Mayoral candidate Dan Melanson says in light of recent calls for decentralizing city services, it's important to remember it was part of recommendations more than a decade ago.
“You may recall that following the amalgamation of the City of Sudbury and the surrounding towns in 2001, our former NDP MPP Floyd Laughren was appointed by the city to lead a community solutions team and with a mandate to examine this new relationship and recommend ways to bring all these communities together as one,” Melanson writes in a release Monday.
Laughren's report contained 36 recommendations, including, at No. 30, a call to review ways to decentralize services.
“To the best of my knowledge, the bureaucracy at Tom Davies Square never took this recommendation seriously,” Melanson writes. “As city hall grew following amalgamation, there was little interest in decentralizing power from the centre to the outlying areas. However, this was and remains a barrier and an issue for these communities.”
Where residents used to be able to call the town hall to deal with one of their concerns, now everything goes through the 311 number at Tom Davies and residents often don't get a timely response.
“While the Community Action Networks established in these communities helped to give them some autonomy, the city keeps making it difficult for all the volunteers who are frustrated with some of the rules forced on them by the city,” Melanson writes.
“These CANs and their volunteers are vital to these communities and give them a voice in the governance of their community -- we can’t afford to lose them.”
To address these concerns, Melanson said he will begin the discussion on decentralizing services and take another look at how services are delivered across the city.
“I do not want to hear bureaucrats tell me why we can’t do better, I want to know how we can do better,” he writes.
Full text of Melanson's letter:
We are a Constellation City in Name Only
It is very insightful that after almost 20 years there are still calls for the City of Greater Sudbury to de-amalgamate to its former structure. You may recall that following the amalgamation of the City of Sudbury and the surrounding towns in 2001, our former NDP MPP Floyd Laughren was appointed by the city to lead a community solutions team and with a mandate to examine this new relationship and recommend ways to bring all these communities together as one.
The final report contained 36 recommendations that were identified as building blocks to achieving a true community of communities. Recommendation number 30 is most relevant to the issues we are facing today.
#30: Review of Decentralized Services
The action steps were:
1. Each section and department to review its current status and compare it to pre-amalgamation period.
2. Each section and department to develop a potential decentralization scenario
a. Solicit input from employees and the public
3. Evaluate scenario for impact on service levels and financial impact
4. Report results by March 2008
To the best of my knowledge, the bureaucracy at Tom Davies Square never took this recommendation seriously. As city hall grew following amalgamation there was little interest in decentralizing power from the centre to the outlying areas. However, this was and remains a barrier and an issue for these communities.
A common complaint, in that prior to amalgamation, a resident of Capreol or Lively could pick up the phone and call their municipal office for assistance with a specific concern. They would know the person on the other end of the call, and likely they would know the town employee who came out to address the problem. Today they call 311, state their concern and messages are sent to the relevant department.
I’ve been told by numerous residents of these communities that sometimes someone calls them, sometimes workers are sent out to address the issue, sometimes their councillor will do the job him/herself and sometimes they never hear from anyone again.
A 2009 Procedure By-law states that in making appointments to agencies, boards, advisory panels and other bodies, “the Nominating Committee shall take into account a balanced representation from communities of interest so as to be reflective of the geographical and demographic composition of the community”. No mention of geographical composition is made in any of the eleven boards of council when they look for applicants to join the boards.
While the Community Action Networks established in these communities helped to give them some autonomy, the city keeps making it difficult for all the volunteers who are frustrated with some of the rules forced on them by the city. These CANs and their volunteers are vital to these communities and give them a voice in the governance of their community - we can’t afford to lose them.
The point is that these residents feel disconnected and abandoned by Tom Davies Square. Therefore, I believe that recommendation number 30 of the Constellation City report is vital to addressing the sense of detachment that citizens in out these communities feel.
As your Mayor I am committed to re-engaging the community in this discussion of how we are governed and how we deliver core services to outlying communities. I do not want to hear bureaucrats tell me why we can’t do better, I want to know how we can do better.
So, we, as a community of communities need to find a solution. I believe that we can, and I am committed to working with you and the next council to achieve this.
Learn more about Melanson’s candidacy by visiting his election page on Sudbury.com.
