utility bill for some additional water usage no one seems to be able to explain.

    Consent Agenda

    • First we have the December building report. Fewer building permits issued in Dec 2018 vs. Dec 2017, however 2018 was still a very healthy year. Given the current state of things, I suspect 2019 will see a large increase in single family detached and condominium building permits issued compared with 2018.
    • The year end building report has a good summary of everything the Building department has completed. Here are a few highlights:
      • A total of 502 permits were issued in 2018.
      • Over $1.7M of development charges were collected, which goes towards the DC eligible portions of a variety of projects like the Ilderton WWTF expansion, the DC-funded portion of the Wellness Centre’s debt, and so on.
      • The inspection team completed 2,850 building, plumbing, and septic inspections.
    • The year end by-law enforcement report also has a good summary of everything by By-Law Enforcement department did in 2018, and includes the following highlights:
      • Hiring Mark Russell.
      • The addition of a streets by-law and parking by-law.
      • Additional training provided to staff.
      • The number of files opened, closed, and continuing on into 2019. 78% of cases were closed in 2018! An impressive number in my books.
      • And you’ll see staff try to warn people about illegal parking far more often than simply ticketing them immediately.

    Staff Reports

    • The first staff report is seeking for budget pre-approval to award replacing the playground equipment at Weldon Park in Arva, and Delaware Park. You’ll note that the scoring criteria has playground design as the biggest portion, at 60 out of a possible 100 points. As such, neither the most expensive nor the least expensive vendor is being recommended.
    • Bonus! Middlesex Centre has been successful at obtaining a $120,000 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation for the Weldon Park and Delaware Park playgrounds! This is a terrific amount of funding given the amount of money we’re spending on them.
    • The next staff report seeks to approve the budget we reviewed in tremendous detail last week.
    • We also have a legally mandated report on expenses not included in the budget, that being amortization of the municipality’s assets.
    • And finally, there is a request to award Stantec the detailed design and contract administration services for the Garden Ave (Delaware) storm sewer replacement job.

    Correspondence

    Under correspondence we have a notification that AMO has partnered with eScribe, which could lead to lower fees for Middlesex Centre for the digital agenda management software we are currently implementing, along with eScribe’s live streaming solution. MPAC has also provided their year end assessment report, and Niagara Falls felt it was necessary to let the whole province know they were opting in to retail cannabis sales.

    That’s it! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please let me know.

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  • Council Recap: Jan 30, 2019

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    Here is the preview, in case you missed it.

    To be honest, there isn’t much to say about this meeting. We spent the better part of 4 hours (after the closed session) listening to and watching the budget presentation, and then going over the budget documents in greater detail. Each Councillor asked multiple questions throughout the evening to clarify a number of items including what $12,000 would get us for new servers (two new servers, software licensing, upgraded software, etc), how machinery would/could be shared between the Public Works & Engineering department and Community Services (already happening and will continue to in order to avoid purchasing duplicate equipment), ensuring adding live streaming council meeting capabilities was included in the 2019 budget (it is!), and so on.

    We had some discussion about the reserves, where they were at, where they ought to be, and so on. Lots of questions, and thankfully lots of thoughtful, thorough answers from staff.

    Only one item was deferred to 2020 (and it could very well be deferred further), which was an environmental assessment on wastewater discharge in Arva. Such an EA would eventually lead to building a wastewater treatment plant in Arva and ending Middlesex Centre’s relationship with the City of London. Council asked staff to move that to 2020, and there generally doesn’t seem to be an appetite to make that EA happen anytime soon as the only justification would be to allow for further growth in Arva.

    So, that’s that! I also answered a few emails during and immediately after the meeting from residents who had budget related questions. This is a bit of a no-no, but at the same time it allowed me to ask questions I hadn’t thought of, and immediately respond to the resident’s concern!

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  • Council Preview: Jan 30, 2019

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    There isn’t much to this special meeting, dedicated to the 2019 budget, that hasn’t already been discussed. I will take the time to highlight a few items and actual, long-term implications as far as costs go.

