County fee and charges changes include bag tag hike to $3
Administrator | Mar 21, 2012 | Comments 53
Fee changes will shift costs for some Prince Edward County services from property taxes to user fees.
Examples of full cost recovery are the building permit process and other land development fees, GIS mapping services for the public, issuing of marriage licenses and the services provided to external agencies.
Partial cost recovery, or services that have user fees but are subsidized by the property tax base, include arena and community centre rentals, ice rentals and other recreational services.
Services fully funded by the tax base include road and winter maintenance, and parks.
The municipality is reviewing its waste management fees with the goal of full cost recovery and encouraging recycling and waste diversion. Increased user fees for garbage collection and landfill and transfer sites fees will come into effect Monday, April 2.
Garbage bag tags have increased to $3 per tag. The current $2 blue tags will be accepted at the curb and landfill and transfer sites until April 2nd. Effective April 2nd, the new $3 pink tags must be used for all household refuse. The $2 blue tags can be traded in at any of the outlets which sell bag tags, including: Shire Hall, the Edward Building, all landfill and transfer sites, and the Picton Fire Hall.
Projected revenues generated by the new bylaw will be factored into the current year’s operating budget.
Click here for the 34-page bylaw for the 2012 fees and charges:
Filed Under: Local News
Interesting that Merlin Dewing says in the local papers that freezing wages would lower staff morale. One has to wonder what he thinks the looming tax hike will do for the morale of county ratepapers. He says the county already has problems in retaining staff. It may soon develop problems in retaining home owners, too, for it is becoming far too expensive to live in Prince Edward County.
I’ve seen very little trash talking of County staff. What I have heard is many taxpayers wanting a staffing review completed. I have described that process several times. For Council to throw up their collective hands and pass on an unacceptable tax increase without doing their due diligence work is wrong. The taxpayer is asking someone to please be accountable.
I think you will find Phil that Hockey in the County is actually one of the lowest when it comes to registration fee’s due in large part to the low cost of ice rental fee’s.That being said would it be feasable to offer summer ice at one of these facilities obviously at a higher rate to help make them self sufficient. I also agree Phil that these facilities need promotion especially during the summer months to capitalize on tourist dollars.Maybe some concerts or festivals of some sort.
In 2002 I made a motion to increase bag tags from $1 to $3.
That increase would have made garbage a fully funded user pay system. You can imagine the support I had. All I got was the same old crap about more garbage in the ditches.
If you generate a lot of garbage why should I subsidize your wastefull lifestyle.
In my business I have to pay to get rid of my garbage every householder should do the same.
As to the arenas they should be operated as a business and be self funding. The only problem is that none of us could afford to send our kids to play hockey or figure skating etc.
I absolutely believe both facilities need to be used every day of the year generating income.
Maybe we should have the EDO’s office market the arenas. Better yet hire a promoter on a shared percentage basis to put bums in seats and maximize the facilities.
If something doesn’t change now, not in 2 years we might as well just accept the fact that it’s going to get even more expensive to live here, about 10% each year.
BTW it’s too easy to trash talk county staff it takes real effort to come up with positive suggestions.
Hey Mark, when was the last time you had a well done? Not only now do you need to have your well drilled/dug you also have to ensure the water quality. You may have also forgotten about the cost of having the line run to your home, installation of the pump and pressure tanks, perhaps a flow guard, to kill the power should your well run dry. Oh yeah, in the country you also need to ensure your line filters, u/v lamps and other water treatment necessary to ensure your water is drinkable and safe are installed prior to occupancy of a building. Having a well installed is more than just the drilling.
Yeah, safe well water in the county is up to $10,000, easy.
Oops, Virginia, forgot you had a degree. Those of us who frequent Tim’s bow to your superior knowledge.
Beth-there is no point in arguing with those, as the song goes, “who will not see.”
Personally, I’m losing interest in the dialogue on here. I could hear most of this stuff from the crowd at Tim’s—-if I actually went there.
Here’s a quick overview of the cost of municipal government services, based on the following averages:
* home assessed at $240K
* household water consumption of 685 litres daily
* 1.5 bags of garbage per week (at $3.00 per bag)
Municipal taxes = 2040
Water treatment = 686
Wastewater = 859
Garbage = 234
Total municipal = 3819
Prov education = 552
Total munic + PE = 4371
Note that the residential tax bill includes both municipal taxes and provincial education taxes for a total of $2592.
