Executive Director of Development Services Mike Gooch attended his last official Huntsville Council meeting on June 27. “Mike is retiring so we thought we should say something nice about him,” said Huntsville Mayor Scott Aitchison to laughs. Gooch has been employed by the Town of Huntsville since 2001. Before that he worked for the Town of Bracebridge for 10 years then moved to Barrie where he worked for that municipality before making his way to Huntsville. “So he saved the best for last, of course,” said Aitchison,
We genuinely appreciate your dedicated service to the people of Huntsville. You’ve been a fine public servant and we’re going to miss you. I hope you don’t get too bored in retirement, if you do, come back and visit usHuntsville Mayor Scott Aitchison speaking to Mike Gooch at June 27th Council meeting
The Town will be throwing Gooch a farewell party at the Algonquin Theatre’s Partners Hall on Wednesday, June 29 between 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served and everyone is invited. “We might tell some more stories while we’re there,” said Aitchison.
Gooch will be replaced by long-time District Municipality of Muskoka planner Derrick Hammond. He’s been a municipal planner for 26 years. “He comes to us with quite a resume. He’s got a Master of Arts in geography from the University of Waterloo and a Master of Arts and geography and a concentration of political science from the University of Ottawa and he’s just recently coming off a stint in the continuous improvement unit that the CEO of the District has created,” said Aitchison. “We’re excited to have him here and help us chart the next several years of Huntsville’s development.”
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While with certainly no personal disrespect to either Mr Gooch nor Mr Hammond, I see these titles and their concomitant salaries and I wonder what it is that these people specifically do? I suspect the issue is largely complete disconnect between our government and its citizenry.
Of late, I have had occasion to study the rental situation here in Huntsville, and I noted that the cheapest 2 bedroom apartment listed is $1225 per month plus utilities. Using the bank formula(i.e. 35% of gross income), then Huntsville is unaffordable for families with income less than $42,000. Yet the median income in Huntsville is $44,500. That leaves a lot local citizenry (think our children) unwelcome in their own community.
What then does the Executive Director of Development Services?. ….Would he or she be one who should be interested in the sorry state of our community. Or is this simply another paid cheerleader position?