So close

It was a budget week like no other in Prince Edward County. With a brand-new star quarterback in the form of Chief Administrative Officer Marcia Wallace guiding the team, Shire Hall marched down the field toward the goal line. Then at the one-yard line, with victory just inches away, council took the ball from their quarterback. And promptly fumbled it. Game over.

Perhaps an overly dramatic metaphor. I hasten to observe that the business of Prince Edward County is on a distinctly firmer footing today due almost exclusively the insight, expertise and hard work of CAO Wallace. That she has inspired such profound transformation inside those walls in just 40 days suggests that perhaps Shire Hall may finally be very close indeed to shaking off the calcified mindset that has encumbered and stifled a succession of local governments since amalgamation.

Wallace guided the entire budget process in a way that allowed council to focus on the key issues and stay out of the weeds. She laid the foundation and the context to enable councillors to ask smart questions. And they did. And they received real answers. And when those answers weren’t readily at hand, they were produced the following morning. It was all very efficient and responsive. They covered a great deal of ground, without obscuring the key bits.

Furthermore, Wallace’s method never wavered in its professionalism and respect that is vital, but often elusive, between the elected and appointed folks.

This respect was largely reciprocated. Most understood—perhaps if only on a gut level— this was a better process. Until, that is, the very last conversation. The final play in the game. That’s when enough councillors—though not all—concluded that they had seen enough. They could carry the ball the rest of the way. What subsequently happened, will be talked about for months. Perhaps longer. With luck, most councillors will learn from this disappointing blunder.

Here is what happened.

Wallace had worked diligently all week to guide council to a zero or close to zero increase in the tax levy. She understands that the County has some serious reckoning in the years ahead. In a few short weeks, she has discerned what a few long-term councillors have never managed to process: specifically, that our County government has deep structural, financial and operational challenges. And that there are no quick fixes. Only tough choices.

This means that County services, programs and assets will be pulled apart over the next couple of years and assessed for viability and purpose. There is going to be pain. Confusion. Disappointment.

As Councillor Ernie Margetson tried to impress upon his colleagues, “we have systemic challenges, that require systemic remedies.” This won’t be easy.

It seems the new CAO wanted to send a signal to the community: We’re holding the line in terms of the tax levy, but understand that we are coming back to you in the near future to have serious conversations, about what your County government can do, and what to do about the things we can’t.

It seemed really smart messaging: We won’t dig deeper into your pocket this year, because we are going to get our house in order first. But get ready, we are going to be talking about some big changes soon. It seemed sensible. Reasonable. Fair.

But then council took the ball. It is utterly baffling why, after all the success their new CAO had produced in the previous three days, they felt the need to shape the narrative at that final hour. It is not as though they could point to brilliance in some past budget communique.

Some boasted they could “sell” a bigger tax levy increase to their constituents. Switching from governors of a $60 million corporation, they suddenly became hucksters, crafting crass ways to persuade the rubes to shovel more money into Shire Hall.

So, a majority of council members, despite the efforts of their new CAO and staff across the municipality to deliver a zero-increase budget, chose to take it upon themselves to increase the tax levy by four per cent. The money to be taken from your pocket and deposited into a roads reserve.

Ms. Wallace had explained several times over the previous budget days, that, yes, council could raise more money for roads, and it would be absorbed, but that it would be prudent first to come up with a workable, sustainable and affordable plan.

Some chose not to listen. Some figured they knew better. Some simply missed their CAO’s cue. Others genuinely felt that the creative number-spinning-exercise in the final hour of the budget provided sufficient cover to enable them to put money into a reserve that will surely be needed one day—once a plan had been charted. Sadly, too many still fail to comprehend the gravity of the financial predicament the municipality is mired in, nor do they fully grasp the scale of the challenges ahead.

So as they dithered about how much more to hike the tax levy, Councillor Janice Maynard seized the moment, putting forward a motion to add the highest amount, of seven options presented, to the tax levy. The CAO asked for a break so that her team could regroup and make a recommendation. But Maynard’s motion was already on the floor. Procedure rules required a vote, then and there. It succeeded. That was that.

In a single stroke, a majority of council ripped up the narrative that had guided a remarkable, and likely pivotal, week of budget deliberations and replaced it with their own.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca