Editor: I was incredibly disappointed at the dismal turnout at the Chatham-Kent ward boundary meeting on Aug. 22 at the Bradley Convention Centre. Right now, the issue is with a consulting firm to collect citizen feedback and make recommendations.
It quickly became apparent to me just how messed up our ward structure is, and the meeting helped me to understand why our council is so ineffective. Of the comparable municipalities in our population range, most councils have either nine, 11 or 13 seats. Our council has 18 seats, including the mayor. If you have ever participated on a team or worked on a team project before, you quickly realize that more team members are not necessarily a good thing for decision making.
Another thing I realized was that since amalgamation (1998) our council structure favours Wallaceburg and most of the rural wards. Ward structure is not equally based on population. Based on population, Chatham (Ward 6) and North Kent (Ward 4) are under-represented. In comparison, the other four wards are over-represented.
Why is this a problem? Some councillors are fantastic and represent all constituents, including those outside their wards. While other councillors only care about issues within their ward. This is what makes things incredibly unfair and difficult when you have a problem in your neighbourhood and there are some councillors who won’t help or listen.
I hope council will be fair and listen to the constituents’ feedback and the consultant’s recommendations. However, I think the decision should go to the provincial level instead. It doesn’t make much sense to me that councillors should be voting on their own fate.
There is plenty of information and a Survey on the Municipal website Let’s Talk section. Please attend the next Ward Boundary meeting on Aug. 28 and make your viewpoints known. The opportunity to fix our CK Council structure is now.
Sheila Martin
Chatham
