With a 30-year career in senior management with the City of Kitchener behind him, Doug Hergott looks to bring experience and integrity to the Woolwich Township mayor’s office.
![Doug Hergott has lived in Heidelberg for 16 years. [Scott Barber / The Observer]](https://www.observerxtra.com/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/post_hergott.jpg)
“Working for the City of Kitchener in senior management, I know all of the processes and procedures,” Hergott said. I have a lot to give back. And while I don’t have any council experience, I know the system. I have 30 years of municipal experience that will help me to hit the ground running.”
As a manager of facilities management, Hergott learned how municipal government functions.
“I sat on all of the committees and so I am familiar with the processes, procedures, and departments, as well as business cases, project management, and writing reports for council. I also have experience working with councils, wards and the public.”
The most important lesson he learned was to run government like a business.
“Being mayor is a job, they are employees like anyone else,” said Hergott. “One of the things I have done during my career that has been really successful is running it like a business. We are all spending the same $20 bill. It is a business and politicians are employees of the business working for the general public.”
That means prioritizing efficiency and employing best practices across the board.
“We need to be efficient and effective,” said Hergott. “We need to work with other municipalities to make sure we are using the best practices and to look at sharing like services.”
Hergott’s platform emphasizes infrastructure funding.
“The lack of municipal infrastructure funding sources has been and will continue to be a problem not only for the Township of Woolwich but for our neighbouring municipalities,” he said. “It should be this council’s priority to ensure that a comprehensive list along with supporting documentation and business cases are prepared well in advance, identifying and justifying the township’s infrastructure projects so that applications for funding sources are tender-ready and can be made expeditiously should future federal or provincial stimulus funding become available. Other priorities for me would be to ensure that all Woolwich facilities continue to either meet or exceed required accessibility requirements and given that a large part of annual operating and capital dollars are allocated towards the maintaining of said assets, we will need to ensure that comprehensive building audits have been completed identifying any and all deficiencies allowing the township to budget operating and or capital budget dollars accordingly.”
He added, “If elected I want to be known as the ‘people’s mayor.’ It’s all about being trustworthy and honest, having integrity and more importantly, respect. I will ensure our partnerships and collaboration with surrounding townships other municipalities and private businesses are solid. I’d also like to ensure that the best interests of Woolwich residents and businesses are well represented on regional council as well as all other boards the mayor is a member of. I will work with council to ensure that staff and council have the proper funding sources and tools allocated in order to perform their jobs to the best of their abilities. (And I) would like to engage public and private business more when it comes to the municipality’s larger community projects (because) there are a lot of talented people in our community that have much knowledge, talent and advice to offer; we just need to find a way to tap into this to better engage these citizens.”
