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1995-05-23_Minutes 85-285 COMMON COUNCIL MAY 23,1995 At a meeting of the Common Council, held at the City Hall in the City of Saint John, on Tuesday, the twenty-third day of May, AD. 1995, at 7:00 o'clock p.m., being the day fixed for swearing in the new members of Common Council. Mr. Mark Wilson, Piper, entered the Council Chamber, followed in procession by Mr. Kenneth Galbraith, Sergeant-at-Mace, bearing the City Mace; Mrs. Mary L. Munford, Common Clerk; Councillors-elect Sterling Brown, Dennis R. Knibb, Christopher Waldschutz, Arthur L. Gould, Derek Chase, Peter Trites, Stephen Fitzpatrick, Shirley Arthurs, Melvin A Vincent and Walter Ball. Mayor-elect Shirley McAlary, escorted by Mr. David Sherwood, Chief of Police, entered the Council Chamber. 1. National Anthem Mrs. Elizabeth Cormier led the assembly in the singing of the National Anthem. 2. Oath Of Offiee To Mavor Shirley McAlary, Mayor-elect, took the Oath of Office of Mayor before the Common Clerk of the City of Saint John. 3. Oath Of Offiee To Couneillors Sterling Brown, Dennis R. Knibb, Christopher Waldschutz, Arthur L. Gould, Derek Chase, Peter Trites, Stephen Fitzpatrick, Shirley Arthurs, Melvin A Vincent and Walter Ball did individually take the Oath of Office of Councillor and, preceded by the Mayor, took their seats at the Council table. Also present were Messrs. 1. Totten, City Manager; F. Rodgers, City Solicitor; D. Wilson, Commissioner of Finance; C. Robichaud, Commissioner of Municipal Operations; J. C. MacKinnon, Commissioner of Environment and Infrastructure Services; W. Butler, Commissioner of Community Services; J. Baird, Manager of Community Planning; G. Tait, Fire Chief; E. Farren, Intergovernmental Affairs Officer; B. Cormier, Social & Cultural Affairs Officer; Mrs. M. E. Gray, Administrative Assistant to the Mayor; and Ms. C. Joyce, Assistant Common Clerk; and a large assembly composed of relatives of Council members and other interested citizens. 4. MeetinQ Called To Order Mayor McAlary called the meeting to order. 5. Invoeation A special invocation was offered by Reverend Melvin Norton, Pastor of Olivet Wesleyan Church, Fredericton, N.B. 6. Address Bv The Mavor Mayor McAlary gave the following address:- "Members of Common Council, Fellow Citizens of the City of Saint John, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is a high honour and a privilege for me to be here tonight serving our wonderful City as Mayor. As my first official act, I want to extend congratulations to each member of this Council on your election. I also want to extend best wishes to your families. You are going to be away from home many nights serving your community and the support of your loved ones is very important. As a young girl, I lived in Hampton. My friends and I viewed Saint John as a big place where our parents took us to shop or, where as teenagers, we escaped for a little adventure. As I made the rounds of my three paper routes and sold 85-286 COMMON COUNCIL MAY 23,1995 Christmas and Easter cards to neighbours and friends, I never dreamed that one day I would be elected Mayor of the grand City of Saint John. I am so pleased that some of myoid friends from the Hampton community are here tonight to share this moment, as well as several of my colleagues from Air Canada, for where I have worked for several years. I sincerely appreciate it. In many ways, my early roots in a suburban community was good training for my new role as Mayor. As a young 'outsider', I looked to Saint John as the anchor of Southern New Brunswick. It was the centre of commerce. It was the place where many of my neighbours worked. It was the community we looked up to for regional leadership. As we pass the mid-point of the decade, the challenges facing municipal governments have never been larger. The solutions to many of these challenges will be the ability for all of us to work together. I sincerely hope that the leadership for this co-operation will come from this Council. Tonight is the first night of what will certainly be an exciting and challenging three years. The Mayor and Councillors will work as a team with City staff to guide our community over the next thirty-six months. We will start our work over the next few weeks as all members of Council will attend orientation sessions to learn the role of Council, the mandate of municipal government, and to become familiar with City departments and facilities. I'm looking forward to these sessions as an opportunity to get to know our new team better and to begin goal setting for the next three years. You'll notice that I'm repeating the word 'team' a lot tonight. That's because I think it's going to be the single most important word to this Council. As we move ahead, my fondest wish is that this Council will set an example of working together with our own citizens and our regional neighbours. I am convinced that a spirit of co-operation, not confrontation, will create the positive climate needed to move our City forward. Saint John is the envy of so many other cities. In my work at Air Canada, I have met thousands of travellers to our City - tourists and business people. know from first-hand experience that visitors love Saint John. They love our history, they love our wonderful facilities like Harbour Station, the Imperial Theatre and the City Market - and they love the friendliness and hospitality of our people. Working together, we can capitalize on our assets and improve our deficits. High on my list of priorities for the next three years is helping City staff implement and enforce our by-laws. We cannot allow the well-being of our citizens and our City to suffer because a few choose to ignore the law. In this regard, I encourage citizens to help keep our City beautiful by keeping residential and business properties in a clean and well-kept order. Over the past three years, we have worked hard to beautify Saint John. There are many wonderful examples of individual citizens and corporations doing their part towards this goal. One example, the Irving organization has graced our throughways with hundreds of trees, shrubs, and landscaping in the past year. This is a perfect example of identifying an area that needs some work and simply doing something about it. I hope to solicit the help of more private and corporate citizens to playa role in changing our community. Everyone can play their part, it may just mean that you don't throw your cigarette butts or fast-food containers out of your car window. We must build a community that is creative and attractive to our children, a community with substance and