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Mono needs to revisit its committee system, says resident

January 8, 2026   ·   0 Comments

Written By JAMES MATTHEWS

Recent volunteer committee activity in Mono has raised concerns for at least one resident.

Mono resident Elaine Kehoe said she’s concerned that something is amiss when residents give of their time to be on a committee and nothing gets accomplished.

The committee of adjustment has had two meetings in 2025. Recreation committee had a pair of meetings and lost two members through the year.

The heritage committee held regular meetings until all members quit in October in protest of how they perceived council handled a farm’s heritage designation.

She said she’s a planning committee member, despite her name not appearing on a list of members. That group, she said, didn’t met at all in 2025.

The municipality ran advertisements in The Citizen to rally citizens to take part in committees, including a new climate action group.

“I suggest the committees are not working and are set up merely to give the appearance of citizens’ engagement,” Kehoe said.

Committees are useless if there are no meetings and, as in some cases, if their recommendations about issues languish as unfinished business or are outright discarded, she said.

“When our residents give of their time and see no results, something is broken,” she said.

She suggested to the municipal government in November 2024 that council support the creation of a panel of residents tasked with recruiting replacement volunteers to fill committee vacancies.

She said the recruiters would bring candidate resumes to council for consideration.

“Instead of forming new committees, let’s get the ones that we have working,” she said. “The Town of Mono and the residents need it.”

She asked in December 2025 if anything has been done to address the issue of committee member recruitment.

“My main concern is that we don’t have committees anymore,” Kehoe said. “We don’t have citizen engagement and I think it’s going to be one of the topics of discussion in the next election.”

Residents will go to the polls to cast ballots for a new council in October.

Mayor John Creelman said the committee of adjustment and the planning committee, as referenced by Kehoe, meet only when there is business for them to conduct.

As for recruitment, Creelman said council is very open with its advertisements of committee vacancies.

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