Water + sewer + garbage user fees totalling $1779 now account for 47% of the cost of government for Picton and Wellington households on both water and sewer.
We all know that the big savings lies with staff reductions, but our bloated administration is a sacred cow. Proposals to close libraries and museums are thrown out as red herrings to lure us away from focusing on the real problem – too many overpaid staff members. Council never considers cutbacks here, it just goes on adding staff and ignores public opinion. It also refuses to reduce its own numbers.
Check the sunshine list for the salary of the administrator of the county home. Why do we still have this facility? When the original home was built there were no private nursing homes or retirement homes. It fulfilled a great need. There are a lot of facilities for the aged today. People who have limited or no resources are accepted in them and subsidized by the government when necessary. Does the county really need to be in the nursing home business?
If anyone is paying anything close to $10,000 for an average serviced well they are being taken for a ride. But then you can come to Picton and pay on average $125.00 per month while big brother counts the drips in and out of your home. Most wells drilled and serviced inside are no more than $5500.
But we can continue to argue the small stuff and council will gladly ignore the staffing review, where the big bucks can be found.
I do know my math: Did you know that because most septic systems in Prince Edward County need to be a raised bed that they on average, cost between $20,000 and $25,000 on average? Did you know that most Rural residents will spend up to $10,000 on a new well? That is the cost of living where your neighbour is not 8′ from your house, that is a cost WE choose to take on. I am also well aware of the cost of hauling water in the summer, guess why I had a 2000gal cistern installed?
I am also well aware that there are no freebies, no handouts, there is nothing that I receive that I do not pay for. I choose this life of a rural resident and I choose any additional costs associated with it. Just as anyone who chooses to live in the Urban areas chooses to pay the costs associated with that environment.
We are talking about with this particular article the bag tag costs.
Choose one of the following:
a) increased cost of the bag tags
or
b) increased taxes to cover increased costs of garbage pickup
What’s your preference?
Would I like it if costs remained the same………..yes.
Reality is they won’t, face it. pick your evil.
Check your math, Beth. We don’t pay for water and sewerage but we do have wells drilled and pay to have septic systems installed and pumped regularly. We also have to pay for water when our wells run dry. Last time I checked there were no freebies here.
Our taxes used to include garbage pick-up. Now, this is an extra charge, in addition to our taxes. We are paying more, not holding the line as you suggest.
Get off the street lights thing. Those of us who choose to live in a rural setting moved there knowing we did not have street lights, or municipal water or municipal services. We also happen to be taxed at a different rate as urban dwellers and do not pay for water or sewage.
From what I read from Gary Mooney’s post the County still doesn’t cover the cost of the garbage pick up with the new rate
So here it is laid out as I see it. We can complain about the cost of garbage collection all we want, but we need to pay for is in some way. Do the residents of Prince Edward County want to pay for bag tags, or do we want the taxes increase to offset the cost? Either way we pay, but I can control the volume of garbage that I put out every week with recycling and composting.
I am appalled by the salaries paid to those commissiomers–more than elementary school principals, who have a very demanding and responsible job. How difficult is it to manage all these little jobs in this little county–maybe it is time we amalgamated with Hastings or Lennox and shared commissioners.
According to a movement to make higher earners pay more taxes these people will be in that higher income tax bracket but are they worth it.
Before the amalgamation here in the county we did not have any of these high paid people and we did very well
One final thought–taxes must be shared equitably. Otherwise, you have to deal with those who don’t want to pay education taxes when they have no children at home.
Get real–we all benefit from a strong tax base. That’s what makes this such a great country to live in.
What is apparently not obvious to you is the fact that those of us who live in rural areas are taxed to pay for these services, although we do not receive the benefit of them. I have no interest in a peeing contest with you, either. It costs too much too flush out here in the country.
Well I don’t want to get into a peeing match with you on this because it is far from the big issues the County isn’t addressing. Obviously sidewalks and street lighting wouldn’t be found in a rural setting. As for parks, libraries and sports facilities,they are all available for your use. Now back to the staffing review.
Yes, Mark, you do receive quite a few more services i.e. sidewalks, street lighting, parks, libraries, sports facilities, a fire department minutes away from all town homes,etc.
