CORNWALL, Ontario – During their budget deliberations on Wednesday, Feb. 5, Cornwall City Council approved a motion to hire a new employee to facilitate Council’s Strategic Plan.
While they have yet to determine many of the specifics of the position, Council did set aside $60,000 in the 2020 budget for the salary of the new position.
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The addition of the new position was moved by Councillor Todd Bennett.
“In my opinion administration might be a little too lean and have a lot on their plates,” Bennett said. “This position would help with the reports we have been asking for, and some of us have gotten impatient when we don’t get them in time. I think if we had a staff liaison person, it would be that person’s responsibility to research best practices.”
Councillor Carilyne Hébert also endorsed the motion.
“There is a phrase that many elected officials love, but I hate, “attrition” When I hear that I hear that someone will have a heavier workload,” she said.
Other councillors however felt that this was too much, too fast, and too ill-defined.
“I’m amazed that some other councillors are so well versed in what we have in here, and I just got it at three o’clock,” said Councillor Claude McIntosh. “I haven’t heard anything from administration saying they need more help. I won’t even consider this today because I just got this.”
“I won’t support this right now. There is too much misinformation for me to support it,” added Councillor Glen Grant. “What I would support is a report from administration.”
Some of the strategic goals of the 2018-2020 Council include addressing climate change, attracting more jobs to the city, growing the municipal housing stock, and growing the population of the city to reach 50,000.
Mayor Bernadette Clement endorsed the idea as a way for the City to facilitate the Strategic Plan and retain focus.
“This Council is very engaged. There are creative meetings here all the time in meetings and in between meetings,” she said. “The sense I get over the last year, is that we’re losing sight of our strategic plan.”
Mayor Clement acknowledged that the position was aspirational, but added that it was time for the city to aspire to greater things and get them done.
“I’m going to say from this chair that we want to position this city in a way that we are going to attract, full stop, attract, you can fill in the blank there,” she said. “We are already into a year of this term and we want to do things sooner rather than later. This position can help us with that long term planning. This city builds things and we get things done. I’m tired of deferring the success of this city.”
Ultimately, Council chose to defer the creation of the position until administration presented a report with details on what the job would look like.
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