I am running for council again because I love my community and would like to become more involved. As I am nearing retirement, I will have more time to become involved and would like to pay back my community and help make this a great place to live and work for the people of our wonderful.
Over my career I feel I have gathered many skills that have prepared me for this task.
Do you support increasing funding for infrastructure given the fact several culverts and bridges – including the Third Street Bridge – have had emergency issues and closures recently?
Yes as long as they could be fit into the budget. We need to continue to lower our Municipal debt but it must be balanced with providing the correct amount of infrastructure to residents of the municipality and keep the roads and bridges safe for our residents.
Would you support a tax freeze or rollback if it meant reduced staff and/or services?
Yes if there was a proven need to reduce the amount of taxes collected and the budget needed to be reduced I would support that type of reduction. Again we need to balance infrastructure with the budget availability.
Would you support shifting some services to the private sector if those services could be done more efficiently that way?
Yes again it would depend on the need and what kind of negotiated contracts we could get. It seems to me we have done this in the past and after a couple years of savings the costs skyrocket and at that point we cannot get the service back up and running.
Do you believe we need a municipal ombudsman or ethics commissioner?
No this seems like an added cost that should be able to be handled in house.
Do you support investigating a reduction in the number of council members?
No I do not believe there is a need to adjust the size of current council, I do not see it as being cumbersome to operate which for me would be the only reason to consider a different size. Remember we are the closest government to the people and reducing the size of council will in turn restrict people access to this form of government
Should the municipality try to land an Ontario Cannabis Store as soon as possible?
No at this point I do not have enough information to make this decision. I would like to look into this before I could change this answer to yes, like what kind of revenue would it bring to the municipality. One concern would be the addiction problem that we hear about in our communities and would this make the situation worse than it already is.
Should council be more proactive in terms of working with landowners with contaminated wells?
Yes it seems to me that a resolution to the problem should have been dealt a long time ago. In this day and age we have technology to deal with sediment in water through filtering. Also, if there are contaminates in the water there are tests that can be performed to prove it, and then there are ways to remove them as well. It seems to me that this solution is one that is being held up by the sides each trying to assess the blame instead of looking out for the people who have to deal with the water on a daily basis and constantly living in fear of becoming ill. Let’s get the problem fixed and deal with the costs and the blame later.
Some critics say the municipal building department is an impediment to development in C-K. Do you agree?
No I have not heard this statement from the residents in my ward, however I do from time to time feel like we have too many regulations and we should become more user friendly.
Do you believe Chatham needs a new twin-pad arena? No at this point I am not privy to enough information to warrant a twin pad. I would much rather make sure we need a new arena and then go ahead and build one centered around a sportsplex to accommodate many types of activities.
Do you believe Chatham needs a new twin-pad arena?
(Did not receive a response)
Should the municipality cut back on its expenditures for overseas economic development efforts?
Yes although I am not sure how much we spend on overseas economic development it would appear that we have had very little success in this area. I do support spending on economic development as we need to continually try and attract new businesses to our community to help grow our tax base and provide jobs for our residents. We just need to make sure that efforts are rewarded and that we get positive results.
Should municipal councillors ever be forced to go the Freedom of Information route when seeking municipal information?
No, council is elected by the residents of Chatham Kent to set policy and monitor what is happening in the community. If an elected official needs information it should be available to them.
Should members of the public have more access to municipal information without having to resort to an FOI?
Yes they should have access to more information, there will however be times when gathering what taxpayers want will be time consuming and expensive and will need to be done at a cost.
