More than a year after a preliminary review by Municipal Affairs (MA) into the operations of the Village of Acme, the community was presented with the results of the inspector’s report at a public meeting on Jan. 28.
The report contained 17 recommendations for council’s consideration, with the expectation that council will provide a report back within 45 days outlining its plans to implement these recommendations.
“Out of the 17 things, I would suggest that 80 per cent will be completed by the end of February, or in the process where administration is looking into it,” said Mayor Bruce McLeod. “As much as we can do, we will do.”
According to the letter from Danielle Larivee, Minister of Municipal Affairs, the “most concerning” matters had already been dealt with by council – including the sealed-bid tax property auction, which was won by the deputy mayor in July 2014, and the procedure to rezone a park located on Prospect Avenue.
“At this time, I have not issued directives, but will reserve this decision until I am informed of your intentions,” Larivee said in her letter to council.
The “sketchy” sale of the tax property was what prompted the initial petition, said Acme resident and former councillor Leona DeKoter. After the petition was filed, council passed a bylaw to rezone the Prospect Avenue park with limited public engagement – against the wishes of a majority of Acme residents, DeKoter added.
After an initial inspection was conducted in January 2015, DeKoter said council reversed both the auction and the rezoning of the park lot prior to the announcement in April that MA’s preliminary review had identified concerns to justify an in-depth review.
“Going forward, the residents need to be listened to, procedures need to be followed correctly, and legislation needs to be followed correctly,” DeKoter said. “I’m a little unsure – it feels a bit incomplete, but of course, the report can’t include everything I could possibly want to see.”
For DeKoter, a major positive change she would have liked to have seen is the assignment of a new chief administrative officer to the community – to help guide council as they work through the implementation of the MA recommendations. However, she said she is hopeful the recommendation for more transparency and communication with residents will help residents gain a better understanding of council decisions.
“I’ve tried to always, when pointing something out, bring forward a possible solution,” DeKoter said. “I don’t want to just complain – I want my community to be better. I love my neighbours, I have wonderful friends here. I will not be bullied out of my house. The report clearly states communication is a problem, and from my part, I would like to hear their reasons instead of just watching them push ahead.”
McLeod said he feels the results of the inspection “vindicated” council, proving council was “going down the right path” with its direction and decision-making. However, he said council is still planning to move ahead with its plan to build residential lots on the Prospect Avenue park green space – despite a recommendation from MA to conduct a cost-benefit analysis comparing the park development plan with developing lots in the Heritage Estates subdivision.
“We did a version of that, maybe not as in-depth as they would like,” McLeod said. “It’s going to get rezoned, and we’ve directed an engineering firm to look at the tendering process and move forward on servicing those lots. There’s a lot of steps involved here, but we could see progress in the early spring.”
While McLeod said it would be “significantly cheaper” to develop on Prospect Avenue, DeKoter argued that the cost analysis report presented by then CAO Brad Mason on April 27, 2015, indicated otherwise. She said she remains concerned council isn’t giving the residents any reasons as to why they are making certain decisions.
“It was a very cursory overview,” she said, “but the estimated project costs for development of four additional lots in Heritage Estates are $16,846 less than the cost of developing four lots on Prospect Avenue.”
To help regain the public’s trust, a terms of reference has been completed for a communications committee in Acme, comprised of two council members and two members of the public. McLeod said he is “leaving it up to them” to restore the confidence of DeKoter and other concerned Acme residents.
“It’s a difficult one,” he said. “To be blunt – no matter what message I put out there, or that the Village of Acme puts out, someone isn’t going to like it. And I can’t do anything about that.”
