Frontenac County Council goes north.

Jeff Green | Apr 22, 2015

Frontenac County is holding meetings at each of the four townships over the spring and summer months. The first of these meetings took place last Wednesday (April 15) at the North Frontenac Council Chamber in the mezzanine of the Plevna Fire Hall.

At the start of the meeting, an in-camera session concerning wages was held, after which in open session, council approved two separate agreements. The first was with CUPE Local 2290. An Interest Arbitration Award report, which is binding on the two parties, settled terms for 2013 and 2014 retroactively. The wage settlements are 1.75% in 2013 and 1.5% for 2014. With the settlement, the parties will be able to begin negotiations for 2015 and beyond.

A negotiated settlement has been reached between the county and CUPE Local 109, which represents the operators of ferry services for Frontenac County. The three-year agreement runs until 2017 and includes wage increases of 1.5% in 2015 and 2016 and 2% in 2017.

No funding for coffee table book on Frontenac County

Orland French and his publishing company, Wallbridge Books of Belleville, produce hard cover books about Eastern Ontario Counties. These include a book on Lennox and Addington that was reviewed in the Frontenac News several years ago, and most recently Wind, Water, Barley and Wine: the Nature of Prince Edward County.

The books include geological and historical information, natural history, aerial photography, and statistical information. They are designed as collectors' items and promotional material for the local counties.

French appeared before Frontenac County Council in March, proposing to produce a book about the County to mark the 150th anniversary. He was seeking a commitment of $70,000, the cost to be split between the county and its four constituent townships.

In return he would produce 2,800 copies for the use of the townships and the county. The books could be sold for $40 to return a profit to the investors in the long run.

The 150th Anniversary Celebration Committee took a look at the proposal and recommended that the county invest.

However, in a staff report, CAO Kelly Pender pointed out that the task of selling the books would be saddled on county staff, who are already busy and would have to take time away from other duties. As well, the potential exists that the selling will not be entirely successful.

His recommendation, which was not taken up by the 150th anniversary committee, was that since “the historical book project as presented by Mr. Orland French requires a prohibitively high initial investment and, given the extremely labour-intensive nature of selling the books, the potential for the County of Frontenac to recover its cost is low, and the project holds relatively low value as a marketing tool for the region, be it resolved that the County of Frontenac not provide financial support for the historical book project as presented by Mr. Orland French.”

Pender also pointed out that the county's procurement policy says that unsolicited proposals for financial investment are not to be considered by the county.

“You can, as a council, suspend your procurement policy and consider this, but that is the policy,” he said.

Councilor John Inglis from North Frontenac said that he thought that, given Mr. French's track record, “there is no problem of credibility. There is certainly room for this. I would propose that we support it to some extent.”

His position was the opposite of Ron Higgins, the Mayor of North Frontenac, who said, “I do not want to support this in any way.”

In the end Higgins' view represented that of the rest of Council, and the proposal to support the book was defeated by a vote of 8-1.

County to look at 68 areas of service delivery with a view towards collaboration

A report from the so-called CAOs group on shared service delivery was presented to Council. The group is made up of the Chief Administrative Officers of the county and its four member townships, who were all on hand at the meeting. Since the meeting took place in North Frontenac, the CAO from Frontenac Islands, Darlene Plumley, had to board a ferry at 6:00 am to make the 10 o'clock start time in Plevna.

The report starts with the premise that two long-held beliefs about the relationship between the townships and the county needs to come to an end.

“Holding to the traditional characterization of upper tiers [counties] as out of touch, or the lower tiers [townships] as not up to the task, only guarantees a limited future for the County,” the report said.

The report identified 68 different items of service delivery, under eight headings: human resources, municipal planning, corporate communications, council co-ordination, finance, economic development, emergency planning, and Information Technology & GIS/mapping.

It suggests that each of the 68 services be analysed according to a matrix where the ease of implementing change is considered as well as the expected cost savings/service improvement. Those areas that are both easy to change and liable to improve service and save money will be pursued first, and others will be pursued later on or left off entirely. While there are a large number of services to be considered, in the short term planning and information technology services are the focus.

“At this time we are looking for support for this process in principle, and we will bring back a further report in the fall," said CAO Pender. “Any item that we identify for change will be brought to council on its own, and the costs and benefits for all involved will be put before Council."

“I think this is definitely a positive venture,” said South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal.

“I certainly welcome this and the role that the CAOs are playing," said South Frontenac Councilor John McDougall.