Warden concerned over Kingston “not paying their bills”

Craig Bakay | Nov 08, 2019

“We might lose Parham or Robertsville (ambulance stations),” North Frontenac Mayor and Frontenac County Warden Ron Higgins said at North Frontenac’s regular meeting last Friday in Plevna.

Higgins was updating his Council on the recent negotiations between the County and the City of Kingston during budget negotiations as to who pays for what in terms of shared services.

In particular, Higgins was referring to recent RULAC (Rural Urban Liaison Advisory Committee) meetings in which the City reiterated its stance that the amount of the levy the County is asking the City for is too high.

In September, Kingston City Council voted to withhold $200,000 from the 2019 requisition from the county for its share of costs for ambulance and long term care services.

“Kingston’s still not paying their bills,” Higgins said. “That impacts our revenues and we may have to make some cuts. “If they stick to that stance, we’ll have to reduce ambulance service to Kingston (or) we might lose Parham or Robertsville.”

To make matters worse, the proposed levy for those services in 2020 is also well over what the City of Kingston intends to pay.

The City of Kingston has is seeking either mediation or arbitration concerning the $200,000 invoice, Higgins said that County politicians made a commitment atg RULAC  to look one more time at the 2020 budget before finalizing the charges to the City for the two services. As of now, the levy to the City for land ambulance is set to increase by 7.5%, and for long term care it is over 10%. City Council has set a target increase of 2% for its own departments and is intent on Frontenac County following into line with that.

The City of Kingston operates Social Services, Childcare and Not-For-Profit Housing on behalf of Frontenac County. Charges to Frontenc County ratepayers for those services in 2020 are set to increase by 8.22%

“Nothing is in resolution or decided at this time,” Higgins said. “They’re all just discussion points.”

Higgins said that one thing that the City and the County agree upon is the idea of billing Queen’s University for some of its events.

“Eleven of our 13 ambulances were tied up at homecoming,” Higgins said. “Parham and Robertsville had to respond.”

Notes from NF Council

Council approved its 2020 regular meeting schedule. Generally, meetings are held every three weeks on a Friday, but there is only one meeting per month in July, August and December. Meetings are held in the Council Chambers at the municipal building in Plevna at 9 a.m.

Meetings in 2020 are scheduled for: Jan. 17, Feb. 7, Feb. 28, March 20, April 17, May 8, May 29, June 19, July 17, Aug. 14, Sept. 11, Oct 2, Oct. 23, Nov. 20, and Dec. 11.

Budget schedule

Council approved its meeting schedule for the 2020 budget as follows: Dec. 13, 2019 (following the regular Council meeting); Feb. 14, 2020 (all day); and March 20, 2020 (regular Council meeting)

Procedures revisited

Following the regular meeting, Council and staff took a look at how they do business, reviewing the Township’s procedural policy, code of conduct policy and staff/council relationship policy.

“I know I made a lot of people nervous by calling this meeting,” Mayor Ron Higgins.

However, he needn’t have worried.

“I don’t think we need to amend policies, just be more aware that we have them,” said CAO Cheryl Robson.

By way of example, Robson said “it makes staff look bad when we tell people they can’t speak at Council (unless they get themselves on the agenda as a delegation) and then Council waives procedure, allowing someone to speak or ask questions of a staff member.

“It’s happened a lot over the last few years.”

Higgins took the blame for that one, assuring staff he’d be stricter when it comes to waiving the rules of procedure.

(Editors note - The print version of this article said, in error, that the Frontenac County is taking the City of Kingston to court over non-payment of $200,000. The above has been corrected.)