Council's Questionable Decisions

This Council Appears to be Out of Touch with Residents

 

Out-of-Touch:   a lack of awareness or understanding of current events or sentiments;
                              disconnected from the realities or sentiments    -   Merriam-Webster

 

  

Under this menu item: you will see a collection of decisions made by the current council that appear to be completely Out-of-Touch with Owen Sound residents. These include approval of a 195% budget increase for the City Manager's Office over 5 years,  while claiming that residents would be angered if there was any increased council remuneration. They completely  ignored the fact that the current remuneration presents a barrier to 50% of Owen Sound households. As well, there has been a 77% budget increase for the Art Gallery over five years and approval of in excess of $100,000 in costing studies for a $25 million expansion to the gallery. At the same time refused to spend any funds to address the lack of public washrooms downtown with a message to residents that they can use the washrooms in the police station.

However, the decision that outrages residents the most was reduction of opportunities to question council decisions. They not only reduced the time allotted for questions from 5 to 3 minutes but also capped question period at 15 minutes total. As if this wasn't enough to shutout taxpayers, they gave the City Manager veto power to refuse presentations to council if they didn't involve a topic he found agreeable.

Perhaps the best example of closing down public engagement occured when council turned what was going to be a Town Hall for residents to have a dialog with members of council, into an open house for city departments. 
 

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