I received an e-mail yesterday from a resident who watched part of the council meeting on Tuesday.He watched it again on -line with Rogers on Wednesday. He wanted to assure me my hearing was correct.
To the second, he gave me the time Councillor Gallo made the statement that he wanted to correct the record against my comments about the Mayor's appointment to committees.
Again to the second, my correspondent gave me the time the Councillor denied having made that reference..
I tried to copy and paste the e-mail this morning to show it in the Blog. This time I blew it and lost the whole thing. It isn't even in my delete box.
So...I am not as smart as I thought I was. Oh well.
My objective is not to prove perfidy. I've already established Councillor Gallo is taking direction from the wrong teachers. He will have to learn that for himself . He has chosen the hard way. It will be at his cost.
I wanted to show the e-mail because I think it's such a positive sign that people are becoming evermore actively involved . I think blogs and the opportunity to engage without risk is the reason.
We have always been able to cast a ballot in secret. Now we can talk about politics anonymously and let it rip. I think that's great. It may be the element needed to make democratic politics real and not just a philosophical idea. The new element may not yet have reached it's full potential. But I think it's getting there.Fast.
Paul, if you are reading this post, please send me a copy of the e-mail. It may be somewhere in ether-ether land still but I haven't a clue how to find it.
We had a vote on Tuesday to increase the water rates by 12%. I am not satisfied that amount of increase was necessary. Every municipality in the Region is paying the same rate to the Region. But the rate charged to consumers is not the same. Richmond Hill's rate is a couple of hundred dollars less than ours.
Our Chief Financial Officer informed us water rates are not tax supported. That means the user pays what it cost. In answer to my question, he also stated water used by various tax-supported services like works, parks and fire is charged to each department's budget. I do not re-call any discussion about a 10% increase for water in department budgets.
On Saturday, my task will be to scrutinise the budget with a friend to verify that we are not charging water used by tax supported services to non-tax supported rates to consumers..
If we are using water rates to reduce tax rates I want to know so that I can tell you about it.
Since the increase has already passed by your Council there's no hope of changing it.
That makes it an election issue.
Posted by Evelyn Buck at 2:58 PM 0 comment
Galo stated he “would like to correct the public record” at 17:02 of the meeting.
ReplyDeleteHe then stated he did not state “public record I said it was in the public and I was very clear about that” at 25:57
He was clear as mud….that he doesn’t know what he said.