Councillor Matt Alexander began his first term on Council in the house cleaning election of 2012. Voters were unhappy with the previous Council and voted in some fresh faces, including Alexander. There was a lot of talk then of needed change, not unlike what we are hearing again in 2016.
Matt’s impressive academic qualifications and his experience in the consulting engineering world had many expecting a more grounded approach to decision making at Council.
Matt served on the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee and the Water and Sewer Committee – Not as sexy as Recreation or as powerful as the Planning advisory or Finance committees, but critical to ensuring Rothesay’s basic Municipal infrastructure is in place and up to snuff.
Alexander’s record has been mixed. Spending on recreation projects appears to have usurped spending on streets and sidewalks. The projects that were undertaken, e.g. Maiden Lane, Green Road, and the Hampton Road “Boulevards” received little praise from residents unhappy with flooding or restricted parking.
In the case of Hampton road, public outrage has spilled into the current election campaign over wasteful spending on what some see as pretentious streetscaping that doesn’t work and has already begun to show wear and tear after only one very mild winter.
Peeling paint , curbs gouged by snowplows, flower beds in need of maintenance, and damaged signage are reminders to motorists that this “streetscaping” will add significantly to the cost of town operations.
The town’s new traffic bylaw, worked on by Alexander and his committee, was judged to be so problematic that two years ago it was tabled, put on the back burner, or otherwise treated as a hot potato by a Council that saw much public resistance to many of the changes it contained. The new Traffic Bylaw would turn much of Rothesay into a no parking zone, creating problems for Rothesay’s older neighbourhoods that would be more common to Mississauga than to Rothesay.
Unfortunately, with the tabling of the new bylaw, bike lanes which aren’t covered at all in the current Traffic Bylaw, have no legal standing. That’s probably the reason no one who parks in them is likely to get a ticket.
Mr. Alexander’s other responsibility, the water and sewer file is also moving forward slowly with a required water and sewer upgrade only at the study stage. The upgrade is mandated by new environmental regulation. However, the updated Water and Sewer Bylaw that should have been adopted a year ago lies tabled because of resistance by apartment building owners and numerous residents. The negative reaction has seen Council simply stop all visible action on the bylaw for the better part of the last year.
So with his unfinished and highly contentious bylaws and the unhappiness of residents over unwelcome town-initiated changes to their neighbourhoods, many might not give Matt Alexander a passing grade for the job that he did with those two committees.
His other responsibility was serving as a member of, and now Chair of, the Police Commission. Before I continue, I should say that I have a personal bias. That is, I do not believe that politicians should sit on police boards. Politics and police forces do not mix despite the obvious professionalism of the Rothesay police. Would Rob Ford have made a good Chair of the Toronto police Commission?
That being said, costs of protective services, including police, have been increasing about two times faster than inflation for some time. Councillor Alexander, as a member of the Police Board, has to shoulder some of the responsibility for this runaway spending.
As far as his achievements, Chief among them would have to be curbside recycling. He deserves credit for getting it done.
Toward the end of his term, after numerous battles with residents over streets and sidewalks, Councillor Alexander appeared to engage more effectively with Almon Lane residents over their concerns about the rebuilding of Peters and Almon Lanes. It remains to be seen if he was listening this time. Certainly a look at his facebook page recounting “interesting happenings”, might leave the reader wondering if he’s listening to what he hears at the door during this campaign or even taking the voters, seriously.
On the fiscal side, Alexander voted for four Town budgets that have been largely responsible for more than a 250% increase in Rothesay’s debt. His support of the new Arena project that would add significantly to that debt, may signal to wary voters that his re-election would be a continuation of a worrisome trend.
Matt, Alexander, Nancy Grant, Miriam Wells, Bill Maguire, and Peter Lewis all supported tax increases in the last two budget years. That is their status quo. They also approved spending on Rothesay Common that comes with a tax increase baked in for next year (Councillors MacDonald and Jette voted against the Common Project). Almost no one is talking about that except some of the new candidates following the Town Treasurer who said in January that the Common project would equate to a 2.5 to 3 cent tax rate increase (for each $100 in assessed property value).
The choice for voters is becoming clear –
If they are satisfied with the spending record of the current council and those councillors stated intention to continue to spend more on big ticket, discretionary projects like the new Rothesay arena, then they will probably be happy with status quo candidates like Alexander returning to Council.
Taxpayers who are getting just a little nervous about the race to the fiscal cliff may want to see an end to the tax and spenders. Those voters might take a look the six new faces offering for a seat on Council.
We’ll begin our look at them after we finish with the Councillors who want to return to their old seats on Council.