Field issue still open

By KATHY BOCKUS
kathy@stcroixcourier.ca

ST. STEPHEN – Don’t write off having new town-owned soccer fields just yet.
A motion to re-introduce the building of two new soccer fields to the tune of $400,000 will be back on council’s agenda early in the New Year, according to a press release issued Monday, Oct. 27, by Councillor Robert Tinker on behalf of Mayor Jed Purcell and Councillor Ralph Williams.
The press release also noted that the mayor has refused to accept Williams’ resignation as chair of the Community Services Committee and, after some discussion, Williams has agreed to continue to chair the committee. It was also stated a more complete study package on the project would be provided to councillors for their perusal.
The firestorm over developing town-owned land on Boundary Street into two new soccer fields, a project initiated by the former town council, erupted at the council’s regular monthly meeting Oct. 20 when the three newly-elected councillors - John Quartermain, Ken Parker and Gavin Toumishey - voted against what the two veteran councillors – Williams and Robert Tinker and the deputy mayor, Jim Maxwell - expected to be a simple reaffirmation vote supporting the spending of $400,000 to develop two new sports fields. To break the tie, the mayor cast a nay vote.
Outraged, Williams resigned his post as chair of the town’s recreation committee, saying he felt that by voting against the motion the mayor had expressed a lack of confidence in his judgement.
Later, in an interview, Williams stated his reason for resigning.
“If I’m on a committee and I’ve spent two years working on a project and in a tie vote he votes against me, then he’s essentially saying, ‘Well, Ralph, I just don’t think you know what you’re talking about’.
“So I felt fine, if that’s the case you really don’t want me chairing your committee,” said Williams.
However, Purcell said he had to vote nay because of the way the motion was worded.
“The way it was brought to council, a decision had to be made. I wasn’t going to be wishy-washy,” said the mayor. “The homework wasn’t done on it. It really shouldn’t have gotten on the agenda.
“When I voted, I had to break a tie. I said, ‘Okay, that doesn’t mean you can’t come back for it.’ No, it is not off the table altogether and that’s what I said to Ralph, and he got pretty emotional about it, which I understand.
“I just said come back with your proposal,” Purcell said. “There’s nothing that councillors can’t bring back to the table.”
He said he had spoken to Williams at lunchtime the day of the council meeting and asked Williams if he had spoken to other council members about the motion.
Purcell said that’s what he feels should happen with motions like this.
“If somebody’s not going to support them, they should fess up.”
Both Williams and the mayor agree this project should have been discussed at the committee level before it was brought back to the council table and that’s what Williams is hoping will happen.
He is blaming the way the vote went on the new councillors’ lack of knowledge about the soccer field project.
In December of 2007, the former council voted to authorize the town’s recreation director, Mike O’Connell, to continue with his preparation of conceptual design plans for the construction of two new soccer fields on land it had purchased for $115,000.
The town had allocated $300,000 for the construction of those fields in its proposed capital expenditures budget for 2008.
Later that same month, council voted to approve the capital expenditures budget now containing $400,000 earmarked for the construction of two new soccer fields. The loan for the money for the project was approved by the province’s Municipal Capital Borrowing Board, which Williams said wouldn’t have happened if the board didn’t think the town could handle the expense.
The $100,000 increase in the project was explained by then-mayor Allan Gillmor who said the town was upping the ante to allow for contingency costs, a parking lot, landscaping and a field house. The field house was suggested by several presenters during a Citizens Recreation Forum held to hear how citizens wanted to see their tax dollars spent and what facilities they wanted the town to provide. While a civic centre was the number one project residents wanted to see happen, new soccer fields were a close second.
In December of 2007 Gillmor speculated the new, town-owned soccer fields would be ready for use by the summer of 2009.
Williams said he thinks there is a perception, by new council members in particular, that there is an overwhelming mandate to cut expenses.
“Everything’s too much and they’ve got to get it down. And fiscal responsibility is always right. There’s no way you can argue against that,” said Williams.
He said he agrees that any budget the size of St. Stephen’s is going to have some expenditures in it that could be cut back or cut out and that councillors need to look at some of the things they have routinely approved.
“But I think at the same time it’s key to any elected official to remember that you’re elected to represent people and they want services as well as fiscal responsibility,” Williams said.
“I think they were just simply not willing, interested or informed on the public desire for this and I’d like to think if they were aware of that report, or had sat in on those (recreation forum) sessions, they would probably have voted differently,” said Williams.
He said part of the problem can be blamed on the flood of information new councillors receive when they are elected to council and not having a chance to do their homework on every issue.
Williams said he can understand councillors’ concerns about funding for major road projects, and the proposed civic centre, but said the new soccer fields were the only major capital recreational expenditure the town had on its horizon for a while.
“Recreation in the Town of St. Stephen right now is just more or less sitting still or treading water as fast as it can,” said Williams.
“As far as any move forward, improvement, upgrade or addition, we don’t have any more capital items in the hopper for this. This is the only capital item we have for a couple of years for recreation,” Williams said.
“If we don’t do something to upgrade our recreation, we’re sending a message and not the correct one.”
Williams said council has talked about sending a message about being open for business. “One of the things that tells people you’re open for business is that you invest in recreation, invest in culture, invest in those things that attract people to your community.
“One of the things people look at when they’re considering moving here is the quality of recreation and culture. I’m afraid council just doesn’t seem to put that all together,” said Williams.
Williams said he discussed putting the soccer field reaffirmation on the council agenda with the town’s CAO Hendrik Slegtenhorst.
He said when he spoke with the CAO he said he told him he didn’t think the new council members were up to speed on the issue.
“I said we needed to get them up to speed on this,” said Williams.
“I think he felt it had been done in committee and they were ready to pass a motion just reaffirming the soccer fields. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case,” said Williams.
He said he felt it was unfortunate that Quartermain, chair of the town’s finance committee, was the first to speak out against the $400,000 expenditure for the soccer fields.
“John was the first speaker and he spoke in favour of having it cut because of fiscal responsibility, that is one of John’s main concerns. With that, I was playing defence before I even realized I was in the game,” said Williams.
Mayor Purcell said he feels there should have been a recommendation made by the recreation committee to a council meeting before the soccer field item made it to a council agenda.
He said what he would like to see clarified is the cost share agreement between the town and the school board over the existing playing fields, owned by the province, but maintained by the town, to the tune of about $20,000 per year.
This agreement, however, doesn’t give the town any say in how or when the fields are used, said the mayor.
He promised he would review the requests made by residents during the Citizens Recreation Forum.
Meanwhile, Williams said he’s not about to quit council or the committee system, although he did state he preferred the old committee system where all the councillors sat in on all the committee meetings instead of each being appointed to just two town committees.
“Everybody was at the table when issues were discussed,” he said.
Under the new system, when something comes to a vote, two things can happen, said Williams. The first is that people make up their minds on a situation with limited information or they can, if they don’t understand what’s going on, “trust the people on that committee and trust that they are making wise decisions.”
What Williams said he would like to see happen is for the mayor to put the soccer fields issue back on the table at a committee of the whole meeting which brings all of council together and have background information and reports available.
“This has been a researched item; it’s not coming out of the blue. Once they have the documents, then they can decide if they want to do it or not,” said Williams.