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North Algona-Wilferforce’s municipal council has sometimes amused and often dismayed its residents with its intrigues and squabbling.
One local resident compares council meetings to the raucous Jerry Springer Show. Another calls the mayor, Deborah Farr, “the Donald Trump of municipal politics.” The editor of the local newspaper has penned an editorial suggesting the entire council resign. Twice.
So the flood of the century came at a very inconvenient time for the rural municipality with fewer than 3,000 permanent residents and few resources. NAW, as the municipality is known locally, is one of three townships that border Golden Lake about 50 kilometres west of Renfrew. Cottagers visiting their vacation homes for the first time this weekend may find them beyond redemption. Some campgrounds and trailer parks are underwater. Victoria Day long weekend looks like it could be a wash for the local economy.
NAW covers 378 square kilometres with an annual budget of $3.8 million. It doesn’t have an arena or a full-time fire chief or full-time building inspector. Sleepy for most of the year, the municipality depends on property taxes from residents who own waterfront homes and cottages and an injection of spending from summer visitors. The lake association has 480 memberships and about three-quarters are seasonal residents.
So what makes local politics so contentious in NAW, which elects a mayor and four councillors, each with one vote?
It’s hard to know where to begin. The fractiousness is now at least 15 years old. It didn’t end when the entire last council, except for one councillor, was swept out in the 2014 election.
Since then, Farr, NAW’s new mayor, has clashed with fellow councillors, staff, and even the mayor of neighbouring Bonnechere Valley.
“For the love of God, just once I want to read my paper without laughing or coughing up my coffee from these bi-weekly antics,” says one contributor to the watchdog website NAW Matters.
North Algona Wilberforce mayor Deborah Farr
In July 2015, most of the councillors walked out in protest after Farr abruptly ended a meeting. Last year, the ministry of Municipal Affairs was called in after Farr requested an opinion on a motion tabled by two councillors calling for her resignation. The municipal adviser said that no council has the power to remove a mayor.
Farr was the subject of an $80,000 investigation into allegations of harassment. She says she had to pay $17,000 in legal costs to defend herself, and still doesn’t know who accused her or the nature of the allegations.
In January, Farr was accused of micromanaging the township’s administrators. Three out of four councillors voted in favour of a motion that the mayor would not “make decisions about any matter affecting the department heads, township business and the council as a whole.”
This week, the mayor of the Bonnechere Valley, Jennifer Murphy, appeared at a NAW council meeting to ask for an apology after Murphy took issue with Farr saying Murphy “shouted” at her across the chambers at a county council meeting.
With all of this and much more as background, some in NAW felt like they were left high and dry when the flood came along, says resident Jo Anne Truskoski. She views the flood as an emergency, but there was even debate about using the term, she says.
“I’ve worked for municipal governments. I was in Kingston for the ice storm. In my opinion, (this is) an emergency. I don’t think there was a timely response,” she says.
“The initial response in the first few days wasn’t there,” says Mike Krawchuck, co-chair of the Golden Lake and Area Community Group, which is organizing clean-up. “No one knew where to go for sandbags.”
The waters started rising on Easter weekend. The municipal office started to get calls for sandbags on April 15.
Glenn Bingham cleans up around his flooded lakefront home on Golden Lake, May 12, 2017.
Farr says she tried to take quick action as the water started to overwhelm homes and cottages on the north side of the lake, but ran into hurdles. She says when she asked staff about sandbags for residents, she was asked how much the municipality should charge for the bags. (NAW council agreed to put out sand and sandbags for residents to use on April 18.)
Farr says she also wanted to issue a call for volunteers, but found that she needed a council resolution. She says questions to administrators about coordinating volunteers prompted cautions about liability if sandbagging was inadequate or if a volunteer was hurt, and an admonition that sandbags were for protecting municipal infrastructure, not private homes.
Heather and Glenn Bingham, retirees from Hamilton, are living in a cottage they usually rent out to vacationers after their waterfront home on Golden Lake was flooded.
Glenn says he has been disappointed by what he has seen of the council process in NAW, but he has come to respect Farr, who he saw helping residents sandbag.
“There is so much political posturing out here. This mayor had her boots on the ground. I might be old-fashioned, but I don’t expect a lady to do the grunt work,” he says. “Now is the time to support constituents. Our elected voice has been taken away. They’re trying to drown us in bureaucracy.”
Heather says she didn’t vote for Farr, but would vote for her if she ran again. “Our mayor is trying to do things. But her hands are tied.”
Farr says she can’t even refer to the flood as an “emergency” but rather an “event” or “incident” and must refer media questions about the flood to NAW’s official spokesman on the matter, emergency co-ordinator Doug Buckwall.
Asked if this was a gag order, Farr replies that she wouldn’t use that term. “I’m not to speak. I call it ‘silencing.'”
Councillor James Brose has often opposed Farr, and was one of the councillor behind the motion asking for her resignation.
Brose feels the tension on council has “certainly presented challenges in terms of getting work accomplished in a timely fashion.” As a ratepayer, he says he understands the frustration in the lack of teamwork in getting things done. “I think we all need to take some responsibility for the ineffectiveness. Leadership certainly does play a part.”
