Re: Melancthon Deputy Mayor Hill’s April 22 letter:

Deputy Mayor Hill states in his letter: “The Official Plan has to comply with Provincial legislation. Council and the public want to have their say as well. The suggestion that we aren’t putting our vision on the report is not correct. Once the review is done, input digested and incorporated as the law allows, Council will be able to articulate the views held by them and the ratepayers and it will form part of the plan. To do it before the report has been reviewed and revised is premature. “

Many Melancthon ratepayers believe that Melancthon Council misunderstands the very essence and indeed the vital importance of strategic plans and vision statements. It was suggested at a council meeting over a year ago that Council needed to develop a vision statement. Mayor Fawcett noted that other municipalities had them and she was “going to look into it”. Pretty important, considering the Highland Companies had their own vision for Melancthon and released it in a widely distributed DVD a year ago. By now most of you realize that the Highland “vision” for Melancthon includes a 2,400 acre x 200 foot deep open pit mine. The Blog “Mining for the Truth in Melancthon” lays out some excellent advice for Deputy Mayor Hill and the rest of Melancthon Council to follow when they construct their vision statement and strategic plan.

“Strategic planning is an organization’s process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. “

A council is elected and early in their term, usually within weeks of being sworn in, they have strategic planning meetings to each put forth their vision/mandate/plan for the municipality. To formulate the reasons why they ran and what they want to accomplish in their mandate.

Staff and public input are sought as part of the process.

A facilitator works with them to moderate the session and the group comes to a consensus. There are usually 3-5 priorities, under which objectives/ action plans are initiated and budget implications are calculated.

For instance, a priority agreed upon for Melancthon might be to have the best agricultural community in Ontario based on specialty soils.

From then on, every report with a recommendation to Council sets out how it ties into the Strategic Plan and the financial implications.

The strategic plan/vision statement becomes the overarching high level “map” for the entire term of Council

That would also mean any Official Plan would be tied into the Strategic plan, not the other way around.

Take a look at the City of Windsor’s links. They set strategic plan, then did their OP review. (www.citywindsor.ca)

The City of Barrie even has their strategic priorities laminated and on the walls throughout their municipal building.

The point here is Council is to set the direction/policy with input from staff and the publicnot the municipal planner, lawyer, staff, public or Highlands and everything ELSE, including the OP, ties into that.

Mr. Hill seems to be saying that after the province, the planner and the lawyer tell them what they have to do, then each one on Council will put their “own” vision forward and somehow out of that will come forth a plan for Melancthon. If the planner and province are going to tell Council what do to, what do we need Council for? Five individual councillors are each going to put forth their own vision, as opposed to coming on a consensus on one vision for the township? “

As a Melancthon ratepayer, I respectfully request that Melancthon Council seek immediate assistance from the Ontario Municipal Board if they need any further advise on mandating Melancthon’s strategic plan before it is too late.

Marni Walsh,

Melancthon