IF BILL WERE MAYOR

The Mayor has no vote unless there is a tie. Councilors' votes make decisions. Give Bill the mandate on these ideas and Councilors will be hopefully compelled to support these ideas ... and elect Councilors that will represent you ... not the business interests they manage.

"As Mayor, I will put citizens first."

"At the first Council meeting I will ask Councilors to destroy photocopies of voters' drivers licenses. Copying citizen drivers licenses is not necessary."

"Residents Concerns" is a standing item on the Resort Municipality monthly agenda. The problem is that its the LAST item on the agenda. Any citizen that would like to address Council has a sit through a 2 or 3 hour Council meeting before they are given a chance to speak. If Bill were Mayor, he will put citizens FIRST ... even on Council meeting agendas. Fifteen minutes will be set aside for residents, landowners, and business owners to address Council at the beginning of monthly Council meetings.
As Mayor, Bill will have Council meetings live streamed on YouTube and archived there so there is a public record. As a citizen, you should not have to get a log-in and give your name to see your politicians at work.
ensure everyone gets treated fairly and not just those who know how the system works.
end "in-camera" meetings where the discussions are held in secret ... unless it absolutely required.
post more information on the Municipalities website and receive your feedback on things like budgets and bylaws BEFORE they are passed .... not after the decisions are made.
support spending infrastructure money in other parts of the municipality besides the solely main strip in Cavendish.
reduce the size of government by having Council directly manage the sewer utility and Planning Board just like some other smaller municipalities manager their business. It is sometimes a challenge to get volunteers for these positions. There are about 15 board and council members for our tiny municipality! Only 7 persons are elected. The rest are appointed. Elected officials need to have more direct accountability for making decisions.
initiate a project to look at taxpayer funded street lighting in the municipality. Did you know there are hundreds of taxpayer funded street lights in Cavendish and they operate all seasons? All of these lights are on all-night in the dead of winter when the nights are long and very few residents are there?
cut the legal services budget. The consulting and legal budget is over $40,000. That's over $100 per voter. It doesn't make sense to use taxpayers money to buy legal advice to fight our own taxpayers. Common sense, transparency and consistency in decision making are the tools we should use in making decisions.
post Councilors and the Mayor expenses on the Resort website.
oppose the adoption of the new pending Official Plan for the Resort Municipality. This sounds like a boring innocuous government report. It isn't. It is an important guiding document. The problem is that it contains many recommendations for more red tape, administrative costs, and more rules. There are some good things in the new Official Plan too. We need to amend this before we adopt it.
reduce red tape. The Resort has too many requirements for permits when they serve no purpose. Bill will advocate for removing duplication of effort. When another level of government has a mandate to manage an issue, the Resort Municipality will stay out it.
End systematic bonding for projects. This a backdoor way of "controlling" developers when the administration wants to extend their powers beyond the powers citizen gave them through democratically passed laws. There are two exceptions 1) where the applicant has failed to follow bylaws in the past and 2) where the Resort has to invest tax payers money to advance a project (such as sewer line extension). Bonding is a non-democratic means of strong-arming those people who are investing in our community. It is a discretionary decision and the process lacks transparency. . When did it become the mandate of government to "control" its people? Isn't it suppose to be the other way around?
end the requirement for businesses to have a development agreement that becomes attached to their deed unless there is a public interest or investment in a project.
Again, if you think things are just fine as they are ... vote for the status quo. If you think there is a better way, vote for Bill.