City Council Preview - What's on the Agenda for the September 26 Meeting?

The normal politics of your end-of-the-month council meeting will be preceded this coming Monday by the Rally to Protect Water in front of City Hall, but there's still a lot of non-water matters for council's consideration and debate next week. 

Closed Meeting - Appointment of Board Member; GMHI-C-2016.2 Release of Information on Transaction Committee; C-2016.55 Closed Meeting Requirements- Solicitor/Client Privilege.

United Way Campaign Presentation - Suzanne Holder, Project Co-ordinator in the Office of the CAO will go over the City's 2016 campaign for the United Way called "Pull Up Your Socks."

CON-2016.55 Heritage Review Application regarding demolition of the brick stable/garage building at 457 Woolwich Street and proposed removal from the Municipal Register of Cultural Heritage Properties - The owner of 457 Woolwich has asked to remove the brick stable/garage building on the property. That building is classified as a "non-designated property" meaning it's "identified as having a degree of significance meriting consideration in planning decisions but which are not formally designated heritage assets." Although the house itself was built in the 1860s, the brick stable wasn't built until the first decade of the 20th century, so even though there is some heritage value to the ancillary structure, staff are approving the de-registration on the basis that it wasn't part of the original property.

CON-2016.56 Medium-Term Corporate Administrative Plan - The Executive Team will reveal their corporate administrative plan for the next 18 to 24 months, and provide high level information about the planned programs of work and their intended impact. The report has three goals, to achieving quality and show results in Service Excellence, to manage City resources to achieve maximum public value through Financial Stability, and modernize how we do things through Innovation. Among the new initiatives will include creating a more integrated citizen service experience through Digital Services and myGuelph Projects, a Talent Management Blueprint, an Asset Management Program, and IT Core Business Systems and Records and Information Management. Any new funding for these projects will be considered during the 2017 and 2018 budget processes.

CON-2016.57 S&P's Global Ratings Credit Rating Review - Last month, Standards and Poor's affirmed its AA+ credit rating for the City of Guelph owing to the fact that Guelph has exceptional liquidity, has a very strong budgetary performance, has a very low debt burden, and has strong financial management. It's expected that the City will enjoy similar expectations for the next two years, which is handy as it allows the City to secure "lower interest rates when issuing debt to finance large capital expenditures," which saves money for the City in the end.

Committee of the Whole Consent Agenda

• COW-IDE-2016.1 Outstanding Motions of the Infrastructure Development and Enterprise Committee
• COW-IDE-2016.2 Site Alternation By-law (2007-18420) Update
• COW-IDE-2016.7 2016 Water Efficiency Strategy Update
• COW-IDE-2016.8 Frozen Water Services Response Update – Substandard Water Service Replacement Grant and Linear Infrastructure Vulnerability Assessment
• COW-GOV-2016.1 Committee of the Whole and Council Terms of Reference
• COW-GOV-2016.2 Municipal Election Modernization, Service Expansion and Ranked Ballot Election

Committee of the Whole Reports with Update Information/Delegations

• COW-IDE-2016.3 Guelph Heritage Action Plan Project Charter
• COW-IDE-2016.4 Sign-By-law Variance for 175 Stone Road West
• COW-IDE-2015.5 Downey Road Transportation Improvement Study
• COW-IDE-2016.6 Stormwater Fees or Charges By-law and Sustainable Funding Strategy