Cornwall Ontario – He’s so nice. She’s so nice. Look how well he dresses are not really criteria for voting for a mayor, councilor, MPP or MP; or even dog catcher. Frankly I think many voters forget that we are electing people to spend our money and make decisions that cost us money.
In today’s edition of the 11th Councilor I look at the insanity of Monday’s Council meeting here in Cornwall where for some reason it was not broadcast and in that darkness, narely a word reported on by the media that sucks the city for thousands of dollars per year our farcical team of elected officials voted to actually spend $10K to hire a consultant to give them a raise.
Gutless? That’s a pretty good term. Councilor Clement pointed out that a committee was actually rejected in this very term by this very council over the issue so why this joke now? With millions wasted in the Fitzpatrick scandal why this little extra jab?
We have City staff sucking back over $100K per year. Surely some of them could do what I did and go to Wikipedia and get a link to Cities in Ontario by population. LINK (30 seconds)
Reviewing that list I’ll pick three with similar populations. Belleville (49K) , North Bay( 53K) , and Quinte West (43K) .
Belleville has a mayor and eight councilors. Salaries are about $70K for the mayor and $26 for Councilors. LINK (45 seconds)
North Bay has a mayor and ten councilors. (30 seconds) LINK
The mayor now earns $57,427 annually, while the deputy mayor gets $20,214. And councillors are paid $18,378.
That was about a minute with copy and pasting of links.
Quinte West uses a ward system and has a mayor and twelve councilors. LINK The Mayor earns about $45k with council making $17K.
So in less than ten minutes we have a working understanding of what similar cities are paying their council.
Cornwall has increased taxes and cut services this term. Using a merit system these people should be giving back some of their salary.
One candidate for council in the upcoming election; Brock Frost, a local realtor actually stated that if elected he’d donate his council salary to local charity.
Mr. Frost is about half the age of the mayor and most of council which pretty much kills the assertions of Councilor’s MacDonald and Clement that raising salaries would attract younger people.
Frankly in the real world people run for council for their own agenda. Councilors MacDonald and Clement have both run for higher office. Most of council have multiple pension.
Andre Rivette on hiring the consultant.
I support this 100%
The irony is that it was councilor Andre Rivette that seconded the ridiculous motion to spend money on a consultant. Surely Andre must realize that we elect people to lead; not delegate or hide as his council has this term.
The Cornwall General Hospital, The Fitzpatrick Scandal, the Rob Hickley and Diane Shay cases, The Air Force Wing, Beavergate, Pigeons, fire and police contracts. Bilingual Hires at CCH, and of course the tanks on our waterfront where the city is still hiding the truth about Economic Development’s communication with Trillium in February and Spring 2013. There hasn’t been a single issue that this council has tackled including having this scribbler removed by seven police officers, hitting the panic button, for wearing a non offensive t shirt and responding to the mayor trying to restrict certain charter rights. We also had the mayor lying to council re: comments from former Councilor Leslie O’Shaughnessy’s resignation explanation.
So is it a surprise that Mr. Rivette would want to spend more tax dollars to ask for a raise? For you and I paying their salaries do we get to hire a consultant when we want a raise or do we have to ask or lobby for it? And of course when you ask for a raise sometimes it can lead to some ugly truths; that you simply do not deserve it.
Frankly I think it’s time we look at the make up of our council. We currently spend about $150K per year to elect 10 people to make decisions part time on a $150M or so budget.
Frankly that’s insane. That’s like the old movie clips of Goober pulling the brake cord on a train. And as we’ve seen most of those elected are simply unable to perform professionally whether it comes to policy decisions or interacting with the public and media.
How many dollars has this council cost the City of Cornwall because if its corruption and incompetence?
Even Councilor Rivette; after unanimously supporting a new motion on Conflict of Interest broke it in the same night he voted for it, and it passed, by lobbying for funding for Winterfest as his son Rodney sits on the board of the event.
Maybe; just maybe; we should consider a return to the Ward system so that the public could not only have someone to serve them; but to also hold directly responsible? Instead of having 5 councilors rubber stamp a mayor; which could happen; there would be more public pressure to demand a councilor to support their causes?
Likewise instead of ten part time councilors why not six full time ones? With the current budget they’d only earn $25K which is far too low; but if we doubled it to $50K we’d only be adding $300K per year, but certainly would attract better candidates than retirees fine with some extra pocket money for bingo or colostomy bags?
As for council pay why not simply have it as a ballot question each election? The current council would suggest an amount for the question so for example in the upcoming Municipal election a ballot question would be added.
Should Council get a raise of $3,142 dollars per year for the next term? Let those that pay the bill make the decision of those elected have earned it. As for the mayor maybe let council decide? That would make things very interesting as well as then council would be more accountable for the mayor.
See, you don’t really need to run to Consultants. When Councilor Samson is the voice of reason in a debate you know something is funky.
This council is funky.
Jamie Gilcig – your 11th Councilor!
UPDATED
Here are the six that voted to spend $10K in tax dollars on a consultant.
Bob Kilger, Mayor
Elaine MacDonald, Councillor
André Rivette, Councillor
Glen Grant, Councillor
Syd Gardiner, Councillor
David Murphy, Councillor
You can post your comments below.
seems to me the council will vote themselves a raise anyway why bother with a consultant? is it to justify the raise? where is justice when you need it most? has any one of them actually done anything to deserve the raise? i can think of only a few i could count on one hand i might say yes to. 57,000.00 annually to keep secrets? another thing i would like to know is, are these councilors all knowing in their fields? or do they have advisers, and if so who are they?
in addition i submit the idea of a ballot having the question whether or not they should receive a raise, should also include have they lived up to their convictions and your expectations.
