Pelham council claims of achievement.  

Agenda item 9.2.1   September 2, 2026 Council Meeting

The Mayor, Councilors and CAO took the opportunity at the September 2 council meeting to speak on their accomplishments over the past four years.   It was an agenda item.

Link to video

They proceeded by council member.  Time stamps are below with my quick capture notes of the topic.   

I suggest you review this video.   The Mayor and Council felt it was important for them to sing their praises on what they accomplished – it is an election year after all.    It seems most of the commentary was around this past year and future endeavors still to occur.    One councilor did mention achieving financial health, of which I concur, but no mention of how that was really achieved – increased taxes.

The following are notes from reviewing the council video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HcZ9rR92oY

Time stamp / Councilor  /  Notes

• 8:30 9.2.1  agenda item: council and staff list of accomplishments for past four years.
• 8:55 John Wink Culture and masterplan.  Town doing well with festivals and events.   Talked about enhancement of parks and future new parks.   
• 11:45 Bryce Brunarski Traffic safety studies, speed limits, parking studies, other traffic issues.
• 13:00 Bob Hildebrandt  Power for homes.   Listed projects that saved electrical costs.
• 14:52 Brian Eckhardt  Talked about future projects to be completed.  New fire station.  Pedestrian/traffic safety.  Station street extension.
• 18:55 Kevin Ker  Storm water / storm water plans, Solar panels on MCC.
• 22:03  Shellee Niznik    Library branch renovation.   Financial health.  Net debt improvement.  Fiscal responsibility.
• 25:35 Marvin Junkin, Mayor    AG advisory committee.   Steps made to transparency.  
• 27:53 David Cribbs, CAO    feels good to work at a place that accomplishes a lot.
• 31:20 Brian Eckhardt  Airport work.

As a previous leader in a multimillion dollar organization my management team would reflect and review its accomplishments against the strategic or long term plan.   The long term plan would span a number of years.  Usually 3 to 5 years with specific objectives and then a longer view 10 years or more.  Each year objectives would be set in support of the long term plan.  At the end of each year we would review progress against that year’s objectives and recalibrate if necessary.  The long term plan could be modified based on new information but not usually for underachievement.   We would regularly monitor our performance against the long term plan, be transparent, and report accordingly.

The Town has a long term plan.   Not a single mention (well maybe the financial comment and the fire station) of how well they progressed against the goals they set four years ago.  I would have expected more substance in the comments.   What about actual growth rate (assessment) compared to the four year plan?   How are we progressing on the urbanization of Fonthill.  How’s the Meridian community centre performing, both debt servicing and operating costs.   Infrastructure renewal – actuals vs plans? 

Pelham spent somewhere around $90 million on capital projects and another $27 million operating.  Around $118 million for this past four year period.  

You would think there would be a better list of what was accomplished.  

This table summarizes the total operating and capital budgets 2025 to 2026.  Transfers are eliminated as they appear in both budgets.  The capital budget also includes the value of grants which is money spent above our property taxes.   Information pulled from the annual operating and capital budgeted published by the town.