Bid to remove Parnell fails
Parnell survives as planning committee chairwoman despite 6-5
Mayor Daryl Bennett is returning to the Peterborough Police Services Board on Nov. 30, after councillors approved the mayor’s new appointments for himself and for councillors on Monday.
The approval came with no discussion from councillors about whether the mayor should return to the police board. It’s his legal right to be on the board; Coun. Dave Haacke will step down to let the mayor return.
Although councillors approved all the appointments together in a single vote, there was one appointment separated out for its own vote.
Coun. Dean Pappas wanted to vote separately on whether to keep Coun. Lesley Parnell as the chairwoman of the planning committee. The vote was 6-5 in favour of keeping Parnell in this position (which was Bennett’s plan).
Voting in favour of keeping Parnell as chairwoman of the planning committee were Coun. Lesley Parnell, Mayor Daryl Bennett, Coun. Dave Haacke, Coun. Henry Clarke, Coun. Andrew Beamer, and Coun. Dan McWIlliams.
Voting against keeping Parnell in the chair’s position were Coun. Don Vassiliadis, Coun. Dean Pappas, Coun. Diane Therrien, Coun. Keith Riel and Coun. Gary Baldwin.
There was no discussion or debate on this, and Pappas didn’t say why he wanted to vote separately on whether Parnell should maintain her appointment (which she’s held since the last election in 2014).
The mayor and councillors meet as the planning committee once every three weeks and Parnell chairs those meetings.
Also on the committee of the whole agenda Monday night:
PCB testing at airport
Councillors voted to boost the payment to a local environmental consulting firm as it deals with PCBs at the Peterborough Airport.
In 2015, the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change did some testing at the Peterborough Airport and found some PCBs on the property (which is is a former landfill site).
The city currently has a contract with Hunter St. E. firm Cambium Inc. worth $212,100 to do more sampling and analysis on behalf of the city (which complies with a provincial requirement).
The plan is to increase that to $247,000 to do further testing of surface water and sediment.
Coun. Dan McWilliams was unhappy that the city was planning to spend another $35,000 on testing at the airport long after the facilities have been extensively renovated by the city.
He said surely there should be enough data “on the shelf” already – the city shouldn’t be contracting out more testing services.
But city planning director Jeffrey Humble said it’s necessary because it will allow the city to know better whether the toxins can reach adjacent properties – or contaminate wells, for instance.
The additional $35,000 would come out of city reserves and would address environment ministry requirements.
Voting system
Councillors voted to stick with the company that provided online voting and automatic tabulation services in the last three elections.
The city will use the services of Dominion Voting Systems Corp. of Toronto, for the next two municipal elections (2018 and 2022), at a cost of $304,892 (including taxes).
Staff state that the cost of the system in 2018 would be $137,282.38 including HST, and would come out of the 2018 election budget. The remainder would be paid in 2022 when the system is used for that election.
Dominion has provided the service since 2006; that deal expired in 2014. The city issued a request for proposals and staff recommended sticking with Dominion.
Coun. Dan McWilliams said he was concerned that the internet voting service could be hacked – he said he didn’t want to read a headline stating that Russians have tampered with Peterborough’s electoral system.
City clerk John Kennedy told councillors the services from Dominion have been audited repeatedly, and there were tests done to see whether the system could be hacked (it couldn’t).
Still, McWilliams said he’ll be voting in person, not online - and he encouraged others to do so, too.
Tree replacement
Councillors approved a revised plan meant to make it less expensive for private landowners to replace trees they’ve removed on their own properties.
On Sept. 25, councillors reviewed a proposed new bylaw that would have expected private landowners to plant three new trees for every large, healthy tree removed on their own properties.
The replacement trees couldn’t be small, either – the bylaw specified they must be fairly large (average cost per tree: $450).
Councillors decided at the time that $450 per tree was too expensive for landowners and asked staff to review the bylaw and make it more manageable for people.
Now the plan is to measure the diameter of the healthy tree removed and ask the landowner to plant three new trees if the healthy one removed is quite large and mature.
When the landowner removes a smaller tree, they may replant just one or two smaller trees to compensate (at a cost of $50 to $80 per tree).
Mayor Daryl Bennett said the bylaw wasn’t meant to be onerous or expensive to people – the idea is to protect the tree canopy, which is disappearing.
He said the bylaw is meant to educate people about the need to protect the tree canopy – not to punish people for cutting down trees.
But Coun. Dean Pappas said he had concerns: “I hesitate to go onto someone’s property and tell them what to do on their own yard,” he said.
Coun. Dave Haacke said he was unhappy about the idea of setting up a tree bureaucracy.
“My concern is we start a bureaucracy meant for trees – and we can lose control of it,” he said.
Still, councillors voted to approve the bylaw.
Special Olympics
The Special Olympics chose Peterborough to host its Ontario School Championships in May, and the organization is asking the city for $40,000 to help run the event.
Councillors approved the request without any discussion or debate Monday.
The championships are taking place in the city May 29 to 31. About 1,000 participants (aged 13 to 21) are expected from across the province, plus thousands more spectators.
Special Olympics Ontario states that the total cost to run the event will be $334,000 – and they expect to make $294,000 back through grants, sponsorships and registration.
But they expect to fall short $40,000 and they’re asking the city to help by covering costs such as facilities rentals and bus transportation around Peterborough.
A city staff report states the games are expected to generate about $1 million in tourism revenue for the city.
Town Ward drop-in meeting
Coun. Diane Therrien said there will be a casual, drop-in meeting for citizens of Town Ward on Oct. 28 from 3 until 5 p.m. at St. James United Church on Romaine St. (at Aylmer St.). Citizens are invited to come and speak to their councillors about any issue – and get free pizza, too.
NOTE: See related city council coverage on Page A1.