    Documents

    Municipality-Wide Highlights

    • Water and wastewater rates are frozen for 2019. This was already approved in 2018.
    • We cannot:
      • Freeze/reduce water and wastewater rates
      • Restrict or prevent new development
      • Fund high-quality recreational facilities
      • Increase government transparency
      • Cut services
    • all at the same time. It’s just not doable. So I’ll be running a community poll in the near future to gauge residents’ priorities during this Council term soon, and we will come back to it from time to time to re-assess.
    • Here’s a breakdown of your tax bill:
      • 47% of your property taxes go to the Municipality of Middlesex Centre (Komoka, Kilworth, Ilderton, Poplar Hill, Delaware, Coldstream, Bryanston, Birr, Arva, Melrose) for municipal services like maintaining arenas, parks, by-law enforcement, building inspections, road maintenance, etc.
      • 32% goes to the County of Middlesex to pay for services like ambulance, county road maintenance, etc.
      • 21% goes to the Province for our public school systems (Catholic and public, English and French)
    • Tax rate increases have been dropping since 2016, with 2019’s projected at 1.77%.
      • This compares with the City of London’s 2019 tax increase of 2.7%.
    • While Middlesex Centre will spend more on internal staff and OPP (increases of 9.34% and 4.57% respectively), we are cutting back on subcontractors by 4.09%, hydro costs are projected to be 9.33% lower in 2019, water is projected to be 6.5% lower, and a 20% reduction in office supplies costs.
    • Of the $28,056,645 in debt outstanding, 42% of that is covered by development charges. That means that, in many cases, residents building new homes pay a portion when they do so, and then they also help pay through property taxes.
      • Only 36.1% of the debt is paid through property taxes. The rest is through user fees and specific residents (e.g. agricultural drainage works).
    • The new website will be launching in the next few months.
    • We will switch to the new meeting agenda software, and also be purchasing all the software and hardware necessary to deploy live streaming Council meetings.
    • Our development charges will be undergoing a full review this year.
    • Our Official Plan is also undergoing a full review, which could take 12 – 24 months to complete.
    • A new road needs study to more accurately identify which roads need resurfacing and when.
    • Settlement community stormwater master plan (study started in 2018).
    • An infrastructure design standards update.
    • And a top up to our reserves, as we have been spending more than we have been transferring to them recently.

    Ward 4 Highlights

    • New fire hoses for all fire halls.
    • Replacement bunker gear for all stations.
    • Kilworth Optimist Park – park re-development.
      • In partnership with Tridon, and they will refund the majority of the expenses.
      • New soccer pitch, new playground, new drainage, parking lot, paths.
    • Komoka Park – infield improvements (back diamond).
    • Komoka Park – resurface tennis courts.
    • Komoka Community Centre – parking lot drain repair.
    • Old River Road (Glendon to Pulham) – engineering study.
    • Sidewalk plow tractor (bringing this in-house instead of using contractor).
    • Kilworth West sanitary sewer connection completion.
      • And then decommissioning the Kilworth Wastewater Treatment Facility!
    • Servicing Tunks Lane.
      • You’ll learn more about why on Feburary 19.

    I was hoping to get an off-leash dog park into 2019’s budget, however in speaking with the Director of Community Services he wanted to ensure that the Community Services Committee had an opportunity to discuss it first. That’s fair, and I will continue to follow-up and work to get this completed in 2020. I know it’s a big want for many dog owners in Ward 4.

    I also wanted Council to look at pulling up to $500,000 from the Tax Rate Stabilization Reserve in order to mitigate this year’s tax rate increase. Unfortunately we may need to pull much more from that fund if the provincial government chooses to eliminate the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund. We usually find out how much funding we’ll get from the OMPF in the fall, however the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario has chosen to delay any decisions, causing much uncertainty. We received almost $1,000,000 in 2018 from the OMPF, so we could be looking at transferring around $900,000 from that fund to ensure we don’t need to cut vital services provided to our residents in 2019.

    If you have any questions, please let me know. I look forward to hearing from you.

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  • Council Recap: Jan 23, 2019

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    If you missed the last Middlesex Centre Council meeting preview, you can find it here and the public meeting preview here. I’m using my tweets from during the Council meeting as the recap, so that’s why it’s written in the present tense!

