Hard look

Mayor Peter Mertens

New CAO launches review of County services and facilities

Prepare to fight for the things you love about County services, buildings and properties in 2012. As the County’s new chief administrative officer scans his new dominion—he sees a place attempting to do too much with too little and doing a bad job of it in the process. So everything is on the table. Merlin Dewing, the County’s new manager since October, wants to hear from residents about what it wants the municipality to do and at what level. His message is plain: this municipality can’t do everything it is doing now—something has to give.

The County currently has more than 120 properties and more than 80 buildings— each in various stages of decay. Museums, town halls, road maintenance standards, fire service—everything is on the table.

Dewing says a hard look at the County’s business is overdue. “We don’t really know what we want the municipality to do here in Prince Edward County,” said Dewing.

He figures the County’s operating structure was never properly defined but rather evolved from a sense that this is how things have always been done. No one has asked residents if this is what they want their municipality to do. More urgently, Dewing says the County can no longer continue to fund its business as it is currently structured.

“We are in some operational and financial difficulty,” cautioned Dewing. “Some tough choices will have to be made. I want to know what they (County residents) want us to do—before we start organizing around expectations that can’t be met with current funds and resources.”

The new County manager says he has no predetermined ideas about how this rationalization should occur. He knows that this discussion will cause consternation and worry among some in the community. And while he is not courting controversy for its own sake— neither is he shrinking from his belief that the County must restructure how it provides services to, and operates facilities in, this community.

“Yes, we will meet some resistance,” said Dewing. “But the fact is that if we don’t change what we do—we will have to fund it differently. We do not have enough money to do everything we are doing right now.”

The debate is likely to spark renewed grumbling that the cost of provincially mandated services such as police, fire and ambulance services continues to consume a greater share of municipal ratepayer taxes—leaving council to fight over a shrinking piece of the pie that includes locally controlled community services and facilities.

Mayor Peter Mertens knows the coming year will be a difficult one—but he believes a hard look at what the County does is a necessary step in the evolution of Prince Edward County. “Whenever you begin to lift rocks and question how you do business some people get nervous,” said Mertens. “They try and protect what they have. One of the goals of this exercise is to get these folks to begin thinking more holistically and beyond their particular interest.”

Mertens insists this isn’t about making municipal government smaller but rather more aligned with the needs as expressed by its residents.

“My goal isn’t to slash and burn,” said Mertens. “My goal is to build capacity. To do more with the people and resources we have. I think we are on a good path. It will be very interesting to see where it leads.”