The following is Clr. Merulla's response, which is posted verbatim:
I believe there are workable solutions available that will enhance governing based on our needs rather than wants. I would like to see our City of Hamilton attract and retain business in a sustainable manner.
We need to continue to find a balance between greenfield and brownfield developments in an attempt to provide a diverse environment of opportunity through employment lands.
The most significant motivation in my seeking office has always been my desire to help anyone who needs it. I have been in public service for twenty years from working with people with disabilities to substance
abusers and troubled youth to serving the great people of Hamilton East, Ward 4, and as a whole, the City of Hamilton and there is no better feeling then advocating change and seeing it legislated.
My focus has been and will continue to be eliminating the two billion dollar deficit in hard infrastructure (i.e. Woodward Wastewater Treatment Plant, roads, sewers and bridges). Continue to pursue successful redevelopment of East end neighbourhoods through infill/brownfield developments (i.e. Lowe's at Barton and Woodward, Princess Auto on Barton, Seniors Centre at Main and Cope, Greyfield developments on Ottawa St and Kenilworth, Barton, King and Main Streets) the future mixed use development at City Motor Holel site.
Furthermore we need to be focused in continuing to create a climate of investment such as Ward 4's The Centre on Barton, Crown Point Medical Arts building on Kenilworth, redevelopment of the old Derby Tavern to Rexall Pharmacy and the future Native Cultural Centre on Kenilworth. Lastly, I am very proud of the future park development at Rennie/Brampton Streets (Rennie St. End Use) and the creation of a new pedestrian/cycling bridge which will allow Ward 4 residents to safely connect to the city's waterfront.
City Council must focus on emerging problems (i.e. the need to increase industrial and commercial investments; thereby, increasing tax revenues without impacting residential taxes or front line services). We must be far more aggressive in uploading the tens of millions of dollars that the Province of Ontario downloaded to the City of Hamilton in terms of mandated programs and services without the necessary funding which deems it NOT revenue neutral and has cost the municipal tax payer in Hamilton well over 1 billion dollars over the past decade or just under $146 million dollars, which impacts our operating budget.
The successful conclusion to the downloading crisis will allow council to function in a manner conducive to focusing in our needs and actually put the city in a position to assess a tax decrease of nearly 25 percent. We must determine who does what and who pays for what in our relationship with Ontario. We must do this in consultation AMO and FCM thereby renegotiating our agreements with Ontario to ensure a progressive form of taxation at the municipal level rather than the regressive nature that exists presently.
Moreover Hamilton has lost too many manufacturing jobs as a direct result of globalization. We are attracting employment but more must be done to aggressively and proactively promote Hamilton as a leader in providing opportunity which is the answer to the poverty issues and infrastructure redevelopment. The Red Hill Valley Parkway and airport employment lands will be instrumental in the growth and repair of this great city of ours in the future. We need to continue to find ways to balance greenfield and brownfield developments in an attempt to provide a diverse environment of opportunity.
The bottom line is we need to focus on our basic needs of creating opportunity in employment, dealing with our infrastructure needs, increasing our assessment growth and simply governing on needs rather than pie in the sky initiatives that distract us from our needed back to basics governance model. A city that provides opportunity to parents becomes the best place to raise a child.
Thank You,
Councillor Sam Merulla,
City of Hamilton.
We will continue to post responses from Clrs and the Mayor, as we receive them. You are invited to provide your comments.
Please note that comments that include name-calling or are otherwise unprofessional, will not be published.
Bravo Sammy!
ReplyDeleteIs this actually a response to examining the motto 'The Best Place to Raise a Child'? My take on this is that it's 'What we've been doing and have to continue doing in order for Hamilton to have more economic integrity.' (And a pat on the back to Councillor Merulla for being so thorough.)
ReplyDeleteMaybe this illustrates why we're even having this discussion in the first place: Do those at City Hall...councillors and City Staff alike...understand what is required for Hamilton to be 'the best place to raise a child'? This seemed to be a consistent refrain in the Panel responses, questioning whether in fact they do.
And after all, how can you possibly attain a goal unless you understand what's involved in going for it?
Maybe the task to Council needs to be simpler. "What does it mean to you to have a city that's 'the best place to raise a child'?"
Without the agreed factors, I'm not sure we can have much of an actual discussion.
"And after all, how can you possibly attain a goal unless you understand what's involved in going for it?"
DeleteBingo!
Term Limits Now
1. Good on Merulla for responding. Shows class.
ReplyDelete2. Agree with his economic argument and it is tied to The Best Place to Raiuse a Child etc., in that if you have parents who are better off financially, you would think that some of what Tom Cooper raises, would be solved.
3.Merulla's answer falls short in other ways though. The "slogan" is the Best PLACE to raise a child. A place has to be designed and planned for. It does not just happen. I suggest council takes a careful read of Turkstra and McGreal's answers. Start with something balatantly apparant and say to yourself, we have to make streets safe for children. What can we do tomorrow to make that hap[pen? What can we do in the next 6 months. What can we do in a year. Reduce speed limits? Take heavy traffic off of residential streets? etc etc etc.
4. Good on The Hamilton Spec for being supportive of this topic. I hope they include it in their print copy. They are starting to show signs that they can work effectively with sites like this one.
