Group protests unfair deal with Owen Sound
All taxpayers will foot $43,000. bill for Sydenham residents
By Chris Fell - Express Staff

The Friends of the Meaford Library were out in full force at Monday night's regular council meeting to communicate their dismay about how council has proceeded with library negotiations with the city without involving the municipality's Library Board.

Council appointed councillors Sam Luckhardt and Harley Greenfield to do the legwork to hammer out an agreement with the city to provide library services to former Sydenham residents. The work of Greenfield and Luckhardt has led to an agreement in principle between Meaford and Owen Sound that would result in a 10-year contract that would allow Sydenham residents access to the Owen Sound Library for a cost of $43,000 per year.

However, the agreement with the city stipulates that only residents of former Sydenham township can use the Owen Sound Library. Meaford and St. Vincent residents would still have to pay a non-resident fee for access to the city's facility - despite municipal tax dollars being paid to Owen Sound for its use. Sydenham residents would also be able to access the Meaford Library free of charge.

In an interview after the council meeting Luckhardt confirmed the financial numbers of the potential library agreement with Owen Sound and said Meaford council had no intention of area rating the $43,000 per year to ensure that those allowed to use the service were the only ones paying for it. The money being sent to Owen Sound is expected to come out of general tax revenues.

However, the Friends of the Meaford Library took issue with the secretive process used during the negotiations and the lack of communication between council and the public concerning the library issue. The Friends also pointed out that council was in violation of the province's Library Act, which says a municipality's Library Board is solely responsible for the provision of library services.

Friends President Susan Adamson said her organization didn't object to Sydenham residents being allowed to use the Owen Sound library, but rather they were concerned about the process used to reach an agreement with the city and the lack of information about what's been happening.

"We are concerned that representatives of council have been holding in camera, private discussions with the Owen Sound council to arrange a long term contractual arrangement for transferring Meaford municipal funds to the Owen Sound Library," said Adamson. "The Library Act provides for financial arrangements governing service to residents to be made between official Library Boards. In this case, the Library Boards are not involved, and the negotiations as presently conducted do not fall within the provisions of the Library Act," she added.

Adamson urged council to open up the Library negotiations to allow the public to gather information about the decision and said the Friends were concerned that the Meaford Library - which has seen its budget hacked in recent years, not to mention to high profile battles over funding between the former Town of Meaford and St. Vincent township - was going to lose even more money.

"The library is an under funded institution as it stands when compared with comparable libraries in other municipalities. To have further tax revenues that could be spent on the Meaford Library transferred out of the municipality seems counterproductive and not consistent with the objectives of amalgamation. To treat one segment of the municipality in a preferential fashion is also not consistent with the objectives of amalgamation," said Adamson.

Also addressing council on the library matter was Friends member Marie McKay who questioned Luckhardt's involvement with the process. McKay suggested that Luckhardt - a councillor, member of the North Grey Union Library Board and the Meaford Library Board - was in conflict of interest in negotiating with the city.

"My understanding of negotiation is that people with different views and agendas find common ground for an agreement. With all due respect to Mr. Luckhardt, it is hard to see how this can be accomplished when he sits in both camps. No one disputes that Mr. Luckhardt is a hard working councillor with the best interests of the community at heart, but he must realize that a decision resulting in a substantial sum of money being allocated to another municipality for the benefit of a minority of consumers without public consultation is divisive and casts doubt on the whole process," said McKay.

In response to the questions asked by the Friends of the Library Meaford Mayor Gerald Shortt said he felt it was fine for this municipality to pay Owen Sound for use of its library, although he did admit the arrangement was not entirely equal.

"It is somewhat unfair because people from Meaford and St. Vincent are not allowed to use the library in Owen Sound, but the city will allow everybody to use it if we're willing to pay a higher fee," said Shortt.

Councillor Sam Luckhardt also responded to the conflict of interest allegations raised by the Friends.

"Accusations of a conflict are very serious. I don't like to see those types of accusations in this municipality. We're treating everybody fairly and before an agreement with Owen Sound is approved is comes back to council and becomes a public document," said Luckhardt, who pointed out that he had been a long time supporter of local libraries and during an interview after the meeting Luckhardt suggested that funding for the Meaford Library would not in any way be affected by the agreement with Owen Sound. In fact, he's encouraged the Meaford Board to ask for more money.

"Sitting on the Meaford Board, I've actually encouraged them to try and increase their budget by $10,000-15,000 to make it more equal," Luckhardt added that in the future Meaford would likely try and negotiate with the city to allow all residents to use the Owen Sound Library, but that would take time and the priority for the time being was to ensure that former Sydenham residents had a library service available.

Luckhardt also noted that it was Owen Sound that requested strictly members of council to negotiate a library agreement. Representatives from the councils of Meaford, Chatsworth, Georgian Bluffs and the city have been working on the agreement for library usage. He said once the negotiations were complete the document would become public and council would debate its contents.

"I feel the Meaford Library has been underfunded in the past and I'm trying to bring that up to speed," said Luckhardt, who shrugged off concerns that the Library Board was being left out of the negotiations saying it was council that was writing the cheques and it should be council making the agreement and negotiating the financial details with the city.

Councillor Linda van Aalst said she was disappointed with the controversy erupting around the library issue. She explained that council had been very clear with its intention to make an agreement with Owen Sound for library services for the former Sydenham township and she said in the age of amalgamation this issue was quite common everywhere.

"We're not re-inventing the wheel here. This is going on all over Ontario. We were quite open going into amalgamation about where library service would come from for the former residents of Sydenham," said Van Aalst.

While councillor Harley Greenfield, who has worked with Luckhardt in negotiating with the city, admitted the issue wasn't totally fair, but in time it would be worked out.

"There's been difference of opinion on this and it hasn't come easily for any of the four municipalities involved. There is an un-level playing field and some residents are getting an advantage over others and that has to be dealt with, but lets negotiate for Sydenham residents and deal with step two later," said Greenfield, who added that he agreed that the agreement wasn't being reached within the confines of the Library Act. "If you want to go ahead and challenge these negotiations you have grounds to do so," he noted.

While Deputy Mayor Robert Reid said a lack of communication from council to Luckhardt and Greenfield was causing a problem.

"I feel every ratepayer in the municipality should have access to the Owen Sound Library. Harley and Sam are not being given any direction from council and there's no reports coming back about what's being discussed. The Owen Sound Library is an asset and should be available for all residents," said Reid.

The library agreement has not yet come back to council for approval. Strangely silent on Monday night was the Meaford Public Library Board, no member of the Board addressed council.

However Library Board member George Coote said on Tuesday morning "the Meaford Public Library Board wants to provide equal library service to all members of the new Municipality of Meaford." He said a further press statement regarding the situation would be forthcoming from the Board.