    Presentations, Delegations & Petitions

    • We started with Bill Rayburn, speaking about his recommended process for hiring a new CAO. He’s eager to see this go well and has already started beating the bushes looking for good, interested candidates.
    • Here’s the presentation, in case you would like to see it.
    • Bill is speaking about being Chair of the OMERS board and interviewing and scoring candidates. How tough it is, doing it fairly, scoring according to priorities, etc.
    • Bill speaks on the importance of future proofing; ensuring you’re not just hiring what you need today, but what you need years from now. And then having contrasting candidates, because if you have a shortlist that’s all the same, you have failed.
    • Also good timing right now because there are a slew of CAOs who have either left their current municipality or will be looking for a change after seeing the new Council that’s been elected last fall. Bill knows some great CAOs who are now looking for a new opportunity.
    • Bill has a two-step interview process that has worked really well for him (it’s in the presentation). Elgin County just used it, and has a list of scenario assignments that could be used to test for municipal government knowledge, ability to write and writing style, etc.
    • After some lengthy back and forth, Council has approved a $500 refund to Fred Lewis on the basis that he could have charged 1.25% interested per month, as the Municipality does, over the roughly 3 years his invoice went unpaid.
    • Kevin Moniz presented his update to the Martin Road Drain. I asked about replanting trees, which Kevin says is not advisable because of the works. Fair enough. Councillor Aerts also identified a clerical error regarding pipe size, which Kevin will rectify and report back about.
    • This was received for information. Now onto Committee of Adjustment, which I am chairing! So I will report back after.

    Committee of Adjustment

    After some healthy debate regarding EU zone, minor variances, and some Q&A, staff’s recommendation to deny the application was approved. However, it seems there’s consensus that applicant should seek to re-zone their property instead, at which point they just need a building permit.

    Public Meetings

    • We’re starting with the redline revisions to EdgeWater Estates. UTRCA doesn’t have any concerns, Kilworth Heights West (Tridon) has concerns about cutting off natural trail after 695m and plans for it, and no concerns from a French-speaking school.
    • Carol Wiebe, the planner for South Winds, is going through the changes. Much of it is getting appropriate zoning in place for changes that have been submitted previously. Current draft plan shows this, registered last year with a 10 acre SWM.
    • South Winds has deeded and registered the open space blocks to the south (right side of photo) to the Municipality, which will be part of a floodplain. The area for ~33 units would be a vacant land condominium, hence the request for a private drive.
    • A resident of River’s Edge Lane has concerns regarding potential or all the traffic to use Westbrook Drive, and the orientation of the path. I can say Crestview Ave will be extended all the way to Glendon, and Carol Wiebe reiterated the multi-use path exists and will be available.
    • A concern from a resident about ensuring that the construction access will continue to use the construction access road. That is accurate. I made some corrections regarding ingress/egress to Glendon (one, not two) and that I’ve been told Crestview should be connected in 2019.
    • A question from a resident about maintaining the multi-use path; it would be maintained like a primary trail, minimal work unless standards change. The President of Tridon confirms for another resident that the ingress/egress is designed to handle all the traffic.
    • The report was received for information.
    • Mr. Ruggeri’s request was mostly approved. The staff recommendation was approved.
    • The application severance was also approved. On to item 10.5.
    • Laverne Kirkness is here with one of the partners (Mary-Ellen) of PW Holdings. Starting with a bird’s eye view of the land, looking north. This application, if approved later, would complete development of Union Ave.
    • 50’ lots and 150’ deep, keeping in line with existing UR1 zoning. The draft plan of subdivision does comply with MXC’s official plan (and Komoka-Kilworth Secondary Plan), the County’s OP, and the provincial policy statement (PPS).
    • The applicant is looking for approval at Council, approval from the County, and hoping to get lots in for servicing this spring. No comments from the public. Councillor Aerts has a question about two dashed lines — probably an easement. Received for info.

