Clearview passes on EDO

Clearview council has said no to hiring an economic development officer.

Councillors are passing on the expenditure, partly because of a lack of “focus” and “leadership” when it comes to economic development.

The decision saves the taxpayer $43,300 in wages and benefits in 2016 for one half year, starting in July.

Council will instead set $30,000 aside in an account earmarked for economic development initiatives, once they figure out what to do.

Human Resources manager Pavlina Thompson recommended the new hire as part of the 2016 budget, which was discussed Monday afternoon during a workshop when councillors were asked to weigh in on what had been proposed by staff.

“We are recommending this position but it doesn’t have to be forever, I’m thinking five years,” said Thompson. “If we want results we have to do something different, put some resources in so we can move forward with economic development.”

When asked by Councillor Shawn Davidson what is senior staff’s position on hiring an economic development officer, CAO Steve Sage said council has to be clear on its role in the process to make the hire worthwhile.

Sage said there has been talk of economic development initiatives, but council has held off appointing members to an economic development committee.

“I spoke to the mayor about it, as I know you have, and we haven’t moved from that position,” said Sage. “We are not in favour [of hiring an EDO] if council is not sure of what their path is because council has to be highly engaged in the process.”

Sage said Clearview Township is in a chicken and egg situation.

“Here we are a year later and we haven’t moved forward,” he said. “Is that because we don’t have an EDO?”

Councillor Thom Paterson is proposing, as an interim step, to engage local people with relevant expertise who are willing to volunteer their services on a panel, to develop a plan, which can then be refined by a future economic development officer.

“I think we have an out here,” he said. “We haven’t had a serious discussion about how to implement plans.”

“There’s a lot of talk but there hasn’t been a lot of action,” said Thompson. “We need someone with expertise.”

Sage says there isn’t any existing staff to do it.

Davidson said, in speaking with people from other municipalities of similar size, economic development efforts have failed, partly because the results are hard to measure.

“It’s been a flop. Some say it’s money wasted and they don’t know how to get rid of them,” he said. “We don’t have a focus.”

Paterson said he is opposed to hiring someone to tell council what it should be doing.

“We don’t know how long it will take and we don’t know what we are asking them to do,” said Paterson. “We need to get together and hammer it out.”

Deputy Mayor Barry Burton, who chaired the meeting in the mayor’s absence, said he too is against the hire.

“It’s a lot of expense going nowhere,” he said. “We are just not ready but we need to get ready.”

Councillor Robert Walker agreed that council is not ready for an EDO and won’t be until that framework is set.

“We need to figure out a direction,” he said.

“That’s our fault,” said Councillor Deborah Bronée. “We thought someone was leading the charge on that and it’s not happening. We are not engaging the public, staff is not in place.”

“We are sitting here spinning our wheels. We need leadership. If we’re not going to hire an EDO, we as a council have to take the lead.”

Councillor Doug Measures said if council isn’t willing to hire the EDO it should set money aside for economic development. He said he is open to establishing an economic development committee as long as they follow council direction.

“I like what I am hearing because I have been against this from the get-go,” said Councillor Connie Leishman adding the township does engage in economic development but doesn’t identify it as such. She said events and planning play a part. “Let’s finish what we started, with the branding for one thing. I don’t want to put any money into it. We are already doing it.”

Councillor Kevin Elwood weighed in when prompted by Burton.

“I am quiet because I believe that economic development starts in the mayor’s office. They go out and sell the community. It starts there and feeds from there,” said Elwood, adding that he didn’t want to speak too critically of the mayor because he wasn’t there to defend himself. “We should spend some time helping the mayor.”

In the end, everyone agreed not to hire the EDO and Paterson, Leishman and Elwood voted against putting the money aside for an undefined economic development initiative.

Mayor Chris Vanderkruys was away at a conference on Monday but told The Echo this week that he wants to arrange for more public consultation and does want to establish an economic development committee.

“We need to have another roundtable to discuss what is the mandate we want to give [the committee] and how do we ensure they have the tools to do it?”

He said there has been work done to make sure things are happening, such as Cashtown Corners and the industrial park in Stayner.

“We’re only one year in and we are a new council. Not everyone believes we are moving in the right direction, I’m not sure but there are councillors that have been there for more than four or eight years. What have they done over that time? It takes a collaborative movement to make the change,” said Vanderkruys.

He said rather than hire an EDO, he’d rather see money set aside for advertising Clearview as a place to do business.

In terms of the residential development that is on the books, he wants to sit down with developers to see what it is that is holding them back.

“I see economic development as a job for myself and council…” said Vanderkruys. “Every one of us should be out selling Clearview.”