Reflections (Opinion)David James - Sutton Scene - Oct. 29 2017
Contents
- Free expression is key to our democracy.
- IBS - Incumbent Behaviour Syndrome
- Legal ... but is it right? The zoning and subdivision bylaw
- Important issues for the community
- Big projects, big challenges coming
- Who's up for the job?
Reflections
Shortly after the last election in 2013, an Alliance Sutton councillor was heard expressing delight with the results. It was not only because of a personal win but almost more importantly because Alliance Sutton had knocked out all of the ‘514s’ on the previous Pelland Council.
Months later registers were opened for citizens to sign to request a referendum on proposed zoning changes. I asked a man, who had lived and worked here all his life, what he thought of the changes. He paused, thought, and shared that he did not like some of the proposals. But as for signing a register? He said “no”. He explained that he knew how things got done in Sutton and did not trust the registers would be secret. He feared his name would be seen and negative consequences could follow, somehow, somewhere, sooner or later.
A phone call in the middle of the night weeks later introduced me to how some people do things here. A middle of the night phone call is highly unusual. Responding to my sleepy hello, a caller firmly said it was the police, and told me to stop sending out Sutton Scene. Before hanging up, ‘the police’ told me that ‘if I did not stop, I would receive a visit’. That visit has not happened … yet.
Sutton is struggling with building a real consensus about what its citizens want the town to be. Change is happening and it’s uncomfortable. So uncomfortable that the town’s Strategic Plan, presented by Council in March, notes that one of the challenges facing the town, and inherently its Council, are the ivisions between …
- Souche and weekenders
- French and English
- Locals and new or neo Suttonites
- Nature lovers and developers
The values they, and probably you as well, want for family and community life in Sutton are reasonable to consider when you vote for mayor and your councillor. The values they hold dear are …
- Integrity and transparency
- Respect and tolerance
- Responsibility and accountability
- Respect for the principles of durable development
- Respect for consensus but not at the price of political paralysis
- Listening
- Dialogue
- Collaboration
- Resolving problems
Time for a change - The trouble with normal, it always gets worse
Alliance Sutton says all the ‘right’ things but their actions give cause for real
concern.
1. Free expression is key to out democracy …
“It is the best defence against bad government. Politicians who err (that is, all of
them) should be subjected to unfettered criticism”, according to the respected
magazine The Economist.
During the last four years, Council …
- Banned freedom of assembly in municipal meeting rooms for partisan municipal political groups. The administration requested the non-partisan Citizens Forum to submit minutes of its meetings to judge whether unacceptable activities were being held. If so, it would no longer be allowed to meet in the John Sleeth Centre. Only after several months and repeated appeals, including from a Portuguese immigrant, who compared Council’s actions to those he experienced under the Salazar dictatorship, did Council find its battered ethical compass.
- Attacked the professionalism of La Voix de L’Est and its reporter Michel Laliberté for coverage of the controversy and legal case triggered by Council’s proposed changes to zoning and subdivision bylaws.
- Council’s motion approved hiring lawyers to lodge a complaint with the Québec Press Council. Sutton Council unanimously proclaimed that “in the role as guardian of the public interest, the Town shall, to the extent of the resources available to it, act to deal with any situation that contravenes the public interest or endangers it”. Despite passing the motion and Council’s profound concern, the complaint was never lodged. Council did not give the Québec Press Council the opportunity to adjudicate whether its allegations were valid. Since the town did not act, it would be reasonable for Council to withdraw the motion. The mayor refused. He told me the motion would stay because “it (the coverage) was abuse”. Not one councillor found their moral compass to do the right thing.
- A councillor was mad and refused to speak with me following the December Council meeting where I pointed out the hypocrisy of retaining this motion, which attacks a fundamental value of a healthy democracy, while on Remembrance Day the mayor and some councillors commemorated the sacrifices of local lives to defend that democracy.
The Economist’s advice to politicians, “Never try to silence views with which you disagree. Answer objectionable speech with more speech. Win the argument without resorting to force. And grow a tougher hide.” That may be a tall order for Alliance Sutton. It prides itself on having some 75 years of political experience, anchored by three men who served as mayors - Winston Bresee, Ken Hill and Louis Dandenault. Old habits die hard. Frankly, I understand why after all those years, they sometimes appear condescending and fed up with listening to Council meeting attendees. They seem to have had enough.
