Comment
Oblivion
There are three wee streets just beyond Wellington’s commercial core—West, Water and Narrow. (Each street name decidedly practical and descriptive rather than aspirational or commemorative.) Together with Main, they form a tidy residential block. They are quiet, small, unpretentious streets. As the village has developed and activity expanded, however, the pressure on these streets has produced some bad, and occasionally unsafe behaviour—quite apart from the late-night parade of besotted bachelorette revellers. Cars are regularly abandoned on both sides of the slender passageways as folks seek to pursue the charms of the village. No sidewalks. No curbs. Lawns substitute for parking lanes. There is also a minor hazard as these errant drivers attempt to weave back onto Main Street traffic from West Street.
In the array of challenges present in Prince Edward County, it is a small one. But there is an easy solution—potentially cured with a lowcost remedy. So it was that Councillor Mike Harper went to the Committee of the Whole last week to propose limiting these three streets to one-way only and permitting parking on just one side. It would, if nothing else, divert exiting traffic to the safer (Narrow) of the two intersections with Main Street and, perhaps, ease the strain on these roadways and adjoining lawns.
A few signs. Occasional enforcement. And it would be done. Next problem. (In the same proposal Councillor Harper attempted to lower the speed limit on Beach Street from 40 to 20 kph—the usual mix of pedestrians and vehicles making this lane a risky cocktail at any speed.)
But nothing is so simple in municipal politics. Nothing so obvious that it can’t be deferred and studied more. And such is how another proposal drifted into oblivion.
There were some valid questions—mostly about process. There were also, regrettably, the uselessly parochial gripes. “I’m tired of how Wellington gets pushed in front of us,” complained the Consecon councillor, a sad echo of the factionalism that hobbled council decision-making through much of the decade and a half post-amalgamation.
The objections (the valid ones) mostly arose because Harper’s motion had bypassed the municipality’s Traffic Committee. It is a fair enough concern on the face of it. Process is important. Structure and methods are important. But the councillors who sit on the Traffic Committee acknowledged it meets infrequently— indeed it hasn’t assembled in the past 11 months. With no future meetings planned.
The councillors who felt snubbed because the proposal had come to the whole of council, instead of waiting for their zombie Traffic Committee to rise from the dead, won the day. That is, council chose to send it back to the dormant committee.
None offered a substantive argument in opposition to the proposal. Instead, their primary objection was that the proper process wasn’t followed, and therefore an otherwise simple, sensible, reversible, minor change had to die. To lie next to the Traffic Committee.
Because, Wellington.
It seems a useful moment to remind folks— council and admin folks—of the many and varied virtues of standing committees. That is, scheduled committees comprised of a segment of council who meet monthly to review an aspect of the County’s business. Until 2009, the municipality was governed by standing committees. One committee focussed on finances and administration, another on works and infrastructure and such, another on planning and another on parks and rec matters.
There were challenges for sure, but matters could be aired at the standing committee, and elevated quickly when needed, to enact time-sensitive, urgent, or decidedly apparent remedies. Less formal than council meetings, most residents seemed comfortable airing their challenges—and getting feedback—in these settings.
Furthermore, council members became well-versed on the issue and challenges in the realm of their standing committee. Other council members relied upon them as a resource when they needed a quick response or explanation for their constituents.
But mistrust, fuelled by parochial grievances of the variety uttered by the Consecon council member, eventually meant that every issue tabled at the standing committee had to be relitigated at council. There were other remedies to this dysfunction, but council chose the nuclear option—blowing up the standing committees and meeting as a whole (Committee of the Whole) on every issue before this single-tier (complex) municipality.
Thus, council must now prepare for agendas that stretch into the hundreds of pages. On matters ranging from town hall maintenance to multi-million dollar infrastructure replacement. From policies governing municipal truck use to the preservation of rights of way to beaches and water.
Scrutiny is thinner and more dispersed. Ultimately it is less responsive.
Councillor Brad Nieman is undoubtedly correct in his complaint that the proper process wasn’t followed in the proposal to render a small change to three minor streets in Wellington. But the Hallowell Councillor knows—better than most—that the process isn’t working.
Perhaps he and the other would-be protectors of process will lead a re-examination of standing committees. I expect he, and others, ran for council seats driven by the ambition to get things done, rather than relegating worthy initiatives to the abyss of deferral.
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