    Consent Agenda and Staff Reports

    • We took a 10 minute break and now have skipped ahead to the DWQMS operations plan. Council asking staff some questions regarding Top Management Review Agenda & Meeting Minutes.
    • Questions re: pressure change in Delaware b/c of new standpipe, causes of low pressure, what to do w/ TC.
    • Council votes to endorse the DWQMS for 2019. Brian and Eric (water/wastewater staff) can go home now! 😁
    • On to item 8.7, allowing temporary use for Kevlar at 85 Queen St. I made this motion back in December. Approved! Kelly (Planner) can go home now!
    • Now we’re backing up to item 8.1, the request for a Health and Safety & Human Resource Coordinator.Deputy Mayor Brennan wants to know if we can provide services to other municipalities if it turns out this person isn’t really a F/T position. Tiffany says that’s a possibility.
    • A question from Councillor Aerts about hiring this person before the new CAO or not. Tiffany, Director of Corporate Services/Treasurer, says that this person would report to her, the past CAO was not typically involved in who Tiffany hires that reports to her. I said I was okay with deferring new municipal engineer because that person reports directly to the CAO. The H&S/HR person would not report directly to the CAO.
    • Scott, Director of Community Services, supports making this position happen because of the workload they will receive. It’s a F/T job is the message.
    • Clipping along. Motion to hire a health and safety/HR coordinator position was approved.
    • Motion to temporarily appoint IBI Group as the municipal engineer was approved. There is no retainer, it’s purely on an hourly, as-needed basis.
    • Pre-budget approval for the Meadowcreek storm water project is granted. Now on to the Deputy Fire Chief position. Chief Toth is looking for a new F/T position. I’m speaking in support, but DM Brennan seems to feel otherwise based on his opening.
    • And I don’t speak in support lightly. Chief Toth works 60 hour weeks getting his department up to snuff and has accomplished a lot in the past two years. DM Brennan would like to see this deferred for a year b/c much of what’s done has been “one-off stuff.”
    • Councillor Shipley also thinks that the HR person will take a lot of the load off the Chief, and thinks that person could handle the Section 21 guidelines.
    • Chief Toth agrees some items have been one-offs, but he has a lot of after hours items that happen. JHSC, other meetings. The one-offs also come with a lot of maintenance. Structure is getting there, but he simply can’t get to a lot of day-to-day items right now.
    • Doesn’t feel right putting Section 21 guidelines on new HR person or his educational coordinator. Huge workload right now.
    • Council defeated my motion to approve the position. Instead a motion was approved to have Chief report back in 6 months on the workload taken off him by the new HR coordinator, and what responsibilities would be offloaded from him to the Deputy and impact on his job description.
    • DM Brennan reporting on last County council meeting. SCOR was there with a report on their activities. FCM exec position available, and Strathroy-Caradoc Mayor Joanne Vanderheyden is running for that. Funding for asset management plans made available by provincial gov’t.
    • Several people were at County council re: a new gravel pit in Thames Centre, they were against it. It’s going back to Thames Centre for review. Complainants said air and noise studies weren’t done. OFA also had delegation regarding property tax rates.
    • Councillor Aerts makes the point that his farm home is only taxed at 0.005%, whereas North Middlesex farm homes are taxed at 0.008%. Huron County’s ag land is taxed at 0.23% but they still pay more taxes than Middlesex County ag land.
    • On to by-laws! And then done. Good night everyone!

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  • Council Preview: Jan 23, 2019

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    This is the Middlesex Centre Council meeting agenda for January 23, 2019. You can find the full agenda here.

    Today I will be focusing on the Delegations, Presentations & Petitions, Consent Agenda, Staff Reports, and Committee of Adjustment. I already wrote about the Public Meetings affecting Ward 4 a few days ago.

    Delegations, Presentations & Petitions

    • First up we have a very confusing situation that, as far as I can tell, involves a man named Fred Lewis who was one of the vendors and also a beneficiary of municipal drain work completed and he is requesting a refund on penalties paid. I have all sorts of questions that will need to be asked to ascertain exactly what happened, when, and why. The refund request will be voted on later in the evening.
    • Next, Middlesex County CAO Bill Rayburn will appear before Council to discuss the CAO recruitment and hiring process. There was a desire during the prior Council meeting not to use a third-party vendor, and instead to leverage existing resources that understand the Middlesex Centre’s needs better.
    • Lastly, Kevin Moniz from Strik Baldinelli Moniz will appear to present his report on the Martin Drain. There are lots of parties involved, and even the municipality stands to benefit from some of the works proposed.

