As the end of the year is just around the corner, chief administrative officer for the Town of Golden, David Allen, shared his views on both the past and future plans of the Town.
“It has been a year of ups and downs and challenges. The whole Bridge to Bridge project was a challenging one to deal with. But it taught us a lot,” he said. “Like any project that goes off the rails, you can learn a lot from it.”
Allen thinks that the staff learned that they have to communicate with the public and stay engaged.
“I think we want to try and do a better job. It is challenging. Social media is a two-edged sword. It provides you with the opportunity to get the information out but it is tough in today’s world where social media misinformation can spread like wildfire,” he said.
Allen said that the town staff is a small staff with limited capacity who do their best to handle communication, but it is something they are looking at improving upon in the new year.
Allen also felt the Town has had a great deal of success over the year as well.
“The assets management plan is big. We have been working on that for the past few years. We are considered to be leaders in the field,” he said. “We have done some good work in developing a solid corporate work plan. One of the biggest challenges I have seen in local government since I got into it is the disconnect between council’s priorities and expectations and corporate capacity.”
Allen said councils have a lot that they want to do and have to balance that with what the finances say they can actually do.
Work is continuing for the Golden and Area Broadband Network. The hope is that the connection will be improved at some point in the new year said Allen.
He also said that steps have been taken to improve the situation with dual road rescue, and they will see how the policy will work in the future.
Allen also said working with all of council is very important for the system to work.
“It is important that we as the staff have a good relationship with council,” he said. “It is a diverse council and that is a good thing. There are different perspectives on the same issues, and at the end of the day the discussion, while somewhat challenging at times, results in good dialogue about issues which are important to the town.
“We want to do a good job and I think we have a good team here. I am very pleased to be able to work with these folks.”