content, a community that stresses not only memories and remembrances, but other important values of tradition, social justice, equity and compassion. For decades, we Canadians have relied on government to make things happen for us. That can no longer be the case. The financial crunch has taken millions of dollars from municipalities. Citizens will be asked to make sacrifices in the 85-287 COMMON COUNCIL MAY 23,1995 coming years because we simply do not have the funding to do what we once did. But, I believe the impact of change can be greatly lessened by learning to fend for ourselves. We are all proud citizens of Saint John. We owe it much. That is why I will be asking many individuals and organizations to help Saint John achieve a greater degree of self-determination. We need advice, experience, enthusiasm, dedication, and love for our City. I know from my conversations with many of you that given the chance, you will help. During the election campaign, I talked about an idea. That idea is to have our entire City moving forward working towards the same goals and objectives. This 'Team Saint John' concept is not a committee. Rather, it is a commitment from everyone who wants to see our City progress to work together on the priorities we set for Saint John. We will be talking to those organizations who are already committed to a better future - Enterprise Saint john, the Saint John Board of Trade, Fundy Region Development Commission, Uptown Saint John and other community groups, businesses and individuals. As a team, we can become doers, not reviewers. The result will be a City that existing businesses view as a good investment for further growth and that new investors see as the best location for their future. We ean build a community that capitalizes on its strengths. We have many centres of excellence: our University, our world-leading forestry, shipbuilding, manufacturing, brewing and telecommunications companies and, of course, our great Port. There are other communities in the world that have treasures like ours. But none has our 'heart'. And it is up to each and every one of us to be unconditionally supportive of our hometown, while working in unison to meet the challenges facing us. Saint John may have a few bumps in the road ahead. One of the first decisions that Council must participate in is the location of the new regional sanitary landfill. We must find a site that is both financially and socially acceptable to the community. We must also work with industry and government to address environmental concerns. Some of the answers will come from industry as technology designed to deal with water and air quality issues are introduced. Some of the answers will come simply from dialogue. In three years time, I want citizens to look at the record of this Council and say that at all times we were reasonable and willing to listen. And I hope that we, as civic leaders, can act as catalysts for others to do the same. Partnerships! Teamwork! Dialogue! Those are the ingredients necessary to move ahead. This is not to say we can avoid the tough issues. Being an elected official in the 1990s is not a popularity contest. On occasion there will be citizens who leave this Chamber saying their interests were not served by this Council. That will never change. The good of the greater must sometimes take precedence over the good of the few. That's not always easy, but it's almost always the case. And it certainly is necessary if we are to ensure our City continues to be an active, vibrant community. A City that will offer a bright future for our children. A City able to meet educational needs. A City able to satisfy the requirements of business. A community that will always be called a great place to live. Looking ahead, this Council will do its very best to maintain and improve our infrastructure and services like street maintenance, water and sewerage, street cleaning, snow plowing and garbage removal. Our essential services - fire and police - must be managed in a manner that will provide the protection needed by our citizens. We are looking forward to the implementation of the Enhanced 911 System later this year that will help us achieve that goal. The demolition of the old general hospital will be costly, but necessary. 85-288 COMMON COUNCIL MAY 23,1995 Our businesses and industry need encouragement and moral support. We must be on hand to assist whenever we can to promote the organizations that provide employment and economic activity in our City. We have started to clean up our Harbour. This is an effort that must continue. We will constantly seek new technology and ideas that accomplish this task at lower costs. Our Port is vital to our future. It is a major business and we must work with other levels of government to improve it and to promote it as the Port of New Brunswick. We will soon enter the 21st Century and Saint John must move ahead with the times. We must be ready and willing to accept what is best for our City now and for the future. As Mayor of the City of Saint John, I give you my commitment that for the next three years I will constantly work to the best of my ability, with all my energy, to promote and make Saint John a more prosperous and a more progressive community. We are all proud Saint Johners. If we all do our part, our grandchildren will be able to say the same thing. I am ready to meet the challenges ahead. Together as Team Saint John, we will all be winners.". 7. Eleetion Of Deputv Mavor On motion of Councillor Knibb Seconded by Councillor M. Vincent RESOLVED that Derek Chase be elected Deputy Mayor of the City of Saint John. Question being taken, the motion was carried by a unanimous vote of all Council members present. The Mayor extended congratulations to Councillor Chase on his election to the position of Deputy Mayor. 8. ClosinQ Prayer Father David Bona, Pastor of Stella Maris Parish, offered the closing prayer. Mayor McAlary expressed appreciation to Father Bona for his participation in this meeting, and expressed condolences to him on the death of his mother, Edith M. Bona, on May 17. The Mayor invited those present to attend a reception, following the meeting, in the Red Room on the 8th floor of City Hall; and advised that Miss Danielle Doucette, a student of the Princess Elizabeth School who in a mock municipal acted as mayor candidate Shirley McAlary, will be looking after the guest book at the reception. Adiournment On motion of Deputy Mayor Chase Seconded by Councillor M. Vincent RESOLVED that this meeting be adjourned. Question being taken, the motion was carried. 85-289 COMMON COUNCIL MAY 23,1995 Common Clerk