Lehman’s term

Barrie Examiner December 2 2010
New Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman heads into the 2010-2014 term of office with new challenges on many fronts. As Monday’s inaugural city council meeting approaches, he answers10 questions for the Examiner.
1) What have you been doing since being elected on Oct. 25, in terms of getting organized for the new term of council?

Although the job did not begin officially until Dec. 1, I started work the day after the election. I’ve had a temporary office at Barrie City Hall since the last week of October, where I’ve been working on my immediate priorities.
I’ve met with all the incoming councillors and senior staff, and been to some meetings in the Greater Toronto Area with companies interested in investing in Barrie. First steps are changing the way council operates, so I’ve been spending a lot of time on changes to our committees and procedures to make things more efficient and more inclusive to the public.
2) How do you like the mix of talent you have with the councillors elected (or re-elected) on Oct. 25?
I like it a lot. Many of the new councillors have had prominent roles in the community and are bringing a strong background to the position. It helps a great deal to have a core of veteran councillors as well – these individuals know where we are as an organization and I will be relying on their experience to help this council work well.
3)What are the issues this council will have to deal with during the first few months of 2011?
The budget will be a prominent and important issue. Dealing with the rush to complete the stimulus projects will be another one. There have been some problems on a few of them, such as the delays on Dunlop Street and budget on the Downtown Community Theatre. Also, we will quickly need to make decisions about growth in the annexation area (formerly Innisfil) early in the new year.
4) You said during the election campaign you favoured an open-mike time during council meetings. How will you go about implementing this and when should citizens expect it to begin?
I will be recommending that we implement this right away as a change to our council procedure, this will be discussed at one of the first meetings of the new council after inauguration.
5) You also spoke about having advisory panels of seniors, youths and members of the cultural community reporting to city council. What progress has been made in forming these panels and how has the idea been received in the community?
I’ve spent some time planning these with the City Clerk, Dawn McAlpine, although obviously this has to wait until after inauguration. The idea has been received extremely well in the community and I believe we will be able to set these up as early as January.
6) Is there anything you plan to do, or would like to do, to change the format of city council and/or general committee meetings, or even public meetings, held in the Council Chambers (besides the open mike)?
Yes, I have plans to recommend some fairly significant changes to how council operates. In short, I think we need to be more efficient in the way council operates, and we need to have a more logical format. For example, it doesn’t make any sense to have a consent agenda at a council meeting that happens before a separate general committee meeting. This has meant that people show up at
8 p.m. for the general committee meeting, but their item was dealt with already without debate at
7 p.m. That’s a small change but one that should make decisions a little more clear and transparent to the public. I have some bigger changes to propose as well. Stay tuned.
7)Leadership from the Barrie mayor’s chair is obviously an important part of the job. What does being a leader mean to you, and how do you intend to lead this new council and the city for the next four years?
The mayor has to be the leader of a team. I intend to lead by being in constant contact with councillors and by seeking consensus as we debate issues. That said, there are some priorities that I intend to drive forward as part of the agenda I put to the people during the election — job creation, smarter growth, downtown revitalization, the transit system, the terminal project, and most of all, creating more opportunities for people to be engaged in city decisions. I will be working at city hall to get these done every day I’m on the job.
8) What needs to be done to improve Barrie’s relationship with its immediate neighbours – Innisfil, Oro-Medonte, Essa and Springwater? This question doesn’t presume relations are bad, just that they can be better.
They could be better, but I don’t think we’re in terrible shape. I’ve already met with the mayor of Oro-Medonte and the mayor-elect of Innisfil and I have a good relationship with both of them. I’m looking forward to meeting the new mayors in Essa and Springwater to start building that relationship. I think the guts of a good relationship with our neighbours is recognizing issues in which our interests are the same and working on those.
9) What steps need to be taken so that Barrie and the County of Simcoe can work together to better handle issues such as population growth, job creation and future boundary issues?
Well, first of all, I don’t think there will be another boundary issue for many, many years — I would guess for at least 30 years, probably more. There does need to be better communication, both at the staff level and the political level, between the county and the city, so the next step will be both meetings with the Simcoe County warden and having our staff get together on growth management.
10) What do you expect to be your single largest challenge as Barrie mayor during the next four years, and how will you tackle it?
I’m guessing it will be financial — trying to get all the public works done around town that need to be done, while still keeping tax increases low and delivering services. The recession did hurt the city’s finances, particularly in terms of capital reserves, so we are going to have to look very hard at spending on the capital side. Meeting the public’s expectations will be challenging. But I have a strong team to work with both in terms of staff and council, so I’m coming into this confident that we will be able to move the city forward.