In the country, we pay for dawn to dusk lights for our yards and do not have sidewalks. Libraries and fire halls are several miles away, for many of us. We choose to live in a the country, where we grow much of our own food, but in view of our high taxes we do expect some amenities or the lack of same reflected in a somewhat lower tax bill. We do not pay for water but many of us do pay to have water drawn to our homes in the summer months when our wells go dry.
I am not sure that urban dwellers receive any more services than rural,excepting water which has become a ridiculous cost averaging over $100 per month for most. It’s taxed coming in the house and leaving the house. But we have a wonderful new waste plant sitting high up on the hill so we can pump s— upstream per say when we all know what direction it really flows.
I don’t follow your line of thought,Virginia. I don’t think many people move to the country to escape amenities – try dealing with a backed up septic tank, or a dry well or the inability to draw tap water or flush a toilet if the power goes off. Since we pay high taxes, just as many town residents do, (but for far fewer services), we have every right to expect the limited ones that we do receive.
And you’re right, David, locals throw out their garbage, too, but the problem is always more noticeable when the tourists start to arrive. I collect their trash, then have to pay to take it to the curb.
The 2011 “Sunshine List” of civil servants in Ontario earning more than $100,000 per year was released today.
This is our “Sunshine List” with 2010’s remuneration in brackets:
ANGELO JOSEPH Project Engineer – Contract $142,259.39 ($137,677.16)
BRAUN BARRY Commissioner of Recreation, Parks & Culture $105,476.10 ($103,865.04)
MANLOW SCOTT Fire Chief $108,040.32 ($101,569.41)
MCAULEY ROBERT Commissioner of Public Works $124,442.05 ($121,974.75)
MURPHY GERALD Commissioner of Planning & Building Services $119,732.87 (109,909.02)
PIPER ELIZABETH Administrator – H. J. McFarland Memorial Home $106,575.60 ($100,504.96)
TURNBULL M. SUSAN Commissioner of Corporate Services & Finance $118,287.97 ($114,816.81)
(The CAO is not on this list since he was not in the County’s employ long enough in 2011 to qualify for the list.)
These are presumably highly qualified and skilled individuals who deserve what they are paid. However, as Mark has pointed out, a COMPLETE staffing review needs to take place. We are not going to mend the County’s financial state with a $1 bag tag increase!! And a 9.5% tax increase is simply unacceptable.
By the way, the Hastings and Prince Edward School Board has dozens of staff on the list from the Director of Education at $170,000+ per annum down to Elementary School Vice-Principals earning just over $100,000.
I was not suggesting that the inappropriate use of rural land is restricted to Prince Edward. This has been a notorious problem all over Ontario for many years now. That is why it is becoming more difficult to obtain such things as severances now. I guess better late than never.
In addition, one can’t really expect all the urban amenities in the country. It’s my understanding that people move to the country to escape a lot of that stuff anyway.
Marnie, your statement about roadside dumping by tourists is only partially true. I live on 33 and pick up about ten bags worth of garbage from my adjacent roadside each year, and recycle a great deal more… by the bye, I end up paying for the disposal. I have seen garbage being tossed from cars which are occupied by County residents. I estimate the Tim Horton’s cups and associated residue alone constitute at least 10% of this dumped garbage. Perhaps they, Tim Horton’s might considered a donation to the County coffers in this respect… they could sponsor a roadside garbage cleanup and employ a few students.
I don’t think we are on the same page, Virginia. You appeared to be suggesting that those in rural Prince Edward should follow the lead of local farmers of old or move closer to town.
As for those of us who live rurally on an acreages that you deem inappropriate for residential use, we are here like it or not. Hard to believe the county planning department made so many mistakes. Those of us who bought these land parcels did so legally and in good faith and have full entitlement to some o the same services that you enjoy in town, including garbage collection.
Let me share a secret with you. Those Toronto folks don’t have to ride the subway with their garbage. A lot of them appear to be bringing it into the county on weekends and dumping from their car windows along our rural roadsides. We pick up after these people all summer long.
Doris – For your information the County water dep’t half ton drives from Belleville and back each and everyday. I don’t know how much the manager gets called in off hours but paying mileage on occassion is cheaper than running a truck on taxpayer gas everyday. However it is a great perk if you can find a municipality that will provide it.!