But he also believes council worked together very well when it came to the flood. “One of the challenges was that the water rose so quickly,” he says. “It wasn’t just our municipality that was caught by surprise.”
The saga at NAW council has not gone unnoticed by The Eganville Leader, which in an editorial last week compared the council to a bitter divorcing couple. Publisher Gerald Tracey says council has been rowdy for many years. “My reporters draw straws to see who gets stuck with it.”
Under the old council, there was an open session for questions, which often left councillors blindsided by queries and ended with no one feeling enlightened, he says.
“Every meeting was a Donnybrook. People could hardly wait for the paper to see what had happened.”
The current council has not been an improvement, he says.
“There is no media session on the agenda. I have requested it, but was told there will be none. We can ask questions of members of council after the meeting or during a break before they go in-camera, which is pretty well every meeting,” says Tracey.
“Some residents actually berate us for reporting the facts and want to blame the media for the turmoil, again something akin to the U.S. president and his opinion that real news is fake news.”
Flooded cottage on Golden Lake, May 12.
Arie Hoogenboom, a consultant who spent more than three decades in municipal management, was brought in to be NAW’s short-term interim chief administrative officer (CAO) last September. He left in December.
Hoogenboom is retired and takes on assignments that he thinks will be interesting. This one was a “challenge,” he says.
NAW’s problems are unusual, but not necessarily uncommon, says Hoogenboom, who feels that the situation was better when he left than when he arrived. “These are good people. They are all well-meaning people. They just need to learn to get along. It’s often the case with a rural council.”
Meanwhile, it will be long clean-up process on Golden Lake. It appears that homeowners, but not cottagers, can can make claims through the province’s Disaster Recovery Assistance Program. The clock started ticking on May 5, and residents have only 120 days to apply.
“There are many people on the lake who haven’t even seen the damage yet,” says Krawchuk.
It may be another week or two before the damage can be assessed. Among the questions that the need to be answered: the extent of contamination after wells and septic systems were compromised and what danger contamination poses to wildlife. Pickerel have come up past their spawning beds with the flood water, for example, so when the eggs hatch, fish will be stranded far away from the lake, says Krawchuk.
Glenn Bingham has faith in residents and cottagers to deal with the flood and clean-up. “It’s the volunteers who make a community. We can’t expect the army to do everything.”
The community has rallied, Tracey agrees. Still, he doesn’t expect council will start to get along after the flood waters recede. “It’s still mired in the problems of the past.”
Brose won’t say if he plans to run in the next election. But he is optimistic things will improve. “After an election.”
查看原文...
One local resident compares council meetings to the raucous Jerry Springer Show. Another calls the mayor, Deborah Farr, “the Donald Trump of municipal politics.” The editor of the local newspaper has penned an editorial suggesting the entire council resign. Twice.
So the flood of the century came at a very inconvenient time for the rural municipality with fewer than 3,000 permanent residents and few resources. NAW, as the municipality is known locally, is one of three townships that border Golden Lake about 50 kilometres west of Renfrew. Cottagers visiting their vacation homes for the first time this weekend may find them beyond redemption. Some campgrounds and trailer parks are underwater. Victoria Day long weekend looks like it could be a wash for the local economy.
NAW covers 378 square kilometres with an annual budget of $3.8 million. It doesn’t have an arena or a full-time fire chief or full-time building inspector. Sleepy for most of the year, the municipality depends on property taxes from residents who own waterfront homes and cottages and an injection of spending from summer visitors. The lake association has 480 memberships and about three-quarters are seasonal residents.
So what makes local politics so contentious in NAW, which elects a mayor and four councillors, each with one vote?
It’s hard to know where to begin. The fractiousness is now at least 15 years old. It didn’t end when the entire last council, except for one councillor, was swept out in the 2014 election.
Since then, Farr, NAW’s new mayor, has clashed with fellow councillors, staff, and even the mayor of neighbouring Bonnechere Valley.
“For the love of God, just once I want to read my paper without laughing or coughing up my coffee from these bi-weekly antics,” says one contributor to the watchdog website NAW Matters.
North Algona Wilberforce mayor Deborah Farr
In July 2015, most of the councillors walked out in protest after Farr abruptly ended a meeting. Last year, the ministry of Municipal Affairs was called in after Farr requested an opinion on a motion tabled by two councillors calling for her resignation. The municipal adviser said that no council has the power to remove a mayor.
Farr was the subject of an $80,000 investigation into allegations of harassment. She says she had to pay $17,000 in legal costs to defend herself, and still doesn’t know who accused her or the nature of the allegations.
In January, Farr was accused of micromanaging the township’s administrators. Three out of four councillors voted in favour of a motion that the mayor would not “make decisions about any matter affecting the department heads, township business and the council as a whole.”
This week, the mayor of the Bonnechere Valley, Jennifer Murphy, appeared at a NAW council meeting to ask for an apology after Murphy took issue with Farr saying Murphy “shouted” at her across the chambers at a county council meeting.
