Editor:
Re: Town Hall meeting in Bradner.
I wanted to say that if it is the Mayor's intention to insult a large group of people on a regular basis, it appears by popular consensus that he is succeeding.
It is obvious the Mayor has a certain disdain for me personally (once again--please forgive me for speaking out of turn on Monday) but was it totally necessary to chastise me in such an insulting manner, twice? Perhaps the 'line up at the microphone' method would alleviate the problem of the overzealous speaker.
Upon reflection, I can't help but remember the following:
Bradner and Mt. Lehman was insulted Monday when the Mayor said, "Why would you care about arts and culture? You're just a bunch of farmers out here."
Conversely he had also insulted us at the first meeting he attended here when he accused us of not being farmers — saying we all lived in 10,000 sq. ft. mansions with swimming pools.
While addressing a question about urban sprawl Monday, the Mayor showed disrespect to the group of urban core residents who had earlier voiced dismay at the thought of skyscrapers, going so far as to mock their statements in a whiny voice. (And always those same insensitive references to NIMBYs.) At that first meeting in Bradner last July he was very rude to a woman (known to be somewhat of an environmental community advocate), dismissing her presence before she had even spoken.
At the AAC meeting in March the Mayor upbraided committee member Brenda Falk for her (what he referred to as) misuse of agricultural land (at Tanglebank Gardens) and humiliated and embarrassed Mark Robbins because he dared to interrupt him.
Clearly the Mayor does not take kindly to folks who do not share his views, or dare to question his motives in any way — jumping ahead of the queue at Town Hall meetings or not.
Never have I witnessed such bullying behaviour in any political forum and contrary to his dismissive rudeness to me on Monday (and on several other occasions) I will continue to be involved in city business where I see fit.
It is plainly evident that the City of Abbotsford is eager to push this proposed industrial development through in Bradner but thinks that by thinly going through the motions (and then revisiting the results to suit their own purposes) they are meeting the needs of the community.
Whose community, Mayor Banman? Certainly not mine.
In closing, I think you need to remember that you are an elected official, sir, and that you should treat people respectfully, whether you agree with them or not.
Kerry Proudfoot, Bradner