City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for February 22’s Meeting?

It’s a night of reports at Guelph City Council on Monday, as the horseshoe will take a look inside. Reports from the Audit Committee, and the Integrity Commissioner are all on the docket, as well as decisions needing to be made about hospital expansion and parking spaces downtown. Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for February 22’s Meeting?”

Behind the Scenes, Tempers and Patience Wearing Thin at City Council

If it wasn’t clear during last December’s budget meeting that there’s a growing schism around the horseshoe at Guelph’s city hall, the signs may becoming even more clear after the city council meeting on January 25. What seemed on the surface to be a snafu about quorum could be a warning that council is even more deeply divided than they appear with all those 7-6 votes. Continue reading “Behind the Scenes, Tempers and Patience Wearing Thin at City Council”

LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for February 8, 2016

After the short but confusing council meeting two weeks ago, this week’s city council meeting should be a little more straightforward as the mayor and council tackle a variety of zoning issues. You can click here for the amended agenda from City Hall, and you can click here to read Politico’s preview of tonight’s meeting. For the complete blow-by-blow of tonight’s council meeting, you can follow me on Twitter, or follow along below via Storify. Continue reading “LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for February 8, 2016”

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for February 8’s Meeting?

If you like applications to re-zone areas of the city to allow for new development, then this city council meeting is for you. Here’s what’s on the docket for the city council meeting on Monday February 8. Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for February 8’s Meeting?”

LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for Monday January 25, 2016

Guelph City Council will get back around the horseshoe tonight to handle the business of the City of Guelph. There are two major pieces to tackle in the public meeting, which begins at 7 pm, the major one being an application for provincial money to fix a stretch of York Rd. For the complete blow-by-blow of tonight’s council meeting, you can follow me on Twitter, or follow along below via Storify. Continue reading “LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for Monday January 25, 2016”

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for Next Monday’s Meeting?

The full city council will meet for the first time publicly in 2016 next Monday. It looks like there will be nothing nearly as contentious as the annual city budget, but there are still two major pieces of business on the docket including a pending application for provincial funds to improve a section of Guelph road. Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for Next Monday’s Meeting?”

New Year’s Directions for 2016

I don’t believe in New Year’s Resolutions. If you want to make a change in your life don’t wait for an arbitrary date on the calendar to start making those changes just because it’s the first day of a New Year. Having said that though, it seems appropriate to take this time to set goals for the coming year, and this year for Politico I have some big goals. To my mind, nothing makes you working harder to achieve goals than making it known publicly that you have a plan, and in the interest of full disclosure, here are five things you can look forward to changing this year on Guelph Politico. Continue reading “New Year’s Directions for 2016”

BUDGET 2016: City Puts a Happy Face on Contentious Budget Night

It took two days, a total of 11 hours, and nearly a million dollars added and taken back, but Guelph finally got a budget for 2016. As per tradition, the city’s press office sent out a press release following the meeting announcing success. Continue reading “BUDGET 2016: City Puts a Happy Face on Contentious Budget Night”

LIVE BLOG: City Hall Tries Again with 2016 Operating Budget.

Tonight, city council will try again with the 2016 Operating Budget. The capital budget was approved unanimously last night, but things started to get sticky when after hours of negotiation and debate, the final tally came in at $217,336,736 or 3.42% above 2015. Most of council balked at that number and the budget failed to pass by a motion of 5 to 8. So now what? Council will begin tonight, revising yesterday’s close votes in order to sort out again what they need, and what the city can afford. What will the final impact be? Continue reading “LIVE BLOG: City Hall Tries Again with 2016 Operating Budget.”

LIVE BLOG – City Council Decides on 2016 Budget

A number of tough choices lie ahead for Guelph’s city council tonight. Many on council want to keep any potential tax increase inline with the rate of inflation, others are concerned about making too many significant cuts in city services. Meanwhile, there are a lot of people in the city worried about losing transit services, or paying more for them (not to mention paying more for just about anything else). So many tough decisions, what will the 13 members of city council do? Continue reading “LIVE BLOG – City Council Decides on 2016 Budget”