With all of this and much more as background, some in NAW felt like they were left high and dry when the flood came along, says resident Jo Anne Truskoski. She views the flood as an emergency, but there was even debate about using the term, she says.
“I’ve worked for municipal governments. I was in Kingston for the ice storm. In my opinion, (this is) an emergency. I don’t think there was a timely response,” she says.
“The initial response in the first few days wasn’t there,” says Mike Krawchuck, co-chair of the Golden Lake and Area Community Group, which is organizing clean-up. “No one knew where to go for sandbags.”
The waters started rising on Easter weekend. The municipal office started to get calls for sandbags on April 15.
Glenn Bingham cleans up around his flooded lakefront home on Golden Lake, May 12, 2017.
Farr says she tried to take quick action as the water started to overwhelm homes and cottages on the north side of the lake, but ran into hurdles. She says when she asked staff about sandbags for residents, she was asked how much the municipality should charge for the bags. (NAW council agreed to put out sand and sandbags for residents to use on April 18.)
Farr says she also wanted to issue a call for volunteers, but found that she needed a council resolution. She says questions to administrators about coordinating volunteers prompted cautions about liability if sandbagging was inadequate or if a volunteer was hurt, and an admonition that sandbags were for protecting municipal infrastructure, not private homes.
Heather and Glenn Bingham, retirees from Hamilton, are living in a cottage they usually rent out to vacationers after their waterfront home on Golden Lake was flooded.
Glenn says he has been disappointed by what he has seen of the council process in NAW, but he has come to respect Farr, who he saw helping residents sandbag.
“There is so much political posturing out here. This mayor had her boots on the ground. I might be old-fashioned, but I don’t expect a lady to do the grunt work,” he says. “Now is the time to support constituents. Our elected voice has been taken away. They’re trying to drown us in bureaucracy.”
Heather says she didn’t vote for Farr, but would vote for her if she ran again. “Our mayor is trying to do things. But her hands are tied.”
Farr says she can’t even refer to the flood as an “emergency” but rather an “event” or “incident” and must refer media questions about the flood to NAW’s official spokesman on the matter, emergency co-ordinator Doug Buckwall.
Asked if this was a gag order, Farr replies that she wouldn’t use that term. “I’m not to speak. I call it ‘silencing.'”
Councillor James Brose has often opposed Farr, and was one of the councillor behind the motion asking for her resignation.
Brose feels the tension on council has “certainly presented challenges in terms of getting work accomplished in a timely fashion.” As a ratepayer, he says he understands the frustration in the lack of teamwork in getting things done. “I think we all need to take some responsibility for the ineffectiveness. Leadership certainly does play a part.”
But he also believes council worked together very well when it came to the flood. “One of the challenges was that the water rose so quickly,” he says. “It wasn’t just our municipality that was caught by surprise.”
The saga at NAW council has not gone unnoticed by The Eganville Leader, which in an editorial last week compared the council to a bitter divorcing couple. Publisher Gerald Tracey says council has been rowdy for many years. “My reporters draw straws to see who gets stuck with it.”
Under the old council, there was an open session for questions, which often left councillors blindsided by queries and ended with no one feeling enlightened, he says.
“Every meeting was a Donnybrook. People could hardly wait for the paper to see what had happened.”
The current council has not been an improvement, he says.
“There is no media session on the agenda. I have requested it, but was told there will be none. We can ask questions of members of council after the meeting or during a break before they go in-camera, which is pretty well every meeting,” says Tracey.
“Some residents actually berate us for reporting the facts and want to blame the media for the turmoil, again something akin to the U.S. president and his opinion that real news is fake news.”
Flooded cottage on Golden Lake, May 12.
Arie Hoogenboom, a consultant who spent more than three decades in municipal management, was brought in to be NAW’s short-term interim chief administrative officer (CAO) last September. He left in December.
Hoogenboom is retired and takes on assignments that he thinks will be interesting. This one was a “challenge,” he says.
NAW’s problems are unusual, but not necessarily uncommon, says Hoogenboom, who feels that the situation was better when he left than when he arrived. “These are good people. They are all well-meaning people. They just need to learn to get along. It’s often the case with a rural council.”
Meanwhile, it will be long clean-up process on Golden Lake. It appears that homeowners, but not cottagers, can can make claims through the province’s Disaster Recovery Assistance Program. The clock started ticking on May 5, and residents have only 120 days to apply.
“There are many people on the lake who haven’t even seen the damage yet,” says Krawchuk.
It may be another week or two before the damage can be assessed. Among the questions that the need to be answered: the extent of contamination after wells and septic systems were compromised and what danger contamination poses to wildlife. Pickerel have come up past their spawning beds with the flood water, for example, so when the eggs hatch, fish will be stranded far away from the lake, says Krawchuk.
Glenn Bingham has faith in residents and cottagers to deal with the flood and clean-up. “It’s the volunteers who make a community. We can’t expect the army to do everything.”
The community has rallied, Tracey agrees. Still, he doesn’t expect council will start to get along after the flood waters recede. “It’s still mired in the problems of the past.”
Brose won’t say if he plans to run in the next election. But he is optimistic things will improve. “After an election.”
查看原文...