    Consent Agenda

    Under the consent agenda we have three items to review and receive (or not).

    • The budget to date for December 2018 still has a number of gaps remaining because routine reserve transfers haven’t been completed, some bills haven’t been paid, and so on. However, there still appears to be a fairly large surplus that could be used in a number of ways. I’ll be seeking some clarity both before and during the meeting.
    • We have a more detailed report on the CAO hiring process, including a list of costs for posting the position to various job boards, and a list of qualifications that hopefully suits our needs better. For example, the educational preferences have been expanded to allow for a wider pool of candidates!
    • Lastly, we have our Fire Chief’s end of year report. Here are some highlights:
      • The number of calls MCFS attends to has been increasing, primarily driven by monitored alarms, open burning, motor vehicle collisions (MVC’s) and tiered medical responses.
      • Population increases are also driving the number of calls higher, which is to be expected.
      • On the other hand, the number of structural fires dropped by almost 50%, from 23 calls in 2017 to 12 calls in 2018!
      • Delaware Fire Hall, which is the primary for Komoka and Kilworth, responded to 133 calls in 2018. That’s a 36% increase!
      • The dollar loss value for 2018 is $2.9M, the lowest it’s been since 2015. Hopefully we see another reduction in 2019 through fewer and smaller fires.
      • I also encourage you to review the impact our educational components had in 2018 (pages 5 and 6). The County’s Fire Prevention Staff have reached at least 25,212 through their efforts!
      • The Fire Prevention staff also conducted 12 fire safety/fire prevention demos/lectures, 6 fire drills and attended 43 meetings on behalf of Middlesex Centre. Nice work!
    Break down of Middlesex Centre Fire Services calls for 2016 – 2018

    Staff Reports

    We have a number of staff reports up for review! Here are the recommendations put forth:

    • To recruit and hire a Health and Safety & Human Resource Coordinator Position
      • We have been utilizing Selectpath to supplement our HR needs for the past few years, but staff have identified a number of deficiencies that must be addressed in order to keep things humming along and to remain within legislative boundaries.
    • To temporarily Appoint IBI Group as the Municipal Engineer
      • After our previous Municipal Engineer left the Municipality, and the CAO shortly thereafter, Council decided to hire a new CAO first. As a result, we have a need for a temporary appointment until we hire a new, full-time engineer.
      • IBI Group would be represented by Rob Casacden, who possesses his Professional Engineer (P. Eng.) designation.
    • To pre-approve emergency repairs to the Meadowcreek Stormwater Project
      • This is an item identified last fall. Staff is now looking to proceed before the weather makes these repairs far more difficult.
    • That no action be taken on the aforementioned refund request from Fred Lewis
    • That Council approve the request to create a full-time Deputy Fire Chief position
      • I am of two minds on this issue, but I look forward to a healthy dialogue with Council and the Fire Chief.
    • To endorse the 2019 Drinking Water Quality Management System Operational Plans
      • Having just completed an educational session on drinking water quality and safety, and reviewing the operational plans, I only have a few questions for staff and otherwise am satisfied with the plans put forth.
    • And to approve the application for temporary Zoning By-law Amendment, to allow Kevlar Landscaping 18 months at 85 Queen Street while they search for a new location.
      • I put forth this motion at the last public meeting, so I’m looking forward to giving Kevlar some reprieve and time to breathe.

    Committee of Adjustment

    This is outside of Ward 4’s boundaries, but I wanted to highlight it because it is a rare recommendation for denying the request from our Planning staff. This is also the first Committee of Adjustment meeting that I will chair.

    The request is to be allowed to erect an accessory building with a maximum size of 511 m² (5500.36 ft²). The Comprehensive Zoning By-law permits a maximum size of 50 m² (538.2 ft²) for an accessory building in the Existing Use (EU) zone, which is the zoning for this property.

    And that’s that! If you’re interested in the items under Committee of Adjustment and Public Meetings, please be at Council Chambers at 10227 Ilderton Rd by 19:00 (7pm).

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