Better Know a New City Councillor Part 2 of 2

Continuing on our introductory tour of the new city councillors, we return to the cool and comfortable confines of the Red Brick Café to chat with Ward 1’s Jim Furfaro and Ward 2’s Andy Van Hellemond. Furfaro spent over 30 years working in Guelph as a teacher and educator, while Van Hellemond is well known for his nearly three decades as a referee in the NHL. What both men have in common though is an eagerness to get down to work.

Furfaro campaigned on low taxes, more commercial development and greater communication and he sees those being amongst his top priorities. “Obviously, those are the issues that resonated with constituents and those are the issues that I think are going to be part of my agenda for Ward 1,” he says.

Van Hellemond, meanwhile, says that he plans on looking out for seniors, who are a well-represented constituency in his ward. “Many of them are on fixed incomes and obviously rising costs definitely affects a lot of people,” he explains. “I’ve talked to a lot of people on $24-26,000 a year income, and they budget quite strictly and worry about a substantial raise in taxes.”

Also of concern to seniors, as well as being a campaign issue for both rookie councillors, are the proposed changes to the city’s garbage pick-up and introduction of bins. Among concerns the councillors have heard include questions about their size, the storage demands, and hygiene issues. “This should be part of a public forum like a town hall meeting,” says Furfaro. “Let’s go back to the people that will deal with this everyday, and I know that’s sound simple, but we know that whenever you introduce something new, it’s not a simple as it looks.”

What both Furfaro and Van Hellemond want to see is more communication. “There’s a lack of information being relayed to the people,” says Van Hellemond, “and you can blame the people for not being interested, but there are people that are interested and they don’t have a lot of information as to where the money’s being spent.” Van Hellemond adds that he’s spoken with the owners of the Speedvale Mall and his fellow Ward 2 Councillor Ian Findlay about holding quarterly town halls in an empty storefront there. Furfaro also plans to have regular town halls with an eye on March for his first.

Along with last week’s interviewees Cam Guthrie and Todd Dennis, Furfaro and Van Hellemond want to make sure that Guelph is “open for business.” Van Hellemond feels that Guelph has developed a reputation as a place that’s firmly anti-business and would like to see that changed. “I don’t think the city knows just how much taking 10 years to get Wal-Mart here, with all the protesting and all the campaigning, has hurt the city in the business world,” he says. Van Hallemond’s comments echo those made by Guthrie in last week’s column about rebranding the city.

Part of a rebranding campaign may include a focus on cultural activities in our city. “Why not take all the different cultures that want to showcase their traditions and customs, and let them choose a date between July and the end of August?” suggests Furfaro. Van Hellemond, meanwhile, would like to make Guelph a regional destination like the train tours that take Torontonians on day trips to the Niagara Region “Why can’t we get something out this way where riders can ride to Elora and back and spend an eight hour day out here and see the countryside and see what we have to offer?” he asks.

As for their goals in office, Furfaro is looking to start evening out the tax base ratio by increasing the percentage of commercial tax from 16 to 20 in the next four years. Furfaro also wants to see progress on the IMCO brownfield. “The city’s owned that property since the early 90s,” he explains. “I’ve often asked myself, and I know this isn’t going to get me any bouquets left at my home, but if that site was anywhere else in this city but Ward 1, would that have remained dormant for all these years?”

Van Hellemond meanwhile hopes to help create co-operative and productive council that can get things done, but leave disagreements on the floor of the council chamber once the vote is done. And even though he admits that he’s “not a great computer guy,” he’s dedicated to reaching out to his constituents and creating a dialogue with them. So Ward 2 residents can look forward to getting to know him better in the next four years.

More From the Candidates

So let’s start with the incumbents, because despite the high profile nature of the position, being a city councillor is a full-time job that pays like a part-time one, no matter what you feel about whether or not those people are worthy of the paycheque they get. So with all the scrutiny and armchair quarterbacking, why would someone want another go-round in the horseshoe? Let’s ask Ward 4 Councillor Mike Salisbury.

