What I did

Background

Financial Management

As the councillor responsible for finance for the last 16 years, I engineered our finances, decreasing our $ 13 Million debt when I started to nearly zero today. In less than 2 years Hampstead will be the only municipality on the island of Montreal which is completely debt free. The tangible result of being debt free is that we will free up over $ 650,000 per year that we are currently paying to service our debt. These are funds that can now be employed to keep taxes low and service our residents.

I also built a capital expense fund which was at zero when I started and is now at $ 1.8 Million so that we will no longer have to borrow for capital projects going forward.

Public Health

I put together and led a task force to rid the town of all lead in our drinking water. I asked our staff what they needed in order to get the job done. I got them the assets and resources necessary. I met with them weekly over a 3 year period. We tested every household, determined where there was lead in our system, excavated and replaced all lead pipes. Today we are the only municipality on the island of Montreal with lead free potable water. Montreal and Cote St Luc have 10 to 15 year plans. At one of our last council meetings Mayor Levi described this as one of,  if not the most important thing we did this mandate. I am proud of the team I led.

Justice

I advocated and supported our residents' voices against the unpopular proposed Cote Saint Luc road high rise development plan. The reasoning was that if nobody in Hampstead would want a 12 storey building built in their backyards then none of us should impose that on anybody else. 

Dialogue

Four years ago I started the Hampstead Community Dialogue Facebook Group. The group now has over 1,600 members where residents discuss issues relevant to our town. I am on that group daily responding to queries and fixing problems for residents. I have always been and will always be, responsive to resident concerns.

Community Services

I brought Zera Cafe to Hampstead park. Zera is a non profit that employs neuro diverse people in our community and gives them meaningful paid employment. The town benefits by having a wonderful cafe with a heart in the heart of our town. 

Security

In the previous mandate I initiated and arranged for a fixed Public security presence in front of our local synagogues every Shabbat and on holidays. This presence continues and will continue going forward.