The mayor states that the citizens do not want to lose services so they will face significant tax increases.I think what the residents have said is look into your own house first and find cost efficiencies. Do we need so many $100k + commissioners? There was a time when we were financially secure when we had never heard of a commissioner. We have a treasuer why do we need a Commisioner of Corporate Services? Do we need so many in treasury? Do we need 4 roads supervisors? Do we need more than one purchasing clerk? Does the recreation and parks require that many support staff? Do we need a tax collector and a deputy tax collector? That is why we need an independent staffing review to answer these questions. Is there duplication of services? Can work be reassigned? The result may be no loss of services through significant savings in a reduction in personnel. There seems to be no appetite to look at these costs. That direction would come from council as you are not going to find support of that exercise from within staff. They spend hours chewing over half day library services and hitting the taxp[ayer with 50% increases in garbage fees but will not look at their biggest expense, STAFF & BENEFITS.
Yes, I can just see people in larger urban areas like Toronto driving to the dump! I doubt most even know where to find dumps or transfer stations. Not to mention those without transport. Maybe a dedicated subway run on garbage days???
As far as country living goes, many of the lots and areas developed for residential use should never have been there in the first place. These places were the result of bad planning, and inappropriate severances. In other words, greed and lack of foresight.
Whoa, Virginia. With the taxes we pay to live in a rural area, we are entitled to some services, garbage collection being one of the few that we do receive. We have no sewer and water, no street lighting, no parks etc. We are not ‘agitating’. We just want a little bang for our buck. As for those farmers thatalways took their garbage to the dump, instead of agitating for curbside collection, did you ever taken a look at what some of them accumulated on the back 40?
With all the housing development that has taken place on small acreages on almost every sideroad in the county,curb-side collection is not an unrealistic expectation. These people pay taxes and are just as entitled to service as any of the urban dwellers, who incidentally could trot their garbage off to the dump just as readily as the country folks.
We need to cut all expenses large and small For starters could we get the County trucks off the roads after working hours–they should be locked up on Lake street and retrieved the next morning logged i n and out and gas accounted for. the opp take their own cars to work and pick up their cruisers–we should do the same except maybe for the dog catcher and the fire chief
the county emloyees are taking the residents of this county for a ride-CUT THE EXPENSES
People who live in Toronto are getting too good a deal on taxes and on garbage. I have been aware of this for some time. Houses that are worth 4 times what mine is, are not paying the proportional taxes. As for unlimited bags, how backward is that???? Where does all the garbage go? To dumps in rural areas, for one. Garbage seems to be an out of sight, out of mind thing for most people. Someone else’s problem! Well, it isn’t–the problem belongs to all of us.
Also, if people who purchased residential lots and property in rural areas stopped agitating for, and expecting roadside garbage collection, there would be much less of a problem. For generations, farmers and other rural dwellers have used the dump. You just drive there and deposit your garbage! Result–reduced costs for the municipality, less pressure on the tax base.
Therefore, in my opinion, if you want roadside collection, you should go and live in a more urbanized area.
I asked County Treasurer James Hepburn for information on revenues and costs of garbage collection in 2011 at the old price and 2012 at the new price, and here is what he provided.
2011 $2.00 Bag Tags
2011 Actual Expenditures. $846,532
2011 Actual Tag Revenue $505,606
Net deficit.
2012 $3.00 Bag Tags
2012 Estimated Expenditures. $841,000
2012 Estimated Tag Revenue $728,000
Net deficit.
So you can see that there was a substantial shortfall in bag tag revenue in 2011, which was covered in the 2011 municipal tax levy. The shortfall in 2012 will be much less.
James says that the County is mnving to full cost recovery for garbage pickup. I hope will be achieved by a reduction in costs rather than a further increase in the bag tag rate ($3.00 is the highest that I’ve seen).
A 50% increase in bag tags is bad enough but it pales in comparison with the 9.5% property tax increase we are apparently going to be expected to swallow!
Has anyone thought about trying to treat the problem of garbage at source? What I am saying is, how can we get manufacturers to cut back on packaging materials etc., I know a lot of packaging materials can go in the blue boxes, however, I was very surprised when I recently visited my daughter in Toronto. It seems they don’t recycle any plastic bags there and several other things we are encouraged to recycle in the County, they are not allowed to… Also, in her region, they don’t have to bother with bag tags, the cost is all rolled into their taxes, with no limit on the amount of bags they are allowed to put out to the curb each week.
