THOMAS, Richard

The size of the population has nothing to do with the cost of running a city. Between the 2011 census and the one taken in 2021, the population of Owen Sound dropped by 76 people. Stagnant yes, but not exactly a rapid decline. While you are singling out the cost of the municipal management structure, you are failing to acknowledge that the cost of everything is going up. In point of fact, the municipal management structure has declined over the past decade, as some departmental responsibilities have been handed to existing managers, and positions are declared surplus. It's important to recognize as well, that the city council has only one employee: the City Manager. Council is a governance body, not a board of management.

The current city manager led council through a service review, which was anticipated to achieve about $850,000 in direct savings. I believe to be fiscally responsible service reviews should be ongoing, however, I do not believe they should be consultant led. During my 2014-2018 term on council, city staff conducted a service review and identified $850,000 in direct savings; the same amount the consultant identified in the most recent effort, at a cost of more than $100,000.

If city staff is engaged, and I'd like to see employee engagement survey results, they can achieve amazing things. I believe the city should bring back its OSCARS (Owen Sound Can Achieve Real Savings) program, to allow front-line staff to make cost savings suggestions that see follow through.

To comment any further on my views regarding the city manager would be inappropriate as he is the staff member that council and I will work most closely with following the election.

I do not support fixed-term renewable contracts for staff. It's a competitive world when it comes to municipal employees. Fewer people are seeking municipal employment, and jobs are left unfilled across the province. Fixed-term renewable contracts would put Owen Sound at a significant disadvantage. I do support performance-based accountability for senior management and annual performance reviews for all staff including the city manager.

Tax increases are not determined by population or consumer inflation. Tax increases are tied directly to the fixed costs of running the city, including infrastructure, vehicles, programming, insurance, and services provided to residents.

I would love to say that I would support a policy limiting property tax increases as I am a city taxpayer too, but municipal inflation is not the same as consumer inflation. Municipalities buy construction materials, heavy equipment, insurance, utilities, engineering, policing, emergency services and unionized labour. These costs can rise faster than CPI. Municipalities also face mandatory regulatory and infrastructure obligations that cannot always be deferred. The strong Mayor's Act has taken the budget process out of staff hands, and made it the responsibility of the mayor. I plan to return the process to a transparent council-based process, with public input. The results will then be tabled as the mayor's budget.

I do not support an inflation-based budget cap.

I do not agree with this statement. The City of Owen Sound's directly managed workforce in 2026 is approximately 150 FTE's (full time equivalents), excluding the police and library. If you include the library (staff complement the same as 1972) and police, the number comes up to approximately 264, which was the same number reported by the city in 2012.

I would consider requiring departments to identify 5-10% in potential savings, as long as the consequences of those cuts were a part of the reporting process, so that council would have a clear picture of the service reductions that would follow.

I do not support using the 2011 budget as a benchmark. Since 2011, labour agreements, service standards, provincial requirements, infrastructure age, cybersecurity obligations, insurance, capital requirements and the mix of municipal services have changed. Those changes need to be separated out to assess administrative growth.

As far as alternate approaches, I stated earlier the strong Mayor's Act has taken the budget process out of staff hands, and made it the responsibility of the mayor. I plan to return the process to a transparent council-based process, with public input.

I agree there is a disconnect between city hall and the taxpayers. Communication is the #2 issue in my campaign. All of the workings of council are available to the public. Meetings are webcast and shown on Roger's cable and on the city's website; agendas are published, complete with links to relevant reports; and minutes of all public meetings are published, and available going back years.

That said, I think about the old saying 'you can bring a horse to water, but you can't make it drink'. Communication with the public is a lot like that. I'd like to see a Council Digest published online following every council meeting to provide an outline of the business of council. It will include links to relevant reports making it easier for the public to find more information. I also plan to add an 'Ask the Mayor' button to the city website to make it easier for residents to ask questions about the city.

Major spending decisions, staffing increases, consultant contracts and significant policy decisions are made publicly already.

I don't believe that residents are an obstacle to municipal government. I remind you that all of the people running for positions (and who will be elected to council) are residents of the City of Owen Sound. We are all taxpayers, elected to represent other taxpayers. What can be challenging is the fact that we seem to live in the age of incivility. People don't ask their councillors questions, they jump to conclusions, then post on social media. Elected officials are your friends and neighbours, all working to try and make Owen Sound a better place for all of us. I think if we can get back to the golden rule, 'do unto others', and treat one another with respect instead of suspicion, two-way discourse will be easier for everyone.

The Downtown River District is facing a serious and persistent crisis involving homelessness, addiction, public drug use, disorder and crime. Businesses and residents are suffering, and people are increasingly reluctant to come downtown. I believe addressing these problems must be one of the mayor's highest priorities, and I will take responsibility for bringing the people and organizations involved together to find solutions.

Owen Sound has responded to homelessness and addiction with compassion and significant community effort. I applaud the organizations and individuals doing this difficult work, and we must continue to support effective programs. But compassion cannot come at the expense of the safety, livelihoods and quality of life of residents and businesses in the Downtown River District.