2. IBS - Incumbent Behaviour Syndrome
In the May, 2015 edition of Sutton Scene, I coined a phrase for the behaviour of the three mayors - IBS - Incumbent Behaviour Syndrome. At that time, I shared this constructive advice …
… the three former and current mayors on Council, as well as the town manager, have reason to take to heart lessons from both the Alberta experience and the feedback that they are receiving directly about this issue. They need to change their behaviour. The administration and Council need torecover lost goodwill & credibility. They should go out of their way to reestablish a much better rapport with the citizens.
The behaviour of incumbents came to national attention due to inappropriate behaviour of Alberta Premier Jim Prentice during an election debate with provincial NDP leader Rachel Notley. Having politicians with deep experience can be very valuable but there are also dangerous pitfalls as was incisively pointed out last week by the highly respected pollster and political commentator, Bruce Anderson, who appears every Thursday evening on CBC TV’s ‘At Issue Panel’. In commenting on Premier Prentice’s behaviour, Mr. Anderson said in part:
“Incumbency breeds arrogance …. The manner, the tone, the sense of ‘we are in
charge here and we know all of the information that people need to know whomake big important decisions in government and if you are not one of us youcan’t possibly know that’ ….That’s the tone that we really want to see out ofhere.”
Mr. Anderson noted that this is a “reminder that incumbency builds up a certain sense of confidence, that you know what you are doing. But you can cross that line to arrogance and you run very ignificant risks and that is what is happening here.” “Voters are fed up with people who are too clever by half. The ‘calculationism’ ” said Mr. Anderson, leads to “revulsion among the electorate”.
3. Legal, … but is it right? The zoning and subdivision bylaw change process.
‘It’s legal’ was often uttered at Council meetings in defence of tactics used to manage the process to introduce new zoning and subdivision bylaws. Here’s what Judge François Tôth writes in his decision.
“Replacement by-laws must be approved by the whole community (s. 136.1 LAU). The procedure followed by Sutton avoids these obligations, which are not pure formalities, but are at the very heart of the municipal decision-making process.”
In 2013, Alliance Sutton promised to ...
In 2017, Alliance Sutton once again makes the same commitment.
In 2014, Alliance Sutton kicked off the bylaw change process, shepherded by councillor Ken Hill, by holding a secret invitation-only meeting. In addition to the mayor and Ken Hill, councillor John Hawley attended. Selected members of the construction sector detailed their desired changes. Council did not ask the public or other construction people to provide recommendations.The meeting was very important according to the decision of Judge François Tôth.
“The changes took into account the topics and complaints of the participants in the October 2014 meeting. The evidence is preponderant that the purpose of the changes was to facilitate and stimulate residential construction, in particular in PAM areas.”
Under a five-year anniversary review of an urban plan, provincial law provides for a single referendum where everyone can vote to accept or reject the proposals.Council moved earlier, in the fourth year. After hearing the testimony of the director of urbanism, Judge Tôth writes in his decision,
“Sutton’s urban planner, Mr. Girard, testified that it would have been impossible to comply with the provisions in the act because there were so many that could have been subject to approval by way of referendum.”
“Indeed, it was a Herculean task. Municipal document P-14 says that 269 by-law provisions could be subject to approval by way of referendum, and that they could apply to a number of different zones, or even all of the Town’s 125 zones, which is why a large number of registers was possible.”
Mayor Dandenault said the process was more democratic because only people in
each zone decided what happened in their zone. The Judge writes
“The Court draws the conclusion that the procedure for amending RZ 115-2 and
RL 116-1 was extraordinarily complex.”
As for Council’s responsibility to ensure citizens were well informed to make decisions about the proposed changes in their zone, the mayor held only one public meeting.
With regard to that public meeting, the Judge writes:
“The public consultation was not in compliance with the information obligations
set out in the LAU regarding provisions that could be subject to approval by way
of referendum.”
The town’s communications advisor testified that after the public meeting he did
not know what changes affected him, nor the zone he lived in. The Judge writes:
“The evidence is preponderant that people could not, except by doing in-depth
research and demonstrating perspicacity, find out which zone they lived in using
the Town’s website.”
Regarding the thick document Council provided on its web site to help citizens
understand the impact on their zone, the Judge writes:
“A “summary” of the zoning by-law that was 172 pages long and drowned citizens
in a sea of provisions.’
In finding the wiggle room with rules, the fundamental principle of transparency and the overarching fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interests of the citizens were simply ignored.
4. Important issues for the community
Bilingualism: Sutton’s Strategic Development Plan, which cost $20,000, with $10,000 paid by the town and $10,000 from the MRC, says there is a “clivage” or division between English and French populations.
Council had a great opportunity to show at least some symbolic sensitivity to the issue when it presented the strategy document at a Council meeting. Only French copies were available. The mayor said it would be translated into English, if there was demand.