I agree with some of the other comments, we are going to see way more garbage dropped off in the ditches on the back roads when the cost per bag goes up.
Another way to stick it to the people living on a limited income. To some people $52.00 a year isn’t much, but to some families that is a week’s groceries for your children. Why can’t council just realize that the well they keep going to to get more money will eventually run dry.
Well Mr Mooney, I stand corrected after looking at the budget for 2011 the numbers are rather discouraging, Revenues ($646,824) Expenditures $1,154,001 with a shortfall of some $507,177.Keeping in mind that most of those revenues are accrued throughout the winter months and these facilities sit pretty much vacant during the summer when our population swells with tourists.The potential to generate more revenue is definately there.Better management and promotion ? Should we expect more from our Elected Officials and Administration ? I’m guessing, yup!
The Essroc Centre is a great facility, but we cannot afford to have it sitting idle. It needs to be marketed. It reminds me of the person who won the $500,000 dream house in a lottery. It was really nice but they had no financial means to support living in the home.
Paul, it would be great if the two community centres (aka arenas) were self-sufficient, but they’re not. If I recall correctly, the net cost of Wellington for 2011 was $350K and for Picton $250K for a total of $600K. Problems include both revenues (not enough) and costs (too much).
Perhaps Mooney can answer this…how is the waste disposal contracted? Is it by tonnage,,,by the # of routes? The driver does not check for bag tags so how is the company paid?
Tricks used to avoid paying for tags include after 10pm take your bag 5 houses up the street and mix it in with the senior citizens bags that were set out that night for the early pickup. If there is a dumpster on a schoolyard or construction site,perfect,,nobody is going to complain or sort through looking for ID. Of course there is the heave-ho over the snowbank for the mattress,couch and other items that can’t be left at the curb.County should be encouraging the proper disposal at dump stations with a once a month free day for these items..This price increase will hit the single stay at home mom with pre-school kids and of course the senior with their disposable waste. You can bet County employees from the top down use the on site dumpsters for their own household garbage bags. There’s a market for the WHITE appliances left at the dump centres,,,is this revenue funneled back into County coffers? Too much grey area and questions to ask here.
What’s the difference, Beth? If garbage collection is costing additional money and we add this to what we are already paying in taxes, it might just as well be added to our tax bill. We are paying more money, either way.
If I recall correctly, bag tags were introduced in 1993 and were $1.00—they went up to $2.00 after the turn of the century, but I’m not sure how long ago. It’s been a while. Anyway, our household puts out one bag a week, or sometimes nothing, so it’s not going to be significant to us—at most $ 52.00 a year. We can live with that.
I think you’ll find the Arena’s in Prince Edward County are pretty much self sufficient relying on a wide range of user groups, Minor Hockey, Figure Skating,Junior Hockey and Adult Hockey programs in the winter.Youth Ball Hockey in the summer as well as hall rentals.These facilities do generate revenue, could they be used more effectively to help offset costs elsewhere more then likely..Just saying.
I am sure these items could be covered in our taxes again, the taxes will just have to be increased accordingly. Yeah, I don’t think that would go over very well.
Beth, the new Wellington arena is a wonderful facility and maybe the community raised a significant amount of money to help build it, but did anyone stop to think what it would cost to maintain it and the effect it would have on county finances. Just being wonderful is not enough. It should have been affordable for the county to operate, too. A lot of people were so dazzled by the thought of building this ice palace that they turned a blind eye to operational costs.
As for the good old days, I realize they are not coming back. I’m just glad I have thenm to remember. Today’s generation may not find much “good” to recall about these times. It’s wonderful that you don’t mind paying more for your garbage collection. but many of us are tired of being gouged for services that our taxes once covered.
The “Good Old Days” are long gone and are not coming back. We are working in a new reality of increased costs and required services.
BTW: The new Wellington Arena is a wonderful facility and was greatly needed in this community. Funny thing; it was the community who put together a significant portion of the funds necessary to build it.