As mayor, I will bring together the agencies and organizations addressing homelessness, addiction and social services to ensure they take greater accountability for the broader impact of their programs. Providing a service cannot be the end of that responsibility. Where a program contributes to significant litter, disorder or other identifiable costs in the surrounding neighbourhood, I believe the organization should participate in solving the problem rather than leaving taxpayers and nearby businesses to bear the entire burden.

I will also propose a municipal licensing and regulatory framework for emergency shelters and organizations operating facilities that provide services to people experiencing homelessness and addiction. Operators would be required to meet clear standards for health, safety, staffing, security and neighbourhood management and to renew their licence annually. Standards could include appropriate staff-to-client ratios, security requirements, property maintenance and procedures for responding to problems occurring around their facilities.

People also need to feel safe coming downtown. I support stronger enforcement when criminal activity occurs, including open illegal drug use, harassment, intimidation, theft and property damage. I also support consistent enforcement of legitimate municipal bylaws dealing with littering, nuisance behaviour, panhandling and other conduct that negatively affects public spaces.

Where a particular property is repeatedly associated with serious nuisance conditions or unlawful activity, the City should examine every lawful remedy available to it under provincial legislation and municipal bylaws and take action where the legal threshold for doing so has been met.

My objective is not to abandon compassion. It is to restore balance.

People struggling with homelessness and addiction deserve help. Businesses deserve to operate without persistent disorder outside their doors. Residents deserve the peaceful enjoyment of their neighbourhoods. And everyone should be able to walk through downtown Owen Sound without feeling intimidated or unsafe.

Respect and compassion must work both ways. As Mayor, I will use the lawful tools available to the city, work with service providers, police, Grey County and community organizations, and insist on measurable results in restoring safety and confidence in the River District.

Yes, I support using development charge holidays as an attractor. When I was on council 2014-2018, I suggested the first ever development charge holiday on residential development as a way to stimulate growth. I was supported unanimously, and development increased dramatically. The City issued 267 residential-unit permits during the seven years from 2010 through 2016, but another 266 in less than three years from 2017 to October 2019-roughly two-and-a-half times the rate experienced previously.

In 2020, council voted to modify the development charge holiday to apply it to purpose built rental housing; by the end of 2022, there had been a significant amount of new rental construction and hundreds of other units were in the development pipeline.

I support any tool at our disposal to make Owen Sound more attractive to developers, investors, industries, businesses and potential residents. One of the things I'd like to do if elected mayor: eliminate development charges on affordable housing (definition to be set by council). We can also use the community improvement plan, fee waivers and reductions on planning applications and building fees, and zoning and density approvals to see affordable housing built. We can also provide supports to organisations in our community that are already building these types of units.

I am open to any creative suggestion to promote economic growth.

For specific steps to make Owen Sound a more attractive place to invest, build businesses and raise a family see my answer to question 5. To attract business or people you have to have curb appeal. Right now, that is a serious challenge.

The city already uses internal cost allocation.

I do not support using this when negotiating the library agreement. The Owen Sound and North Grey Union Public Library agreement is built on the simple principle that each member of the union pays the same amount towards the cost of library service, based on the number of users. I am not presently aware of other cost-sharing agreements.

All departments should be required to provide council (not just the mayor) with an explanation for increased rates. In my experience this already happens.

I would support requiring the Water Department to participate in the same costreduction and efficiency reviews expected of other municipal departments with the qualification that nothing can be allowed to compromise our water system.

City council is fully accountable for increases in water and wastewater charges, as it is the approving body for those increases. It's important to recognize that under the Safe Drinking Water Act, municipal water systems must sustain themselves without support from the general tax levy. In other words, water pays for water.

Before I answer the question:

I have no information that this is a significant cost to taxpayers, nor do I know details of the case. There may be information that we are not party to which made this a case that the city felt comfortable prosecuting. That said, I believe that common sense must be applied to everything the city does.

As far as council oversight and accountability, Council has one employee, the City Manager. Council has oversight and accountability for his role. He has oversight and accountability for all other staff positions within the city.

Contracted legal services require strong financial oversight. The city, through its city manager, should have clear terms of engagement, defined reporting expectations, transparent billing, expenditure authorities and thresholds at which additional approval or reporting is required. Some or all of this may be in place now, but again, the council is about governance, not management.

I spent years as a news reporter covering court proceedings. I think that a prosecution is warranted if there is credible evidence, a reasonable prospect of success, a proportionate enforcement response, and a demonstrable public interest in proceeding. Good judgement and common sense are both important here.

I think common sense and good judgement should be our safeguards. It's important to understand that just because you can prosecute doesn't necessarily mean you should. At the end of the day, I see by-law enforcement as a function more aligned with the police department than the clerk's department. The police are well acquainted with the weight of evidence, when proceeding to prosecution. I would support moving by-law enforcement to the police service as a way to ensure municipal prosecutions are evidence based, cost effective and in the public interest.