Without taking a formal vote, the board expressed a consensus around a plan to bring in a long-term interim chief to help the department move forward while the town completes an evaluation of how it wants policing to look in the future. That evaluation is being led by a social work researcher who the town is hiring to study the issue and engage the community about its public safety needs. A local social worker who helped the town hire that researcher told the board that the study will take time. What s being referred to as community conversations is a full-scale research project, Kerri Nicoll said after hearing the board discuss the question for several minutes. It will be conducted by a professional in this field. It s not simply social-workers going out to chit chat with people.
Members of the city’s Governance Committee have voted to increase the openness and transparency of the mayor’s $1.8 million office budget, although the…
Jason Hoch reported to the Select Board that the town s free cash as of July 1, 2020, was certified by the Department of Revenue last week, effectively closing the books on fiscal year 2020. The free cash approval for the general fund is about $1.3 million, which is up a bit from last year, Hoch said. I offer that just as a way of saying we made it through the fiscal year and the budget hits without dramatically impacting our ability to have flexibility for future hits in the general budget. We basically get to free cash by spending somewhat below appropriations and having revenues that overperform. We ve been fairly consistent at this range the last few years, so it s certainly a good stable place. If that number starts getting higher, that would be a concern. And if it gets significantly lower, it really boxes in our flexibility.
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Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman has filed a motion in an upcoming committee that recommends city council request the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region (WMR) an organization created by the province to publicly release a draft of Plan 20-50 in order that all municipal councils in the WMR are given a chance to review and approve the plan prior to its completion.
Plan 20-50 is a long-term regional plan that seeks to optimize and coordinate the use of municipal resources instead of carrying on with a disconnected system where Winnipeg and surrounding communities compartmentalize their services, like roads, fire stations, waste and development.