RV Bylaw is a TRAILER WRECK

April 5th was the County Council Planning Commission Meeting held at Council chambers in Sangudo. Some of our members were able to attend and provide a report for the Ratepayers Association to publish.

In the Council Meeting, Council decided to Reduce the RV Permit Fee from $500.00 to Zero as a temporary solution to appease the Ratepayers until they have a chance to figure this mess out. 

Administration wanted a permit process kept in place in order to Not have to proceed with the 72 hour enforcement in regards to RV use.  They highly suggested keeping the permit requirement in place rather than scrapping the whole process until further public meetings and changes to the bylaw.

It was important that membership was in attendance as there were some discussions surrounding the RV Bylaw 23-2015 that was recently brought forward. This Bylaw was not a new Bylaw, but rather one that they dug out of the archives and did some tweaking to in order to reintroduce it as a tax. One that saw two sides come to the middle where some people thought it was a good thing in order to curb that activity that was going with RV owners that were not responsible. Others that wanted to be able to put their RV’s where they choose. We all understand that there was no public consultation with the changes and in fact many of you contacted LSARA to discuss this. 

Once again, just as with the Solid waste utility, we had another revenue generator that raised the ire of many of the Ratepayers, with an administration and council that actually did not understand it. How can you expect the ratepayers to understand it? The special events permit requirements , were not clear.

Prior to the meeting on the 5th, LSARA asked for clarification and information on three items.

1. Current state of the Administration Building. What build stage is the building and what is the current expenditures and forecast expenditures?

2. Overall County Budget ( not the presentation) for 2017. Kindly advise when it is being released and provide a copy.

3. New RV bylaw - what is the current status?

These three simple questions that we asked of COUNCIL, were sent to the CAO even though that is not who we asked. 

The answers that we received back were very telling indeed. They were vague, contemptuous and very clearly indicated to us that Council feels they are not accountable to you, the Ratepayer. The response regarding the Administration building was that an update would be provided at the next council meeting. We weren’t going to get any information before the public. 

This is the FACTS. The substantial completion date was supposed to FEB 8, 2017. The final completion date and move in date was supposed to be March 7, 2017. The completion date was extended to March 21, 2017. Do you see any moving trucks? Do you see any updates on the County website that boasts of Project Status Updates and Construction Status. 

NO new updates since December of 2016. What are they hiding? On the third electrical contractor…. What does the budget look like now? Were there penalties to the contractor? Has the Quality control process been followed? WHY IS THERE NO UPDATE?

Overall county budget. Again, it was passed unanimously on February 23rd to release and publicly advertise the Draft budget for public consultation which featured a zero percent increase in the mill rate. The ratepayers did not see it so public consultation did not occur and now we find out that it has been released with a $41,000 shortfall. How is that for public consultation?

The responses we received to the above noted three questions were not provided to us by council. The mayor determined that he felt that the questions were administrative and therefore should be answered by administration. 

As an executive, we felt that all our councilors should understand the processes they are voting on, be up to date on information with respect to the budget and to the Administration building. No reply and when we did receive a reply it was from the Mayor only and he indicated that we are a “few “ of the public so they would only be releasing the information we requested at the next council meeting. 

To the public he stated. No special treatment for us. What is more important is the hard questions we are asking, they don’t wish to respond. That is another matter all together. 

Our Objective is to remain open and communicative and we are continuing to try to live up to that. When the Mayor openly indicates at the Planning Commission meeting that “This is the way it should be handled. You write a letter, then come to council to present.” 

We not only understood he was telling us that this is their terms, we also know the process. A request to be on the agenda has to be put forward 8 days in advance. We had no one on the agenda, but he opened the floor during break, which is highly unusual. So, the way it should be handled , was directed at LSARA as we choose to write to receive a response. We have requested meetings outside of chambers with no response.

Of concern to us, and should be to you as the Ratepayer, is all of these items have been dealt with in council. The answers to the questions should have been forthcoming in a timely manner. These are major issues that have the ability to impact us all. 

We sincerely request that you join the Lac Ste Anne Ratepayers Association so we can continue to represent you, the people that have the most to gain or lose. 

Follow us on our Face Book page at Lac Ste Anne Ratepayers Association. Like, follow and under follow, see first to continue to receive updates as we post them. Write letters to the papers, send them to us so we can publish them. We are most definitely making an impact. 

Update on our Annual General meeting action items to follow.  Stay tuned!