5. I challenge each couniclor and Mayor B to weigh in. Let's hear what you got. This is the real world out here.
Sorce
6. Maybe attach some performance measures against goals and make staff have performance agreements that include those measures. Not rocket science.
DeleteSorce
Currently there are no metrics for residents to use to determine performance. (Noting how councillors vote is only valid if you have an agreed-on set of values to compare the information to, as they use in Guelph. But even then, it's only a starting point.) So I agree, it would be wonderful to have some way of being able to figure out just how our representatives at City Hall are faring. However, I think that establishing this in itself would be a gargantuan task, one even larger than sorting out ward boundaries or wrasslin' over concepts such as term limits. It would require the participation of residents (after all, they're the 'employers' here), and considering that almost two-thirds of those who vote do so by name recognition...
DeleteSigh.
Having said that, I think this is something that should be marshalled forward by our Hamilton Civic League; don't leave it to Council to determine the parameters of their own performance reviews.
I should have been clearer. i meant performance measures and plans that staff would have. Not the politicians. Your "sigh" is significant. If we followed the evidence we would admit that despite many efforts across many municipalities, vioter turn out is dismal and when they do turn out, as you say, much of it is based on name recognition. Sop, what do responsible engaged citizens do? Wait for many years in the hopes that everyone will awaken? Or do something more ratrionale and meaningful. I have turned the corner and now believe that term limits are very much needed.
DeleteSorce
No fault of yours, Sorce. It was the way I read it, with my own bias. I can't argue at all with the notion of City Staff performance guidelines and reviews. I guess this is too obvious for me to have it register, so mea culpa.
DeleteThe whole 'term limits' debate is a separate one, but for me, regardless of whether you're only allowing people to serve a single term, two terms, or endless terms in succession, the weak link is managing the performance of the councillors. Something that we currently do not have a handle on.
As for 'What do responsible, engaged citizens do?', to my way of thinking, generate and propagate dialogue such as this, incorporating (as Teresa has done) Council. And keep pushing. (I can only imagine what the response has been at City Hall to the Panel article; we've only just begun to see the ripple-effects.)
I dont disagree with you in principle, and I respect anyone who encourages people to own up to their obligation to be interested and involved. The practicality of that, tells me we also need to disrupt the status quo, in order to get our city progressing at a pace that it should.
Deletebtw mysc- I prefer civil dialogue, as per this exchange.
Sorce
"The practicality of that, tells me we also need to disrupt the status quo, in order to get our city progressing at a pace that it should."
DeleteI guess this is where we differ on approach; you (and others) seemingly see term limits as the best course. I don't. However...
I'd support a 'rotating' service model...two-term 'limit' before an obligatory 'sabbatical', then another two terms would be allowed, etc...if what I've been yammering on about was adopted and supported. : )
(And yes, I agree with your 'btw'. Maybe coffee in the real world is called for...?)
MySC
DeleteActually, we dont disagree as much as you think. I don't think it is the best course. I believe it is a necessary course given all we know about the time and effort it would take to get people involved, and what is happening and not happening in our city in the meantime. I prefer the engagement avevue but the odds are against us, and I think it begs other solutions. One of which might be that multi termst councilors step down voluntarily and admit that there are many other people out there who are bright and can come forth with fresh ideas
Sorce
I keep wondering how we could ever effectively apply performance measures to City staff when Council routinely ignores their considered advice and comes up with a solutions, or no solutions, on the fly. Review the state of the City's tree canopy, waste diversion files for the past five years or the recent dismissal of expert advice on HECFI for examples.
DeleteWhy do people in public office come across as doing us a big favor by holding an elected position? Sam is quick to tell us all about his public service work as altruistic however these positions are well remunerated and certainly not volunteer positions. Sam's response is non-specific to the main topic which leads me to believe that even council has a hard time in specifics regarding "Best place to raise a child " Herman in his comments was correct in terms of what initiative did the city take in augmenting quality of life for children. When the city formulated their mission statement were there any other stakeholder involve such as school boards,parent groups or others? Without the stakeholders involvement this lofty goal becomes hard to achieve.
ReplyDelete"Why do people in public office come across as doing us a big favor by holding an elected position?"
Deleteand
"Without the stakeholders involvement this lofty goal becomes hard to achieve."
Two very powerful statements.
I respect Sam and although I don't reside in his Ward, I do know that his heart is in the right place and he does one hell of a job respresenting his constituents. I commend him for this and for engaging with Hamiltonian's via this onsite community network. With that being said, I don't believe that he has asnswered the question at hand and would like to know what he and the other councillors are doing that is specific to this vision statement. I was suprised that nothing was mentioned about safe neighbourhoods, or enhancing greenspace with parks etc...
ReplyDeleteDon
Sam's answer is very thorough and proficient. He's speaking from 50 thousand feet high not in front of his feet. Congratulations Sam.
ReplyDeleteI like Clr. Merulla's answer, as far as it went. But I think there is a lot more involved in us proving that we are serious about this vision. I agree with those that say that we should start with traffic in residential neighbourhoods. That would be a very obvious way to start making a difference. Following that, there are a ton of other things we can do. This Virtual Panel provided great ideas.
ReplyDeleteSevern
Looks like Merulla led the charge for council to respond. Great leadership.
ReplyDeleteLet's see if the others are respectful of Hamiltonians enough to reply.
Delete