Editor:
In reply to March 31 news story: “Budget System Needs To Change”:
I trust that Mr. Fox (a charter member of the gang of 6 slate) followed his and Mr. Bateman’s own guidelines and obtained permission from the whole of Council before asking staff to provide summaries of salaries and expenses of all of Council, especially in the light of their loud criticisms of the cost of the Mayor’s picture in newspaper notices of the Mayor’s forum and the cost of coffee at municipal events.
I would contend that for an elected Councillor or Mayor to be effective some significant expenses are necessary and justified.
I have in fact been wasting my time and effort questioning the above issues. As we all know the gang of 6 slate acts without any concern for constituent’s wishes. Like the slate of Scholtens’ day, they do what they want and freely and arrogantly tell the voters what is good for them. They could care less about what the voters really want.
What we want is fair democratic representation, responsible spending and no tax increases during fiscal hard times. It’s all about attitude. We are not your piggy bank. You are not entitled to whimsical, arbitrary tax increases. All that is required is amortizing large capital projects over longer periods and holding the line against unreasonable municipal union’s featherbedding demands. It would be a big help if municipal staff were not in charge of their own size and hiring as this is classical “fox in charge of the fiscal hen house monitory control” which is out of control.
Our municipality must have the will to practice competent fiscal behavior and policy.
A fair and ethical political system debates how our money is spent based on divergent ideology but we can’t spend money we don’t have.
Bob Moats, Langley