The Committee of Responsible Electors continues to focus their attention on the Town of Golden’s spending and finances after a general meeting on June 6.
The group, known as the CORE, was assembled after the municipal election last fall, with the mandate of monitoring the Town’s policies.
“We are the key organization which is monitoring the performance of the Town administration at the time and are certainly the most diligent in studying its documents and policies, especially on the financial side,” said Bruce Fairly, one of the founding members.
There were 24 people at the meeting on June 6, including a couple who were new to the group. The original concept of the CORE was to operate primarily through online communication, however the members are realizing that it might be useful to have more face to face meetings.
Since its beginning, the group is happy to see some of the initiatives that have gone through council, such as the restoration of question period and the decision to not purchase carbon offsets, for which the CORE advocated.
However there was discussion at the meeting regarding the Town’s perception of the group.
“There was a fair bit of comment as to the difficulty of getting the Town administration to listen to any viewpoint with which they are not in agreement,” said Fairley.
He pointed to their feedback of the 2013 budget, which he says was not acknowledged or even considered, to demonstrate the Town’s lack of support for their efforts. Fairly thinks a better forum for communication would go a long way to solving this problem.
“CORE would support some kind of online forum which would allow parties the ability to comment on matters of public interest,” he said.
The CORE also discussed the Official Community Plan, which they believe is outdated, the need for a restructuring of managerial staff, a strategic initiatives review, and the forthcoming asset management plan, which the group is to review.
“Although there is much work to be done, the persons present (at the June 6 meeting) were unanimous in believing that CORE is performing a very useful function in the community,” said Fairley.
