Story created by

Tim FitzGerald

 

Right off the bat, incumbent Mayor Kristal Chopp communicated a firm grasp of the facts that govern Norfolk County's finances and thus the taxes that you pay. Kristal explained that the Mayor has only one vote on Council. The Mayor (and Council) hire the CAO (Chief Administrative Officer). Its the CAO who makes operational decisions and runs the County through the senior management team.

 

Each year,  municipalities tax and contribute to "Reserve Funds" to "fund" ongoing and significant future upgrades and renewal expenditures. However, the Mayor showed us a graph of the County's Reserves (its in her campaign brochure). Since 2010, until Major Kristal Chopp arrived, the County's Reserves declined and went negative. How did it get this way?? Well, sometimes the use of "creative funding", whereby otherwise current expenditures get charged to reserves would keeps the year's tax levy low. Exclusion of major water supply upgrades would also keep the need for reserve funds low. Did the senior management know? Did the previous councils know or hint that it should be done this way? Its now in the past! The buck stops here! The binding solution passed by Mayor Chopp with the current council is a "15% Reserve Fund limit" - if the CAO/Council want to exceed 15% it must be debated and passed in open/public council meetings. 

 

 

 

Story created by

Tim FitzGerald

 

Ian Rabbits has been a Norfolk County Councillor going on four years now.

He has seen both the ups and downs of County politics.

 

Ian studied political science at Brock University and continued education in PR and HR at Niagara and Conestoga respectively https://ca.linkedin.com/in/ian-rabbitts-b-a-chrl-ab11b546 . Ian expressed that he is local and has experienced the same challenges "that you have" - making a living, cost of living and taxes. 

 

Ian advises that he will use his experience and skills in HR to build consensus across council and deliver on the kitchen table issues that concern voters in Norfolk County.

 

A few issues - water supply constraints are constraining development leaving us with fewer rate payors to spread the load. The legacy costs of maintaining ancient buildings for youth and senior citizen centres have precluded investment in modern facilities.

A few questions from Rotarians - downtown Simcoe appears to suffer from decline?  One causation is the lack of affordable housing, there is a a less than 1% vacancy in the area. Ian has seen other jurisdictions with an independent housing corporations achieve a higher per capital success - this needs to be explored.

 

Ian is a fiscal conservative and has never been shy of "honest - hands on work".