It’s perfectly normal to ask for a raise when you’ve earned one.Council did not [RAISE DENIED] I just saved the city 10k LOL
The raise councillors are voting for is NOT for themselves during their current term.. It is for those being elected FOR THE NEXT TERM.
Of course it would be for themselves, BUT ONLY IF YOU ARE SILLY ENOUGH TO RE-ELECT THEM.
At least a University degree should be a pre-consideration among those vying for such a service. Yes, it goes without saying that it should NOT be a prerequisite, however, if you do not have experience behind you either, how do you expect to attract the voters…you can fool some of the people some of the time…….unfortunately, too many councillors have NOT proven their worth and education and experience I believe have in part been the reasons.
Thus, for heaven sakes, look closely at these two important factors among others before both deciding to run and deciding who to vote for. Elections have too often been just a popularity contest. That may be okay when considering ones ability to build teams and be leaders, so it is also a given that you will want to consider this as well.
It is not too early to bring some of these issues up since one can now register for the October election.
Isn’t Cornwall having a meeting tonight at the Civic Complex or the Benson center? It has to do with some kind of question and answer period about a better Cornwall. Opinions from the general public.
Here is one question for somebody to ask, If council is planning to hire consultant to determine remuneration who will be responsible for the $10,000 fee?
Maybe they should add it to the ballot in the upcoming municipal election and allow the public to choose a percentage.
If salaries were performance based then the city council should be giving money back instead of asking for a raise.
Jamie i read your stuff you took the word right out of my mouth………. i like the ward system
The whole bunch are nothing but a bunch of crooks and hiring a consultant – well Cornwall taxpayers there goes your money into another pit.
My spidey sensors smell or feel something a bit odd. My guess is that a consultant would have a fee or rather would generally negotiate a fee for service,
Is stating up from the amount council is willing to spend of our money not putting the cart before the horse.
Is this how they have negotiated with the many many consultant requests they have made this year…..
Could it be that this as in other council decisions was already pre-determined and the discussion and vote was simply a formality or a smoke screen to give the impression they decided at the time of the vote…..
Does this happen ALL the time….
While everyone is distracted by the jockeying and tail wagging, the city is being more than simply poisoned by fluoride in it’s city water. Since September, many people in Cornwall have noticed a very strong smell in the water when taking showers. No, it’s not fluoride they smell, because fluoride has no smell. So what is it we are all smelling? Why is it that while other major city’s are ending the Nazi fluoridation campaign, Bob Kilger chooses to ignore the requests and demand for investigation? Is Bob Liberal RED or Nazi RED in his colors? Only time will tell. God knows he poisoned his own marriage with his presence, are we going to let him poison our City as well?
These community minded individuals who are concerned about the well being of the citizens should be happy with the temporary position rate of remuneration .increasing annually by the actual previous years rate of inflation. A bonus to be paid during each year with taxes have been held to no more than the actual previous years rate of inflation and no cuts to services are made other than through greater efficiency.
This looks like one of the situation where no matter who they precede people will not be happy with the results. If they vote for a raise somebody will assume some form of meddling and if they hire a contractor some will have issues with the cost.
So why not place additional options on the up and coming municipal election ballot, shall was add remuneration increase options of 0%, 3% and or 5%.
They do work for all of you and usually employees are only graded on what their employer believes they should earn based on quality of work
As one of their employers I look at their accomplishments and individual record. Based on their performance a failing grade deserves special attention at the next election. No merit increase is deserved however the expense accounts for councilors and mayor should reflect the actual rates of inflation for the time period.
If I would dare to speak the truth then I would say that the present council members owe us a refund for the money that was squandered on coverups, payouts and the consequences of poor decision making. ( Not taking over the harbor front from the Feds to secure the vision for our community for one ). Can you think of why the councilors as a group deserve more of our money ? Why would you want to reward poor/bad behavior ?
The entire system in Cornwall is a sham and yes people should have a tax rebate on what the council and Bare Ass took from them. No wonder out of a town of around 46K people only 67 people showed up at a meeting. People have been more than fed up and discouraged for years and the vast majority left. I think that it was Mr. Oldham who was at the public library looking at the forecast of what Cornwall’s population was supposed to be by the year 2000 and I had such a good laugh at this end of the machine. Whoever could take off and leave Cornwall did just that because they knew what Cornwall was like and no future at all for themselves and their families to be. My generation including those before me and those after me took off like a shot out of Cornwall and they never went back but just to visit their elderly parents and that is it. Who else will tolerate 10 councellors and a part time mayor when you can find him and botching up everything that they can possibly do so and charge the people exhuberant taxes. I had such a good laugh this morning listening to the voice of the former mayor of Cornwall who is now in Ottawa at Jewel Radio Station saying how intelligent that he was to leave – that was Mayor Brian Sylvester. People have given up hope about what to do with Cornwall and certain people who live down there keep bringing it down lower and lower to the sewer level with a terrible reputation. Good people do not want to live in a place like that at all. Trying to sell people homes is going to be a tough sell with the time. People make a place worth living or a place that you want to get out as fast as possible. Again the whole system is a sham.