“The City of Guelph is in the midst of a transition – from a small, progressive community to a much more complex and diverse mid-sized city,” explains Salisbury. “We require leadership capable of navigating this transition - a council capable of seizing the opportunities while preserving the character and quality of life that makes Guelph so unique. […] My personal vision for the City of Guelph is to build upon this legacy and making Guelph an inspiring place to live – invest – and to visit.”

Part of that vision is an increased focus on improving transit, according to Salisbury. “Perhaps the most exciting (and overdue) initiative was the development of the Transit Growth Strategy,” he says. “The strategy combines increased service frequency during peak periods and off peak periods combined with a host of routing improvements which addresses long standing complaints about the radial transit system we have struggled with for years. I believe we are making strong headway but there is still much more to be done.”

Salisbury isn’t the only one making transit a priority. “My family of young adults (high school and university) and myself are transit users, and know the importance of a dependable system (including holidays),” says Ward 5 Councillor Leanne Piper. “On time, on budget, increased ridership, friendly staff, improved technology and better inter-modal linkage; the Transit Growth Strategy speaks to all of these key issues and I strongly support the growth and efficiency of our system.”

Piper also believes that Guelph is a city in transition and that strong, experienced leadership is needed to keep things moving forward. “Guelph is on a forward momentum path,” she explains. “We are poised to be national leaders on a number of fronts – water conservation, wastewater, community energy, economic development, arts and culture, and more. We need strong leaders at City Hall to keep us on that path. I want to look back in 25 years and know that I did everything in my power to ensure Guelph’s sustainability and prepare us for the next generation.”

Strong points, but many of the candidates challenging the current councillors for their seats have said that one of the biggest problems with the current council is keeping its constituents informed about those accomplishments. “A common and often heard complaint from voters is that that candidates are visible to voters during the campaign and once elected are seldom seen,” says Jim Furfaro, one of 11 candidates running in Ward 1. “I want to assure voters that their support will be recognized beyond Election Day. I plan to “put constituents and their needs first.” I will keep voters informed (townhall meetings) and up-to-date on key issues that have a potential impact on Ward One or the entire city.”

In Ward 2 meanwhile, one incumbent councillor begs to differ and says that he’s been doing a pretty good job of keeping his constituents in the loop. “The Ward 2 Blog helped connect residents of Guelph with City Hall,” according to Ian Findlay. “It became a popular forum for community discussion and information on a variety of topics. To date I have made over 1,800 postings to my blog and it has been viewed more than 225,000 times!” But for Findlay, there’s also been more human interaction too. “I also co-hosted 16 town hall meetings in Ward 2. These neighbourhood meetings allowed residents and other stakeholders the opportunity to express themselves on a variety of topics and issues.”

Still, Furfaro holds to his guns that this election is about bringing some new blood into the council chamber. “This election is as much about ‘change’ as it is about issues,” he says. “There are ten incumbent councillors seeking re-election and twenty-three individuals believing they can make a difference. Be prepared for ‘business as usual’ in how things are done in the council chamber if voters choose not to make substantial changes.

For full candidate questionnaires zip over to Guelph Politico at http://guelphpolitico.blogspot.com/

Debates Yes, Signs No

Are You Ready to Debate?

With just a little over a month left before the Municipal Election on October 25 (I know, where does the time go?), it’s time to start the debating… In an official way, of course.The debates are being sponsored by the Guelph Chamber of Commerce and Rogers TV and got underway yesterday with the candidates for Ward 4 city councillors.

Missing the debates? Well you shouldn’t. Our local Rogers station is covering them each live-to-air, direct from the debating ground at the City Hall Council Chambers at 1 Carden St. The format of each debate will be a combination of questions by written submission from the audience, as well as submissions received in advance from the business community. Candidates will be given one minute to answer each question, as well each candidate will be given the opportunity for a one and half minute opening statement and a one minute closing statement. This should make for an interesting Ward 1 debate. Considering that there are 11 candidates there should be just enough time for a total of three questions. But I kid Ward 1.

