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About Rideau Lakes Grassroots GROUP
Who we are
A growing group of 170+ concerned citizens from throughout the township of Rideau Lakes that are disturbed with the decisions of the current council who often disregard the well-founded advice of Rideau Lakes staff and other experts – especially on material financial matters and capital project matters.
Between August 2023, when this site was launched, and early October 2024 over 2,500 new visitors have come to the site. 93% of the vistors are local to Rideau Lakes.
Our spokespersons are:
Wendy Alford, Dan Berty, Howard French
Contact us at rlgrassroots@gmail.com
What we do - our mission
To provide a voice for all residents and businesses in all wards of Rideau Lakes Township, including those in villages, on lakefronts and on rural properties, to ensure the township’s council represents their interests in all financial and communication undertakings, in a professional manner.
OUR APPROACH
Raise public awareness, promote public discussion and public action on matters of interest or concern to township citizens.
Contribute input on the township budget process and monitor spending to balance long term solvency, planning and reserves with annual spending priorities.
Provide submissions to and monitor council meetings to influence council decisions.
Forward suggestions and positions on matters of broad interest to the township. Highlight matters where any single Ward of the township is disproportionally favoured through financial policy or other council decisions.
Hold councillors accountable for their public statements, decisions and positions on township matters.
Review bylaws and report to Integrity Commissioner or Ontario Ombudsman where there is non-compliance with Township by-laws and/or the Municipal Act.
Draw attention to Council decisions and their ramifications through correspondence to Council or residents, letters to the editor of local or regional press, social media, etc.
Solicit ideas and feedback from residents.
On-going concerns regarding the direction and behavior of Council
A "party of 5" councillors who form a majority by voting as a block on Township matters are ignoring professional advice, experienced township staff and public voices. Indeed, since summer 2023, 5 senior staff, including the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), have "coincidentally" vacated their positions. We are confident that their relationship with the current council was a key determinant in their decision to leave.
Disturbing actions and behaviours
- The party of 5 worked together to have the Planning Advisory and Committee of Adjustment expanded so that 4 of the party of 5 group sit on that committee against the advice of the CAO.
- They arbitrarily change township by-laws that inhibit their agenda. For example, they changed the by-law for reconsideration of a previously decided matter so that earlier decisions of council can be revisited with a simple majority vote (theirs) rather than the provincially accepted standard of 2/3rds majority. Further, no new information or justification is required to reconsider a previous decision. More recently, they dismissed a bylaw on the fly to allow for “witnesses” to speak about a councillor without due notice.
- They consistently demonstrate a serious lack of understanding of financial planning, concepts and management while at the same time showing utter disregard for the advice of the Treasurer on proper financial stewardship.
- They frequently ignore or disregard the sound advice of other senior township staff on capital investment and material matters - often stating or insinuating that they know better. For example, they have dismissed 4 expert consultant reports (for which the taxpayer has paid over $300K and counting) as well as expert staff reports clearly stating that a retrofit of the building that houses the current township offices would be a bad decision both financially and materially.
- They disregarding expert advice from the CAO on governance and procedure. For example, they voted to bury an Integrity Commissioner Report despite advice that it was not legal. The Municipal Ombudsman and Provincial Ministry for Municipal Affairs both sent letters essentially forcing them to publish the report.
- They continually assert that the Mayor is not the legitimate leader of the township. This is done through social media posts and during meetings where they take regular license to publicly chastise the Mayor for his leadership generally and call unfair his appropriate use of application of rules of order to keep meetings civilized, moving forward and reach conclusions to matters. While he is entitled to disagree with council, when he does, they now regularly suggest there should be a motion to vote on the council's confidence in him. They also publicly assert that he should (somehow) silence this Rideau Lakes Grassroots Group (RLGG). Further, they regularly and incorrectly assert that the mayor and other members of council who oppose them are members of RLGG. They are not.
- They consistently attempt to silence public commentary and ignore their own Code of Conduct. Correspondence from the public is no longer placed on council meeting agendas unless specifically requested by a councillor; they attempted to keep a delegation of RLGG from speaking at a council meeting contravening the Municipal Act; they attempted to suppress an Integrity Commissioner’s (IC) report contravening the Municipal Act; they consistently ignore IC recommendations to protect each other and have fired two IC’s in less than 1 year; incredibly one Councillor openly stated that the public should not be allowed to criticize elected councillors!
These are facts. We invite you to watch the township meeting videos if you are in doubt.