A community works on a number of levels and some of the important ones aren’t always in plain site.
From her ninth-floor office at Barrie City Hall, general manager of community and corporate services Dawn McAlpine has a sweeping view of the town and oversees a number of departments: recreation services, corporate facilities, finance, Barrie Fire and Emergency Service, as well as legislative and court services.
Most city residents have never heard of her, and she is fine with that. But the municipality is a better place because of her.
The 28-year city employee, who has risen through the ranks after walking into city hall as a summer student from Trent University, has watched Barrie grow and seen first-hand how services have changed and evolved.
That first summer, she was in environmental services, designing recycling programs for apartment buildings after finishing her university degree in economics, including environmental economics.
“I wanted a meaningful summer job and the tie-in between the environment and economics was something that was interesting to me and how that tied into recycling programs and waste diversion in general,” she says with a smile that is normally at the ready.
Even back then, being green was imminent.
“You could see that it was certainly a change in direction,” McAlpine says. “Even the fact there was an environmental economics program was something there hadn’t been a focus on. Tying that into how finances affect the environment, and vice versa, were things that were newer at that time.”
City officials knew a valuable resource when they saw one and she was hired on full-time in 1991 as (no surprise here) a waste reduction officer.
Then it was on to the economic development office, followed by city clerk’s assistant where she supported committees with agendas and minutes, and was involved with running the mail and print shops.
From there, it was on to the big show when she became deputy city clerk and then finally city clerk, a position she held for 10 years until moving up to that ninth-floor office.
McAlpine has watched the elected heads of the municipality come and go during her almost 30 years on Collier Street.
“I’ve been very fortunate to serve with a number of mayors: most recently Mayor Jeff Lehman, Dave Aspden, Rob Hamilton, Jim Perri, Janice Laking, and although he wasn’t mayor at the time, I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with former mayor Ross Archer when he was part of Barrie Hydro in his position as one of the directors and the chair of the Barrie Hydro holdings corporation,” she says.
If any residents do recognize her, it’s probably from her time as clerk co-ordinating council meetings, ensuring they were conducted in accordance with the Municipal Act
“Each council brings something unique to the table and each mayor brings different aspects to the position,” McAlpine says.
“The one thing you see out of municipal councils is people run (for office) because they want to make their community better," she adds. “Their visions of how to make the community better may be different, but they are all valid. They evolve with the community over time.”
A municipal election can bring in new faces and fresh ideas.
“One of the things with municipal government is your board of directors (council) changes every four years,” she says. “As a single-tier municipality (Barrie is a separated city from the County of Simcoe), you’re responsible for snow plowing, running a provincial offences court, fire and emergency services. There’s about 60 different services Barrie delivers.
“That means you can have different focuses and as your community grows, the interests grow,” McAlpine adds.
“You do have different councils with different priorities and so after that election happens you have to change what your priorities are to evolve with the council. And that is sometimes challenging,” she says. “What becomes the greatest priority can change in a very short period of time.”
As a municipality, there is often the desire to do everything, but there are limited resources to do that, McAlpine says.
“It becomes a challenge to prioritize. Sometimes you have projects that take a while and so a new council is coming in part way and you’re trying to make sure they are up to speed on what’s been done and allow that project to evolve with that different council,” she says.
“Continuity can be good and bad," McAlpine adds. "I think it’s beneficial and I think sometimes people underestimate how much time it takes to do things.”
One of the most “attractive” things about the municipal level of government is its closeness to residents, she says.
“You provide the most direct services to people. Certainly that’s why I’ve always thought it’s the most important level of government to vote for because it impacts you the most directly,” McAlpine says. “Your elected representatives are really your neighbours, people you see in your community and who live in the community. Therefore, you have the biggest opportunity to have them reflect your goals and needs.”
She says city hall is there to serve the community, but part of it is acting as a corporation.
“We have financial returns, similar to financial statements; we have a lot of legislative framework in terms of how we operate," McAlpine says. “We have to look at considerations related to our finances, our liability, our exposure as well as those services we provide. We need to make sure that we are accountable and transparent to the public.
“People think that government doesn’t have that sense of being a business, but you are, in a different way,” she adds. “What you see out of a municipality is typically that we are in the business of services that the private sector either couldn’t make a profit from in delivery or we, as the public, don’t want an entity that would only be interested in making a profit to deliver them.
“You want the job done with consideration of those you serve. I don’t think that’s always going to be the case with the private sector. That’s why those services reside with the municipal or other governments.”
The business of the municipality is the people it serves, she adds.
“When you are in the private sector, typically your bottom line is how you can make the most profit. You often have a target market,” McAlpine says. “As a municipality, your market is everyone. You can’t just decide that you are excluding people; you have to have a broader lens.”
