Starting at 8:30 a.m., I joined Mayor Jensen and Councilors Herbert, Copley, Murdoch and Kirby, to participate in a tour of Municipal operations. The tour included the main Hall, Oak Bay Recreation and Henderson Centres, Carnarvon Park, Public Works and the Fire Hall. The tour was organized by senior staff under direction of CAO Mark Brennan after new Council members asked to meet staff and learn more about the municipality.
Did you know?
- that Parks and Recreation have an operating budget of about $11M per year
- that you can pay most bills online, by phone or arrange for online banking through your bank but you cannot pay via MasterCard or Visa at the Hall (cash, cheque or Interac only) because this saves the municipality charging you additional credit card processing fees
- that tax notices are sent to approximately 6,500 Oak Bay property owners
- that about 2/3 of Oak Bay Council’s work relates to variances
- that the Official Community Plan (OCP) is itself a bylaw
- that local government is overseen by two separate pieces of legislation, the Local Government Act and Community Charter
The tour was informative and it was a good opportunity to meet staff and put names to faces. My thanks to CAO Brennan and all the staff who were on hand to greet us and tell us about their work.