On Mr Prince's Blog this morning is a post regarding the rising discontent over incumbent politicians and how local incumbent politicians should be very afraid.
I would like to speak to some of the comments he refers to.
http://blog.johnprince.ca/search?updated-min=2010-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-07%3A00&updated-max=2011-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=25
I know this is a case on the International and provincial side of things but the article he refers to does not talk at any point about municipal politics, but lets assume it will flow to that level.
Anyway let's talk about the rest of the post I will take some quotes and address them with my comments :
"According to the above story people in general are angry. Very Angry! They feel their politicians are elitist, arrogant and oblivious to their pain and suffering, and as such doing little to nothing to address their issues and concerns. As a result, it's a very, very bad time to be an incumbent."
Most of us on the present council are simple folks six of us have lived here for ten years or more.
Do we have some members of our council that are elitist, arrogant and oblivious to the residents pain and suffering, yes I think we have some of that do you really think taht applies to the whole of council? should they all be painted with that same brush?
Then we go to:
"With this in mind, I wonder how our own incumbents are feeling about their chances of getting back in, considering the mood of our residents towards the on-going, never ending, three year long battle between the two waring camps on our council?"
John you really do not buy into the 4-3 Irwin propaganda do you? we all know that council spilt over the Crowsnest Centre issue and a some budgetary related issues. We also all recognize that 95% of Council Motions pass by something other than 4-3.
Would this be the first council accused of being 4-3?
But as you have said many times yourself this council did a lot of things well and did not receive enough credit for the good things they did.
"The never ending battle between the waring camps" isn't that exactly how the media, Irwin and his cronies portrayed the council from 1998-2001? Was that all accurate?.
"All the while, apparently, oblivious to the fact there is a good chance none of them will be getting back in because of their past actions".
If none of us are to get back in due to our "past" actions then I suspect the voters will go back further than just this last council, because very few of us that have sat on council previously have not had our names tarnished by one part of the media or the other and Irwin's cronies.
"and understand from this that what is needed and wanted is democracy in action where councillors actually work together as a team for the greater common good and get things done, by applying some good old-fashioned basic common-sense while leaving the grandstanding and 'gotcha' politics behind"
Democracy isn't that about taking a position, debating it and voting? 4-3, 5-2, 6-1, 7-0 which one of them is not democracy.
"Can one blame them? After all, this council treated us like we were mushrooms i.e. kept us in the dark and fed us BS. We never had public forums to discuss any of the important issues, such as Bridgecreek/River Run and the lack of security deposits and long-term taxpayer liabilities, CLC (legal costs), the 4-3 voter split, etc., etc. and still know little to nothing on who, what, when and why with respect to these matters? They acted like they were above us and need not bother or trouble themselves with such matters as accountability and due diligence. Transparency went out the door as did fiscal responsibility. Thoughtful people believe one side was as bad as the other with respect to these matters, and therefore neither side is deserving of getting back in."
Couple of comments:
The Bridgecreek/River Run this is a private deal no different than any other development, we as a council can approve development agreements, zoning etc. No different than if I owned a piece of private land the municipality can not force me a built on it. There are people here that have owned land for 50 years and never done anything with it. That is a right allowed to us in a democratic country.
The mistakes the council made here was when the first council sold this property back in the mid 90's with no conditions attached to it.
Then this council made a large error, when we did not force them to put up security, I also feel that the Mayor made a big mistake when he appeared in their promotional video.
CLC legal costs those were not caused by council if you go back to the report in the spring that we were given by our financial officer after a request by Councillor Mitchell if memory serves me right those costs were about $80,000. Approximately $30,000 of that was due to the plebiscite that was forced on the municipality, which the public eventually sent a clear message on. The rest was as a result of the legal action taken due to the leases signed by the CLC Society.
The 4-3 I give Irwin credit here, he created an issue to blind as many people as possible to the real issues.
What amazes me is that some really smart people have brought into this issue, unless of course they are just using it for political advantage!
Another point if we are going to label this council as the 4-3 council what would we label previous councils, I hope I get this right:
1998-2001 4-3
2001-2004 5-2
2004-2007 4-3
2007-2010 4-3
Help me out folks let me know if I'm wrong.
"Fiscal Responsibility out the door".
Really over the last ten years can anybody point to a council that as done more to become more efficient, to reduce costs, than this one? sometime in the next two weeks I will list them all.
Anyway back to the question on the post, should incumbents be afraid? I guess depending on which side of the issues the voters side with, obviously some incumbents should be afraid.
But I believe that some of the councillors on this last council stood for what they truly believed in despite the fact that they were lambasted in parts of the media week after week.
They could have had it easy, they could have sat back and agreed with Irwin and his cronies, caused no controversy, had wonderful things said about them by those same hacks.
And today those same people would be blasting them for being a 7-0 council, a bunch of mindless sheep, Irwinites, that stood for nothing.
Anyway I believe that the people of the Crowsnest Pass are smart enough to cut through the crap that parts of the local media and Irwin and his cronies, have put out about members of this council and previous ones.
Finally yes I agree some what in that a few of the incumbents do not deserve to come back.
