Thursday, November 5, 2009

Crowsnest Pass Corporate Review

Interesting comments from the Crowsnest Pass Corporate Review


Council’s focus on day-to-day management and lack of attention to long range planning and bigger picture issues.

Aging infrastructure, lack of maintenance and planning

Planning for future growth and development

Dysfunction in Council. This issue, often defined in terms of personalities and personnel conflict, has continued on even though a number of members of council have changed. In fact, it has been recorded as a legacy over the life of the Crowsnest Pass, from its creation some twenty years ago.

There is currently a perception of block voting by the Mayor and other councilors, with many items receiving the same split vote.

The absence of longer range planning by Council is reflected in the administration. Management is distracted from its planning and evaluation functions by the effort required just keeping the ship afloat.

Concern over the increasing reliance on the residential tax base.

Concern with the lack of vision for the future

Another area of concern for the Crowsnest Learning Centre is the lack of financial reporting and abilities of the Society staff to do the necessary accounting work. The last annual financial statements are for 1997 and the current financial records are not considered adequate for the auditors to review. There is no budget process evident, including no Business Plan or no current operating budget for the Centre.

For the reader if you have not noticed yet all of these comments were taken from the Corporate Review of 2000, available on the Municipal Web site.

The more I read the present report and compare it to the previous report the more I realize that they are the same. The only thing that as changed is the cast, with one exception our leader, the Mayor.

Now it comes clear to me why the Mayor was so opposed to the Corporate Review!

2 comments:

Cory said...

I'm new to the Crowsnest Pass and I didn't realize that the old reviews were available online. After having read the current review as well as the 1997 and 2000 reviews, I'm shocked to see how many the same issues are being identified in this year's review.

What can be done to have these reviews taken seriously? I know that certain changes take some time to implement, but it's inexcusable that items identified in the 1997 review are still issues in the the 2009 review.

A common denominator is that the mayor and so maybe the change needs to occur there.

Anonymous said...

BINGO!! You got that right, Cory!