As for the rest of the schedule, the debates will continue tonight with a double header featuring Ward 3 at 6 pm and Ward 6 at 8 pm. The Ward 1 debate will go down next Thursday, September 30 with the Mayoral debate to follow on Tuesday October 5. The final two debates will be another double feature on October 7 with Ward 2 taking place at 6 pm and Ward 5 taking place at 8 pm. For full debate coverage, keep your eyes peeled to my Guelph Politico blog at http://guelphpolitico.blogpsot.com

 

Sign-less of the Times

In the midst of our heightened awareness of these more environmentally-mined times, a number of candidates in this election have decided to go “sign-less.” That is their campaign will not be putting up any signs in favour of social media and old-fashioned door-to-door campaigning. Ward 3 candidate Craig Chamberlain was one of the first to declare that he was going sign free so that he could “lead by example” when it comes to focusing on an affordable approach to city government. “My campaign is simple and direct, and I have cut out the excesses of electioneering,” said a Chamberlain news release.

Ward 1 candidate Allan Boynton declared last week that he will also be going sign-less saying that he will “not be doing signs on the side of the road, because I believe they are not environmentally friendly and an eyesore to our great community.” Additionally, another Ward 3 candidate, Missy Tolton is also reportedly not putting up signs, and, like Boynton, she’s running a campaign for under $1,000.

In the mayoral race, one candidate has also taken the no-sign pledge. Ray Mitchell, former owner of the Family Thrift Store and current owner of a downtown antiques store, joined the election race on the final day of nominations. In what he calls a social experiment, Mitchell says that he’s running a campaign without signs and without donations. “I believe that election signs should be outlawed, as they serve no useful purpose and give the rich an unfair advantage over the poor,” he told the Guelph Tribune.

Mitchell added that in our media savvy world he hoped that modern technology and the media can help candidates overcome a lack of campaign money. “In an increasingly tech-savvy world, and with widespread media events like debates, I believe that a candidate can get their message out at little or no cost, which will hopefully allow the participation in future of more candidates who are limited financially,” he said.

For full election coverage, check out Guelph Politico at http://guelphpolitico.blogspot.com

Old Fight, New Candidate

Hanlon Creek Fight Gearin’ Up Again

Last Friday, opponents of the Hanlon Creek Business Park gathered at Goldie Mill Park to distribute information and talk to the public about why they think the business park should be shuttered. It’s another sign that this might be another long summer for the development project in the city’s southwest end. This comes just a couple of weeks after a press conference in front of city hall where the Hanlon Creek 5, the five people charged in a SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) suit for last summer’s occupation of the HCBP lands, decried being bullied by the City for acting, as they say, in the public interest. During my interview with the Ward 6 councillors for last week’s “Better Know a Ward,” Coun. Karl Wettstein said in no uncertain terms that the HCBP will move forward this summer, and there will be repercussions for anyone disrupting work on the site. Stay tuned for more because this issue is far from resolved.

New Candidate Enters Ward 1

Last week, Eugene Gromczynski threw his hat into the ring to become the fourth candidate running in Ward 1 for the municipal election this fall. Gromczynski ran in the 2006 election and finished fifth out of five candidates. If you're interested, I did a questionnaire with Gromczynski during the 2006 Election when I was editor of thecannon.ca. You can read it at http://thecannon.ca/page.php?id=22&v=1522. If you want to see the full slate of candidates thus far, then you’ll want to click on http://www.guelph.ca/votes, or you can check out my blog at http://guelphpolitico.blogspot.com

Transit Workers Try to Rally Support

If you've rode on transit lately, you'll have witnessed a growing, but silent, sense of disgruntlement from the drivers. You might recognize one of three flyers, either taped up on bus shelters, left out in public areas or slipped to dedicated riders on the Q.T. In no uncertain terms these flyers say that the members of the transit union are fed up, and they're trying to rally support from loyal transit users to kick up a storm. Smart strategy considering that the city's bus lines are returning to 30 minute service all week long for three months starting in June, there's going to be no Sunday service at all in August, and from the U-pass to adult tickets, everybody's seen a fare increase in the last couple of months.

Transit workers have got their own reasons to be ticked too. About 31 transit employees will be laid off between June and August, or otherwise have their hours severely cut back. This, while the City talks about the priority of transit and all its future plans, which kind of comes off looking like a lot of double speak. In the meantime, the drivers, the front line workers, probably are taking the brunt of the abuse for all of transit's recent shortfalls. If you want to take a look at the flyers, if you haven’t already, checkout Politico.

