Voters in Minden Hills want township staff to return their emails and phone calls.
During a public question-and-answer session at Saturday’s (Sept. 19) allcandidates meeting put on by the Haliburton Highlands Healthy Democracy Project (HHHDP), Jim Davis asked if candidates were prepared to tell township staff to get back to people faster.
“Because two to three weeks later is not a good approach. Are you prepared to set a standard of behaviour?” he asked.
Incumbent mayor Bob Carter said that under the Municipal Act, council cannot direct staff. He said only the CAO can do that.
“What council does is, we set the goals and objectives and tell them this is what we expect from you. The first call should go to staff. The second, if it needs to be escalated, needs to go to the CAO. If you are still not getting a response, then you can move it up to your councillor, who should be working back to the CAO.”
Mayoral candidate Pam Sayne said, “of course we want to get back to people in a very timely manner.” However, she said staff do take holidays, and there is a limit to the number of calls and emails they can respond to every day. However, she said there should at least be a call or e-mail saying they had received a person’s inquiry.
She added, “we have this answering machine; push one for this, push two, one… it’s crazy to try to always communicate with electronics. People want to have a real person to feel like they’ve been heard.”
Running for mayor, Pat Kitcheman said there are a number of staff on the sunshine list, making $100,000-a-year or more. “I think there is a reasonable expectation of performance…we’re all human and no one of us is perfect. I understand people do get busy. But there is a reasonable expectation of answering the public.”
Mayoral hopeful Tammy McKelvey apologized to the crowd, saying “it’s a big problem in Minden Hills to get responses to emails and phone calls. Yes, we are not supposed to direct staff but we’re policy setters.” She said while “regrettable,” the township may need a policy to say staff will respond in a reasonable amount of time. “We need a policy. This has to stop.”
Deputy mayor candidate Richard Bradley, who has worked in labour relations, said “we need good bosses and good policies to set service standards.” He said there should be a quick response to say staff are looking into a query, and then get back to the person once they “get to the root of the problem.”
His contender, Ivan Ingram, said there was “absolutely no reason why a person should not receive a call or an email back from the township within 24 hours. It’s ridiculous that people have to struggle, and call me to call a staff member I can’t get ahold of. It is a big problem.” He said council is not there to direct staff, but they can bring the lack of getting back to the public to the CAO’s attention.
Rev. Canon Joan Cavanaugh-Clark said in her dealings with the planning and development department, she finds the paperwork hard to decipher. She asked what councillors could do “so a person like myself, who wants to have a secondary residence, can decipher it … like building code 101.”
Each of the candidates indicated they would like more simple and plain language across the board.
One person did seek out their thoughts on the governance and affordability study. The Highlander has posed the same question to all candidates running for office. Their answers can be found in the paper as of Aug. 27.
The Minden Rotary Club is hosting an allcandidates gathering Oct. 5, from 7-9 p.m. at the Minden Hills Community Centre. The HHHDP’s next all-candidates meetings: Dysart et al, Oct. 3, 9:30 a.m. to noon (doors opening at 9 a.m.) at the Haliburton Legion; and Algonquin Highlands, Oct. 17, 9:30 a.m. to noon (doors opening at 9 a.m.) at the Stanhope Firefighters’ Community Hall. People are encourage to register their attendance.
