Council has high hopes

By JENNIFER BURDEN, THE PACKET & TIMES October 27 2010
From 28 candidates down to nine, Orillia has picked its leaders.
But how will these nine different platforms and personalities work together as a cohesive team over the next four years?
Ward 1 Coun. Patrick Kehoe wants to establish an incubation centre for small-to medium-sized environmental technology businesses on the Huronia Regional Centre property. Ward 2 Coun. Pete Bowen and Ward 4 Coun. Tony Madden think the West Street South site could still be the best location for the multi-use recreation facility (MURF) and want to review its certificate property use, while their mayor-elect Angelo Orsi wants to do a complete overhaul of the city’s recreational needs assessment before moving ahead.
But that is what council is all about — bringing different ideas to the table and coming to a cohesive decision, Orsi said.
“We have to make sure we establish we’re all on the same side. We all have to work together to serve our community and do it well,” he said. “I welcome input because the more input you have, the better decision you can make.”
Bowen is hoping for a team-building process early on, in which the new council will sit down and hammer out a collective vision for Orillia over the next 20 years.
“I realize that everybody is bringing all the planks in their platform and now it’s setting priorities and seeing which ones we’ll embark on first. If people come in with agendas — that it has to be my way — it’s going to be divisive,” Bowen said.
Kehoe said he would like to encourage his fellow councillors to consider his plans for a portion of the HRC site, but is open to other opinions.
“I’m a member of a team and the idea is to communicate my thoughts to the team and hope for their support,” Kehoe said.
Ward 4 Coun. Tony Madden said he attended all of the candidates’ meetings and thinks there is a lot of “common ground” amongst the new council.
“I think everybody agrees we need to address our recreation needs in very short order,” he said.
But Madden said council doesn’t want to waste a lot of time on reinventing the wheel when it comes to recreational needs — the original assessment still has some value, he said.
His fellow Ward 4 councillor Andrew Hill said he had his own ideas about the MURF going into the election, such as building surface recreation facilities, but will co-operate with other councillors and their ideas.
“I definitely want to work and co-operate with the other councillors and mayor to find a collective solution to the problem with the MURF. Citizens of Orillia gave a clear message on that — they’ve had enough of it.”
One of only two incumbents re-elected, Ward 2 Coun. Paul Spears said the only problem he sees arising with the new council is the number candidates who campaigned on the city needing to balance its budget and look at expenses line by line. He said the city’s budget has always been balanced; legally, they cannot budget for a surplus or deficit.
“When you start doing more with less, you’re going to start running into problems,” he said.
Councillors Linda Murray in Ward 2 and Don Jenkins in Ward 1 both hope that the incoming council can work cohesively as a team despite some varying opinions and ideas.
“My platform was about team-w o rk and communication,” Murray said, adding that the new council can begin that process by building a positive rapport with each other from the get-go.
The new council will officially be inaugurated on Dec. 6 and will hold its first council and committee meeting on Dec. 13.