Remember the good old days when county employees actually trolled roadside ditches for trash, in a springpick-up? Now fast food containers litter the roads, along with beer bottles, dirty diapers and other garbage. The new bag tag fee can only make it worse. What part of ‘we can’t afford it’ does council not understand? They have merrily blown our tax dollars on inflated salaries and a white elephant arena and now are making us pay through the nose for their reckless spending. Garbage collection was once covered in our taxes. Now it’s an add-on It’s like the old joke about the senior citizen and his driver’s licence – we can’t afford our libraries and museums, bag tag fees are being hiked by 50 percent and we may be losing some of our fire stations, but dad-burn it we’ve still got our first class arena in Welligton and a lot of other frills.
We all talk about the basic cost increasing, can anyone tell me how long bag tags have been at $2, I simply don’t remember. As we all know the cost of fuel has risen substantially, in addition to the cost of maintaining the garbage and recycling trucks. As I see it, there are 2 choices; increase the cost of the bag tags or increase taxes to offset the rising costs of the collection vehicles. I am going to go out on a limb and say nobody wants the taxes increased further.
Yes it’s an extra $1, however I am sure many of us have become quite adept at recycling and composting and through that, we can control the amount we have to spend on garbage collection.
Instead of complaining about how much it will cost to have your garbage picked up, let’s be glad we personally don’t have to take it to the land transfer every week. If we all work ( I will include myself in that) at reducing further the amount of garbage that has to be picked up we will reduce what we pay.
County ratepayers pay for services received through municipal taxes, provincial education taxes and municipal user fees.
The most significant user fees are for water and wastewater treatment, for households so connected. Each year, the rates charged are based on costs incurred — i.e. total revenues from user fees = total costs.
The next most significant user fee is for garbage collection, paid by every household in the County. I’m wondering if there is a similar annual calculation of the bag tag rate, where total revenues = total costs.
If so, then total costs have gone up by 50%, because the bag tag rate is being increased by this percentage. If not, why not? And where is the additional revenue being spent? Enquiring minds want to know.
The burn barrel will be fine, so long as there is no burn ban on. This will be a disaster for a couple of years at least. All the side roads including the all important south shore area will be treated like garbage dumps. And any business that has a dumpster on their property better put some locks on the lid, lest you wind up with a full bin. There will be little to no increase in revenue because we will have to pay extra for the County Works Department to pick up all the roadside trash that’s going to happen. I’ve said it before, start fining people who jaywalk, and park in fire lanes, no parking areas, or disabled spots without a permit and you will see the money roll in.
I heard the term “low hanging fruit” mentioned here before and that’s exactly what this is….nobody likes paying the 2 bucks now ,,,how is 3 bucks going to solve anything? It’s just a money grab plain and simple,,we already pay once in our annual tax bill.. We are all recycling to the max now.
So,,an easy answer–and your not going to like it– right beside that old car up on blocks in the back yard set out a steel barrel,and buy a $15.00 burn Permit! For the price of 5 tags one can pollute our environment and probably PO your neighbors downwind (hello councillor, who voted for this gouge!) The annual Trash Bash will need to be 2–3 days just to put a dent in the waste(couches,mattresses,fridges etc. along snowbanks and sideroads. Not a lot of thought went into this,,certainly not for the working poor of this County.
Brian good comment–did you go through the whole article on county live–i would not want to be a contractor
the garbage thing will just encourage people to dump their garbage in the cross roads.
The Wellington Times has some good articles today along with a new Wellington (spelled Wellinton) sign which a source told me it took 6 county emloyees to put up–maybe one of them should have noticed the spelling error
I don’t know where you live but I live in Picton and the cost of water and sewer is way too high
This savage increase in garbage prices is foul. I wholeheartedly condemn our Council for deciding that the property taxes we pay do not pay for garbage disposal. What they have really done is force those who produce garbage to pay a new tax, which Councillors and administration will glibly use to pay for their pet projects.
And they are doing the same thing for that other type of waste disposal- sewage.
The “encouraging recycling argument” is just silly because efforts in the last ten years have already made us great recyclers. Councillors who now cite recycling are simply trying to clothe themselves in righteousness as they do manifest wrong.
Do they not realize that this regressive tax increase for waste disposal penalizes most those who have large families (people with children?)And do we not need young people in the County?
Councillors, please reconsider your foul and short-sighted decision to penalize some of us in order to give hefty increases for Human Resources, Fire Department, and Economic Development, departments which are supposed to benefit all all taxpayers.
If you need more tax money, have the courage to raise the property tax rate and justify the raise to your constituents.