Get the lead out…

Interested in water issues? Well, tonight is your night. Members of the community are invited to a public information session to learn more about lead in our drinking water.The information covered will include Ontario drinking water regulations, health risks of lead in drinking water, options on reducing lead levels, and details about the new grant pilot program for Guelph homeowners replacing their private lead service lines. City staff, consultants and representatives from the Ministry of the Environment and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health Unit will answer questions and ask residents to provide their feedback about the City’s lead reduction options. The info session begins at 6 pm at the Guelph Waterworks at 29 Waterworks Place, off York Rd.

Ward 1: The Centre of it All

After an unpredictably lengthy hiatus, it’s time to return to my award-eligible series (hint), “Better Know a Ward.” For the third part of this six part series, we go to St. Patrick’s; Ward 1 – the Fightin’ First. The borders of Ward 1 extend from downtown to the south-eastern border of Guelph; everything east of Victoria Road, and south of Eramosa and Eastview Roads. The two people charged with representing this diverse area are first-term Councillor’s Kathleen Farrelly and Bob Bell. I sat down with Farrelly and Bell last week, in the parlour of Farrelly’s home, to talk about issues in the Ward.

Bell and Farrelly make no qualms, they both consider Downtown Guelph to be the most important part of the city and there are some big changes coming in the next couple of years. The next step comes in January, when council will vote on whether or not to make the downtown train station the official Go Train terminal in Guelph. Bell calls it “the single biggest thing that will happen to downtown Guelph this decade,” and is part of an overall plan to revolutionize transit in, and out of, town.

The target date right now is to bring the GO Train back to Guelph by 2011, but before that, Bell and Farrelly have their eyes set on 2010, the date to create a new transit hub along Carden Street, bringing together out of town buses, trains and Guelph Transit into a single strip in the downtown. “That would enable someone to get from downtown Toronto to the University [of Guelph], on public transit, in about 70 minutes,” explains Bell. “That’s when you can really get people hauled out of their cars, if you can provide a faster service.” Adds Farrelly, “And to be as convenient as possible, which it would.”

This plan has not come without some controversy however. “Some people are very much against the relocation of the transit hub and some people seem to love it,” says Farrelly. “What was explained to us is that while the hub is being moved, the buses will still go through downtown, we’re not losing that bus stop downtown.” What might be lost though is the number of buses going through downtown. In order to create more efficiency, and to expedite travel from points A to B, Bell particularly wants to see Guelph Transit move to a grid system with express and cross-town routes that don’t have to stop downtown.

In the meantime, there are concerns in the Ward beyond transit, but are nonetheless of practical importance: the grocery store and retail deficit in the East End. “What the East Enders want is fair city investment, and the provision of services there to be at a par with other areas of the city,” says Bell. “There’s no dispute right now that they’re being treated unfairly.” Farrelly adds that the delay is not the fault of the city, but the fact that the corporations that own the land, Loblaws and Metro, have yet to capitalize. “What they’re saying is that they’re rethinking the size of the store, with the view of not having the huge stores they presented.”

And that’s not likely to change given current economic conditions and in a new age of fiscal restraint given the global recession. Like all city employees and representatives, Bell and Farrelly say they’re looking for ways to keep costs down and are re-evaluating certain purchases. Bell says he took a suggestion that the city could put off the purchase of replacement computers, which has a price tag of $1 million. “You have to be very conscious of where your discretionary funding goes,” he says. Buying new computers won’t necessarily help Guelph because they’re manufactured overseas.

All-in-all, and given the seemingly enormous nature of some of the issues facing the ward, Farrelly and Bell say that the job has been more or less what they expected. But Farrelly knew advanced what her duties might entail; her son was on the council from 1993 to 2003. And if there’s one thing these two Ward 1 representatives have in common, it’s a dislike for the trappings of government. “I’m very impatient with red tap and bureaucracy,” says Farrelly, who adds that she’s learning patience. But if she and Bell are proud of one thing, it’s maintaining a campaign promise to keep council functional and communicative. “Even though we disagree on issues, we still maintain our civility and friendliness, we don’t harbour ill-will,” she adds, “We’ve made a point of that.”