Change will happen in the Crowsnest Pass.
10 comments:
I agree with you Dean.Finally I had a council that did some things that pleased me, like closing down the Centre.All 3 of you that are running for council will get my vote.After waiting this long to have the power on the side of what I believe the majority wanted, why would that same majority not vote for you guys.
Dean I would like some facts stated to me about a couple of things done here in the Crowsnest Pass. When the Hotel and Condos that are now in Fernie, BC. were offered to the Municipality with backing why were they turned down the exact facts and by whom of the council and mayor. Next - when Wall Mart was offered to us a muliti billion business why was it turned down, exact facts and by whom - mayor and council. I know that council members and the mayor shop there and want the reasoning behind this. Sharon Voytko
Hello Dean,
I was just wondering what your opinion is regarding the people who conjured up the river run/bridgegate "developments" (all of them).
10's of millions of dollars were invested (other people's money) and only coal piles to show for it, and apparantly the money is all gone. Who cleans it up? Is there an obligation by the owners to make sure the mess is cleaned up? That there are no environmental issues? Is there anyone monitorng this situation or asking the tough questions? Has anyone asked why , after dozens of promises of developments, that there is still nothing done on these sites?
You state its a private deal like any other. Do you really feel that way? Do you sense some wrongdoings here? Were people unneccessarily hurt in this saga? Who stood by and watched as it unfolded? The RCMP? Council? Everybody?
Just interested in your answers on this, considering you are running for council.
Thanks
Sharon
I am so glad to have the opportunity to speak to you.
The Hotel and Condos that went to Fernie I,m not exactly sure on the timing I believe it was sometime in the mid to late 90,s it was certainly well before I started on council (2004) but those were proposed to be done on the land heading up to Pine View. The developer was Schichedanz who used to own the mall at that time.
I spoke to somebody in their office back in 2004 and they told me that they spent close to $50 million in Fernie.
Walmart in the six years that I have been on council we have never been approached by Walmart or any other major box store regarding locating in the CNP. I would be very gald to see any evidence thats proves different.
One of the points I tried to make at the forum was if you go to Pincher and look at the area Walmart is sitting on its a large piece of flat property(7-8 acres), thats fully serviced (Water Sewer etc) next to the highway.
Where do we have that equivalent type of property in the Pass?
Only two sites that come close to that in size and topography. The Centre site and the Atlas saw mill property.
The Atlas property is ruled out because it as no servicing, the last estimate we had was $25 million and I don't believe Bridgecreek is going to be putting it in.
So that leaves only the Centre Site, so in essence the Centre not only cost the taxpayers a lot of money it took away the opportunity for corporate development.
Where else could it go?
Anyway Sharon I hope I answered your questions and I would be glad to answer any others you have.
Thanks
Dean
Dean
How much is it going to cost to rip down the old hospital?
Les
Les
Last council meeting we directed administration to go out and find that information for us. So it will be there for the next council.
The really sad part is that back when the municipality took over the building in the late 80's the province gave the town $150,000 to get rid of the building, unfortunatly they decided to put that into operating the building.
Today with all the restrictions put on demolishing building with abestos in them, its not going to be cheap.
Dean,
Ditto for me. I'll also be voting for all three of you running for council. I attended the public forum and liked what I heard from you guys. I know a lot of others did, too.
In regards to attracting commercial business' to the Pass, the likes of a Wal-Mart, it's going to be a tough sell. Even if the CLC property becomes available at some point, who's going to want to come here? If another "large" retail store is considering opening up in this area, I suspect they would probably do it in Pincher Creek, and as close as possible to Wal-Mart and the other new stores. Unfortunately, we've missed the boat on this one and we'll have to be very creative in attracting business' or industry of any type to CNP. What I mean by business' & industry are ones that will employ 25-50 people or more. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with mom & pop stores setting up here, and I'd welcome as many as possible. But to make an impact, we need a major employer. The sooner we have property available, the better. All it will take is one major business or industry to come and others will follow. It could begin with a major Hotel chain. In the meantime, numerous CNP residents are spending their dollars in Pincher. A lot of BC residents who use to shop in CNP are now travelling another 20 minutes east to spend their money. Can you blame them?
Choppy was right at the forum this was not a dysfuntional council it was one that did not bow to the Mayor. I will vote for Choppy for that reason alone.
Jack
Good choice on letting the assets of the Crowsnest Centre go down the road for cents on e dollar. Very community minded. I am sure folks in places like Coaldale, etc are appreciating it! Too bad we don't have something like decent chairs in the Elks hall! Well done!
The assets of the Crowsnest Centre.
The taxpayers of the Crowsnest Pass and the provinve of Alberta put over $4 million of their money into the centre over the years.
In 2006 council despite my objections gave the Centre a $35,000 line of credit that we were assured by the supporters of the centre on council that they would pay back, two years later the taxpayers took the hit on that.
Then the board approaches council after all the money that the community as put in to the place and offers us the assets at what the majority of council delt was a very inflated price. The supporters of the centre again said we were wrong.
The assets sold at auction for one third of what the taxpayers were asked to pay.
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