GO TO
WHERE PEOPLE
ALREADY ARE.
The Town puts notices on its website. Most people never see them. You hear about a decision from a neighbour, or from a bill that is bigger than you expected. By then it is too late to say anything.
I want to fix that. Send the news to where people already are. Say what things cost, early, in plain words. Here is exactly what I will do, so you can hold me to it.
Specific enough to be held to
- 01
A plain-language summary of every Council meeting, within two business days
Not the minutes. A short page in ordinary words: what was decided, what it costs, who it affects, and what happens next. Minutes are a legal record and they are written like one. Most people have never read a set and never will.
- 02
Put it where people already are
The same summary goes out by email and text to anyone who wants it. It goes into the community Facebook groups where Collingwood already argues about this stuff. And it goes up on paper at the library, the arena and the rec centre, for people who are not online. Meeting people where they are is not a slogan — it is a distribution list and somebody's job.
- 03
Tell people before, not after
If a decision will change your street, your water bill or your taxes, you should hear about it while you can still do something about it. That means notice early enough to turn up, in language that says plainly what is being proposed.
- 04
When a number moves, say so and say why
Project costs change. That is normal. What turns a change into a scandal is people finding out late. When a cost moves I will say four things: what it was, what it is now, why it moved, and what it does to your tax bill. That week — not in a report next year.
- 05
Answer within five business days
Every email and call to the Mayor's office gets a real answer. If the answer takes longer, you get an honest holding note saying who has it and when they will come back. Not an acknowledgement that disappears.
- 06
Be where people are in person, on a schedule
Regular hours out in the community, not only at Town Hall in the middle of a working day. Those hours shut out most people with a job. Published in advance so you can plan to come.
- 07
Say what I do not know
If I have not read the report yet, or the answer is not decided, that is the answer. A confident guess from a mayor becomes a fact in somebody's head, and then a broken promise.
What a mayor cannot do alone
Most of this is staff work, and staff answer to the CAO, not to me. A mayor can set the expectation, put it in the budget, and keep asking — and on most things a mayor is one vote of nine. Some information cannot be released at all: personnel matters, active litigation, and anything caught by the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. When something cannot be said, I will say that it cannot be said and why, rather than letting the question go unanswered.
Two more promises about this live on other pages, because that is where they belong. One: publish every mayoral decision in plain words the day it is signed. Two: a public page on the new rec centre showing where it really is.
Strong mayor powersThe Multi-Use Rec Facility planTell me what you are hearing