As the Town of Erin prepares to embark on a major expansion, it needs to deal with a chronic lack of trust between the municipal corporation and the residents it currently serves.
Of course, people know that the roads will be plowed, the water supply will remain of high quality, the ice will be ready for hockey players and the tax bills will arrive without fail.
But most people just don’t care about how local government works, and they are under no obligation to do so. Many feel it is an out-of-control system that takes a lot of their money and only gives a little in return.
As an independent observer, I don’t think the town is out of control. Local municipal projects are often very expensive, very slow moving and highly controlled by provincial regulations and funding.
Yes, the town should be aggressive in finding ways to be more efficient and innovative. But it also needs to do better at communicating – regaining trust and building up its image.
I spoke recently with Garland Williamson, a farm owner and businessman. He has no specific objection to construction of a wastewater system, but is concerned about the town spending millions of dollars and lacking expertise.
He wonders how the town will manage a doubling of its population if it can’t properly manage what it has now.
Often it is what people actually see when they drive around town that affects their confidence in the municipality. Williamson brings up the example of the entrance to the medical centre and Tim Hortons from the intersection on County Road 124.
The county did not want traffic coming in from that intersection, but agreed to a compromise – a sharp curve in which two cars cannot pass by in opposite directions. And the number of parking spaces is inadequate.
People don’t care how much it was the county’s fault or the town’s fault, or the fact that it was a previous council. They just know it is a municipal failure, and that they are stuck with it for a long time.
He also raises the property standards bylaw. You can drive around town and see properties with old cars and other junk out front – apparent violations of the bylaw. There are various new homes where the landscaping is not completed until years after the house construction. There have also been many complaints about improper dumping of soil fill. There’s a general feeling that nothing is being done.
Mayor Allan Alls said the Town has to pick its battles, since bylaw cases often get bogged down in expensive court battles. Just recently, council agreed to upgrade the Bylaw Enforcement Officer position from part-time to full-time on a contract basis.
CAO Nathan Hyde and the mayor acknowledged that the town has an image problem.
“We do need to communicate a lot better with the public – we need to have positive outreach with the community,” said Hyde, who has been CAO for just over a year.
He is hoping that the recent hiring of Jessica Spina as Communications and Special Projects Officer will help with that process. There will be a Citizen Engagement Charter coming out later this year, and development of a new Strategic Plan.
He said the staff reorganization last year was designed to improve delivery of core services, and that performance standards are in place to measure how well they succeed.
“My mission is to make Erin a future-ready community, which means ready for growth and ready for investment,” he said. “That’s us being ready for wastewater down the road. Council has bought into that vision and that’s the direction we’re going.”
All of the department heads are new in the last two years, and staff are under a customer service mandate, so let’s give them a chance to deliver.
“We want the public to have over time a level of comfort in what we’re doing, because we exist to serve them,” said Hyde.
