Jonnathan Brownlee Answers to our questions ***************************************************** Answers: 1. How often should council review the by-laws of the City of Woodstock? Some by-laws are outdated and need to be removed or revised. Some by-laws have no substance and some are not enforceable. For example: home based businesses were to be registered with the city by May 31, 2014 or be fined. Wonder how many home businesses have been fined? Another by-law that was a hot issue was fire pits. What is your stand on fire pits? City Council is responsible for working with the Clerk’s office to address outdated By-laws and introducing new ones. I think this would be a great opportunity to create an internship for a student who is in the Masters of Public Administration program at UWO or a related Political Science program. Part of their duty could include going through all the current By-Laws and present outdated or irrelevant ones to Council for review. Over the course of the summer many people take advantage of fire pits as they are a great opportunity to bring family and friends together. I know my family enjoys sitting around the fire in the summer time. With the fire pit by-law, it allows the opportunity to inspect and ensure safe usage. One thing to note is that there is one Fire Dept employee who conducts a vast majority of the inspections throughout the summer. As she is a part of the fire-prevention and education unit, this has the potential to consume a lot of her time throughout the summer months. Previously the inspection had a $15.00 fee which helped monetize the service, however this did not sit well with citizens so it was proposed instead to conduct a fire alarm test inside serving the permit inspection dual purpose. As a permit is valid for 5 years, I do not see why we cannot pay a small fee to be used to monetize other programs promoting public safety and fire prevention awareness. ————————————— 2. In the next four years, how do you think City Council could use technology better and more efficiently? This is my specialty. I am extremely technologically-saavy and will work with the relevant teams to bring up our production value and quality of communications to the public. Simple things such as more Facebook/Twitter engagement will be instrumental in bringing down the barriers that prevented constructive dialog. While there can be a lot of misinformation on social media, I believe transparency demands that we as Council not shy away from these conversations as it is an opportunity for public education, clarification, and a firm understanding of the concerns the public may have. While there are strict requirements that govern accessibility with Municipal content such as websites, I believe there are many ways the City of Woodstock can engage with citizens on a relevant level. I have spoken with Brad Janssen who is responsible for What’s On Woodstock and he is open to the idea of making the WOW content available online with Council approval and in adherence to regulations for accessibility. I think this is something we need to push for with the new council as it will promote all that we have going on and help our city stand out as a family-oriented community. Additionally, I am personally committing to setting up a blog where I will post the Agenda items and resulting outcomes of those motions in a palatable format on a weekly basis. Having a personal passion for videography, I believe I can give the highlights of each meeting, on my own initiative, in a short 2-3 minute video that people will actually watch, and I am willing to work with RogersTV to broadcast this in tandem with the Council meetings also. It is unfortunate that electronic, online or mail-in voting were not introduced in this election. I believe the reasons were that it would intimidate our senior demographic, but I believe that the reason why votership is so low is because of ease of access and lack of relevant dialog (which is changing in this election). With those that commute or work shift work, it is inconvenient to go to City Hall within the timeframes currently available to vote. As voting is a democratic process, there should be minimum impedance in the process so there is an accurate representation of the citizen’s needs. If Ingersoll can introduce mail-in voting, why can’t we? ————————————— 3. Do you think Woodstock should have a conversation again with Fanshawe College regarding a satellite campus downtown? The Fanshawe campus we have is currently one of the most dense campuses per capita in the province. There are growing needs for expansion for Fanshawe in Woodstock as they are approaching full capacity. Council will need to work with Fanshawe to facilitate growth and explore whether there is room to expand where they are currently or if setting up a campus downtown is a viable option. Additionally, we will need to continue to nurture the opportunity we have with U of Ottawa. While it may only be 500 students when the Campus launches, it will be instrumental in bringing back the downtown core to its former beauty. As Council, we will need to explore all options and maintain relationships with both the College/University as well as the public to prevent another situation from happening like when the downtown Fanshawe campus dissolved in 2011 due to conflict between Council and the public. ————————————— 4. What are your thoughts on improving the James Street yard? Currently, grass clippings, flowers, brush, toilets, electronic e-waste can be dropped of at James Street. Should more items be added? Expansion for James Street has recently been investigated by the current Council to accommodate a Hazardous Wastes facility. I believe this is a step in the right direction. This will include bulk item drop-offs which will also reduce the amount of curb-side pickups needed. Council will need to explore methods to prevent abuse of this service and potentially associate a similar fee to that of Salford’s dump as it could be a way of avoiding bag tags. Another addition currently in the works at James Street is a Recycling Station outside the gates that can be accessed 24/7. This will help promote recycling as a viable solution to reducing waste. ————————————— 5. A little less than 50% of the city budget goes toward the Fire Fighters and Police salaries. What avenue do you think should be taken so that city taxes do not continue to rise? This has been a topic that I have been actively researching and exploring from all angles as I believe it is truly the key to fiscal accountability. With over 80% of costs with these services being salaries, there is very little wiggle room when it comes to reducing costs. That being said, contracts for both Police and Fire expire in December this year and this is a big deal. Police contract negotiations are handled directly through arbitration as this is regulated by the Provincial Government. There is however an opportunity to handle negotiations with the Fire Department directly and avoid arbitration. It is important to note that an arbitrator has no long-term stake in the resulting outcomes. Simply put, they cite examples from other cities and use that as a foundation for their decision on what is equitable. I do not believe that the arbitration process should be a “one size fits all” approach. We have specific needs as a community, and I firmly believe that those needs can be addressed through active dialog between City Council and the Woodstock Fire Chief. I am confident that with open minds and constructive dialog on both sides, we can come to an agreement for new contracts without need for arbitration. That being said, one thing that is causing impedance and preventing necessary discussions is a lack of a special interests committee/board for the Fire Department. Our Police have a board (this is regulated Provincially) and it allows for transparency and scrutiny of the budget. Through this the Police department is accountable and Council is able to be made aware of present needs that the Police department has. Why can we not have this for the Fire Department? I know for certain that this could address the concerns that are held by both sides and will be actively pushing for this if I am elected. ————————————— 6. Do you feel garbage/recycling should be tendered out? Would it be more economical and efficient if a private company picked up our garbage/recycling? No. Our team does an excellent job and if we give that up to private contractors, we lose the ability to make necessary changes as we grow as a city. In my experience at BlackBerry, quality of service is a big factor when it comes to determining if running an internal service is favoured to contracting it out. There is a lot more control and input in the process and the final outcome through checks and balances. As cliche as it sounds, I am a strong advocate for the saying “Think globally, act locally”. In order to address growing environmental concerns we need to begin to come up with creative ways to reduce our footprint. Weekly recycling is something I would like to investigate as it would reduce the garbage that is put out when recycling bins are full. Additionally, I would like to propose the idea of having a Woodstock Earth Week where we hold events such as a bike race, Community Cleanup/Improvement initiatives, free public transit for the week (would serve a dual purpose of identifying opportunities for improvement), and promote reduced consumption of resources. ————————————— 7. Do you think the city should build a larger community hall? Presently the Oxford Auditorium along with the Mutual Building ( owned by the Fair Board) is our largest facility. Do you support the building of another larger community hall, why or why not? There are many venues that offer the ability to host a variety of events based on what needs are present: Goff Hall, Cowan Park, the Polish Hall, and various other privately owned venues in addition to the Mutual Building. I don’t personally see the benefit of investing into another special purposes building as we would be competing with these other facilities. If there was a valid and present need, I am open to hearing it but I would ultimately ask what the ROI would be. As always, if you have any questions whosoever, do not hesitate to contact me at 519-532-7828,
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 23:41:27 +0000
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