February 16/04 Report
9:30 am - 1:00 pm

Note: Andrew arrived late but was updated by Eric McGuiness who was present
for entire meeting

Committee Members Present:
Chad Collins (chair)
Phil Bruckler
Murray Ferguson
Tom Jackson
Margaret McCarthy
Dave Mitchell
Sam Merulla came in and out, was in for discussion on golf courses

Committee Members Absent:
Dave Braden

Other Councillors Present:
Andrea Horwath (for beginning)
Russ Powers (for beginning)
Maria Pearson (for most of meeting)


Delegation Requests

Mary Kiss of Concerned Ainslie Wood Residents (and former Ward One Councillor) made a delegation request regarding the Ainslie Wood/Westdale Transportation and Storm Water Master Plan and Class EA. In particular, she objected to the building of a storm water pond in the Hydro Corridor in Ainslie Wood due to residents' concerns with issues of safety, costs, risk factors to life, limb, and properties.

She requested that the storm water pond be deleted from the plan, that they have an opportunity to appear before the committee, and that the review period be extended beyond February 18 to enable the community time to respond.

The committee voted to extend review period by 2 weeks.

Items Referred from Council

Committee accepted staff recommendations to not approve the use of large diameter PVC water mains because they're prone to "fail catastrophically."

Consent Items

City-owned land in 14 different areas was "incorporated" into various streets by By-Law in order to "to open street and allow orderly development" i.e. street widenings etc.

Four-way stops were approved at 2 different intersections.

Public Hearings/Delegations

Darlyne Mills, Vice-Chairperson, Hamilton Association of Business Improvement Areas (H.A.B.I.A.) spoke about the importance of B.I.A.s

Staff Presentations

Staff presented their proposal to raise rates and fees by about 5% at Hamilton Municipal Golf Courses in 2004 & 2005. Several different combinations of this scenario were discussed extensively.

It became clear that Councillors were frustrated with the lack of information that staff-person Domenic Lunardo and General Manager, Peter Crockett were able to provide with respect to municipal golf operations. Apparently this information has been lacking for years... For example,

• It was unclear whether the golf courses paid water fees for the municipal water they used to irrigate their courses.
• The budget charts were so confusing that Councillors were not clear as to whether the courses were in fact turning a profit or not.

It was clarified that although the courses appeared to turn a profit in 2003, it was not enough to cover any capital investment in desperately needed renovations to facilities.

Councillor Ferguson suggested that the courses were money-losing ventures for the City, suggested that the private sector should take them over so that they would then be paying taxes to the City and presented a motion that "the City of Hamilton cease all ski & golf operations immediately."
* Moved by Ferguson
* Seconded by McCarthy
* Voted in favour: Mitchell
* Voted against: Jackson, Merulla, Bruckler

Prior to the vote, Councillor Jackson offered an impassioned plea to not consider this motion at this time. First, he believed that past experience with private sector partnerships in this area have not been successful. Second, he argued that if we were going to sell off our community golf courses we also ought to sell off our arenas, community centers, and libraries since (he said facetiously) kids can always go to private arenas, community centers, and book stores.

Merulla also made some humourous remarks about being in shock: "first water, now this..."

It was decided that this debate would be continued by Community Services Committee.