Some weeks earlier, it was drawn to the Mayor’s attention that his 2016 letter to businesses was only in French; the 2017 version of that letter came out shortly after and it was again only in French. Louis Dandenault explained it was a matter of cost.
The town newsletter uses volunteers for its translation. They fear the town will stop including English if they ask to be paid. The town does not have a budget line for translation.
Non-residents feel increasingly excluded from town affairs. Ironically the town risks alienating the very people it wants to attract to build and buy homes, to support the town’s economy, strengthen its school and community life for the future.
During the bylaw change process, registers were held on a Friday when most non-residents are absent. Citizens complained that the timing impeded them from exercising their democratic right to sign registers to request referendums to challenge bylaw proposals. The registers could have been held on a Saturday. Council said registers have always been held on Friday and saw no reason to change.
Non-resident taxpayers do not receive a hard copy of the town newsletter as everyone else does. That decision by Council, as a cost saving measure, may initially appear minor but it goes against the community wishes to be “inclusive and respectful”.
Spending and Taxes: are always elusive at city hall. It’s difficult to receive a forward-looking perspective on the budget impact of spending and borrowing. Council says it is not raising taxes more than the annual inflation rate.
Sutton’s overall tax revenue grew by 9% from 2013-2016, double the rate of inflation of 4.5%.
Net long-term debt has jumped significantly under the Dandenault administration, largely due to city hall reconstruction and the Goyette Park enhancements. It grew 72% from 2013-2016 to $11.7m. That 2016 level is estimated to grow another $1.2m this year or more than 10% to $12.9m.
The town spent $2,427 per capita in 2016, about 1.6 times the average spent by other municipalities with a similar full-time population of 2,000 - 4,999, according to last week’s report from the Centre for Productivity & Prosperity Centre at HEC Montréal. This is about level with Sutton’s per capita spending peak in 2013 of $2,442.
From 2013 to 2016, spending increased for general administration by 61% and
urbanism by 35%. Meanwhile the spending fell on transport by -78% and on
culture and recreation by -7%, according to the HEC analysis.
5. Big projects, big challenges coming
Unlike 2013, when Alliance Sutton denied it would change zoning, this time it hints at a few significant initiatives to be managed. All parties involved will be severely tested to ensure they meet the community’s desire for “integrity and transparency”.
The Mountain: Real estate development and water works are on the books for the mountain. That’s the inference from the mayor’s comments at the launch of Alliance Sutton’s campaign. He wants to ensure the viability of Mont Sutton, preparing it for when snow will be problematic. At the same time Alliance Sutton wants to ensure the water supply to the mountain.
Filtex: Sutton faces the challenge of defining what to do with the Filtex property. The project will have major long-term impact on traffic flows and town cultural and economic life.
The rectangular shaped site is in the heart of the village. It is bordered on the west by the railroad tracks, on the north by rue Dépôt and on the south by rue Pine.
The Dandenault Council recently acquired the abandoned 71,000 square foot / 1.6 acre Filtex property for $80,000. That amount pales compared to the cost of decontamination of the condemned toxic site, estimated some 5-6 years ago by the Pelland administration at $400,000.
6. Who's up for the job?
My choice for mayor is Michel Lafrance. My choice for the councillors are those
running as independents.
Michel Lafrance’s background is impressive. He was the manager of six airports from Yellowknife to Sept-Iles over some 26 years. The buck stopped with him. He certainly faced a litany of management challenges and conflicts to resolve.
He says “an airport is a complex town on steroids”. That he was assigned to not only one, but six airports says volumes about his temperament and capabilities. He would not last long if we were not financially responsible, reliable, and collaborative.
Michel Lafrance draws on a breadth and depth of experience that no previous Sutton mayor had. That will boost the effectiveness of both Council and the administration.
The soft-spoken, understated man knows about the pressures facing Sutton. He has been president of
CDES/CORPO - Corporation de Développement économique de Sutton three times and is currently
its vice-president. In those roles, he knows the business community and its relationship with the
town.
Furthermore, M. Lafrance is a dedicated volunteer who has extensive experience with hospitals and
medical care issues. He is past president of two hospital boards in Sept-Iles and the BMP in
Cowansville, with budgets of $60-$100m. He is regionally and locally active with the health services
and is working to strengthen the future of our local clinic.
For more about Michel Lafrance, visit Michel Lafrance and meet him, along with the other independent candidates, at Salle Alec Gerard Pelletier on Wednesday, November 1st for a 5 à 7.
Here is an article that appeared in Le Guide:
