Councillor Asks How Is The City Held Accountable For Not Listening To Residents' Concerns

The buck stops here or does it was a concern of one councillor at Monday afternoon’s regular meeting of Moose Jaw city council.

Councillor Kim Robinson issued a lengthy preamble and then a question that caused a temporary silence and seemingly a bit of a chill in council chambers.

“When are we going to take the public voice seriously and these concerns and how are we as officials, administration and staff held accountable?” Councillor Robinson asked.

in his preamble to the enquiry he issued a lengthy grocery list of concerns he had heard from constituents.

“Recently I’ve had a lot of calls regarding residents (and) community safety and in fact several this morning in regard to our downtown core and certainly a lot of calls for poor communication.”

Communication has been a problem in the past. And Councillor Robinson gave examples it is going on at the present time.
” I heard a story where a couple of trolley tours had to be cancelled on the weekend because there was some miscommunication,’ he said, adding “I’ve heard several stories of largely ignored bylaws and recently we have heard about the citizen concern about our city hall opening hours.”

Councillor Robinson stated he had heard concerns the other way with a staff member calling him to ask about a resident who has filed approximately 30 graffiti incidents.

“I had a call from staff member was does one resident put in so many complaints,” he claimed.

“With all of this information that we get when are we going to take the voice of our residents seriously?” he asked.

Councillor Robinson then went on to ask how are elected officials held accountable.

A frustrated Mayor Clive Tolley said asking the question of Administration about the accountability of Council is inappropriate.

“I don’t think that is a question for Administration. We are the elected officials. People in our community are coming to us and asking us to provide leadership in these areas to bring forward bylaws and our Administration to govern this city,” Mayor Tolley replied. “I’m not sure that Administration should be asked about answering when. I think this Is an on-going thing.”

City manager Maryse Carmichael said she would “welcome the specifics on an incident may have. And I will investigate all issues that may have come to Council.”

Carmichael said there were over 35,000 residents in the city and that Administration took every communication they receive seriously.

She said there was a short communication sent out about the closure of Main Street on the weekend and it was advised to the media.

“It was there.”

Regarding bylaw concerns Carmichael said they were investigated thoroughly and responses were given back.

About the concerns of safety in the downtown she pointed out the Moose Jaw Police Service launching new programs - the trespass pilot program.

“In terms of safety and entering of their businesses in town…we have several programs that have been released over the last few months.”

The trespass pilot program is being operated in the downtown core where businesses agree to allow the Moose Jaw Police Service act on their behalf to trespass and move people off of private property who should not be there.

Signing up for the program dispenses with the police having to be called out by the property owner to deal with trespassing incidents.

“I welcome any specifics on complaints you may have and I will investigate,” Carmichael said.