CFN – Since new Clerk Helen Finn has been hired it seems that the City has a bunker mentality when it comes to answering questions and providing info to the public.
We have asked a series of questions which usually come back with questions instead of simple answers.
For example we asked the city via Ms Finn a very very simple question; one that many have asked us.
Hi Helen,
Can you give me a global amount spent by the City of Cornwall,
during Mayor Kilger's time as mayor, on settlements and legal costs
attributed to them with city employees or former employees please.
Please note I am not asking for names or how many employees, just dollars.
Now I ask, is this question unclear to you dear viewers? Could the answer, which should be a nominal amount. IE a number, be of any personal issue or security issue?
This was our clerk’s answer to the the public via CFN.
Hello,
We have looked into your request and the answer will be complex and there is likely to be confidential information within it. Therefore, if you would like to pursue this, please make an official Freedom of information request stating what you would like, over what period, and submit a cheque for $5, as per the Act..
thank you
Helen Finn, LLB in law, Quebec,
City Clerk / Greffière
Clerk’s Department / Département du Greffe
The Corporation of the City of Cornwall
360, rue Pitt Street, Cornwall, ON, K6J 3P9
(613) 930-2787 ext 2537 Phone
(613) 932-8145 Fax
hfinn@cornwall.ca
That translates to no, I won’t answer your question unless you force me too, and by making you ask for a Freedom of Information request it delays us having to even remotely answer this very important public question.
The Kilger Council just raised taxes 2.88% which is huge in that we’ve seen similar tax increases recently and services are not improving; roads are not better paved; and Cornwall is losing jobs, not gaining them.
So answering basic questions should be something this city clerk can do. Did she ask Super Lawyer Will McDowell or David Sherriff-Scott for her answer? Are they the we? I’d send Clerk Finn another note, but those $5 FOI requests add up…
It would appear, when you read the response from Helen Finn, that the sheer magnitude and accounting of the settlements to date at the hands of the current administration would require that a small army be deployed to battle through the mountains of corporate accounting statements. In addition Helen alludes to the need to protect possible identities or information from falling into the hands of the taxpayer/voter. Thus justifying the necessity for the City of Cornwall to recoup some of the associated costs in deploying staff for the purpose you have requested. Five dollars is after all five dollars.
Or maybe Helen simply did not understand the question.
This would be more acceptable than theorizing that someone within the bureaucracy was playing petty small minded games.
Perhaps we could hold a fundraiser?
I was glad you asked. If you need the $5.00 for the Freedom of Information fee, just ask.
Yes,’ we the people’ have a right to know, should know, want to know and WILL know before the next election.
Question should entail ALL EXTRAINIOUS COSTS TO ‘WE THE TAX PAYERS’ ‘over and above’ standard fare. That is above and beyond normal costs of running our services, fees, payroll. You know best.
Thank you Jamie.
Hey folks,
Don’t forget taxpayers, make sure ya pay those water bills, because at the next election, we’ll need lots of water to flush this bunch from office !
“Double Flusher” (Membership Chair)
BIG FLUSH MOVEMENT
Did I read correction that this Finn woman is a lawyer from Québec and wondered what a lawyer is doing in a clerk’s seat. My God things are getting worse for lawyers these days when we had one in Cornwall who made an illegal investment firm and stole all the loot like Bernie Madoff and ran with it and now a lawyer who can’t get a job in her line and goes as a town clerk. LOL LOL. No wonder the country is broke and has to stoop to this and in Cornwall of all places. LOL LOL.
A lawyer who is mighty afraid to answer a simple question – she should find another line of work if she can’t answer that question. Cornwall is going to have to change their name to “TOMBSTONE” since it is a graveyard for sure. Nothing changed like what Mr. Finnerty said since he arrived in Cornwall back in 1956 – boy that is mighty bad indeed.
The people (the vast majority) are brain dead and in care at old age facilities, others stick their heads in the sand, a very small minority are trying to stand up to their rights and the rest have no other choice except to leave town for better education and opportunities.
I think that people better get off their butts and really look into what is really going on or you will all be trampled under for sure. Jamie needs your help and desperately. Have self confidence in yourselves and you can all do it. Flush them out literally and send them packing and railroad them all.
In other words…
Sorry Mr. Gilcig but the amount is too high to let anyone from the public actually know because it will piss all of you off and we wont have our jobs anymore.
Sincerly
Another Corrupt Cornwall Official
Jules, I can not read any more of your verbal spew! For someone who hates Cornwall so much and is happy to have moved away, you sure do enjoy talking about it a lot. Personally I think Cornwall is better off without a negative person like you. Jamie is also better off without you defending him b/c you and people like you make him look bad. You are constantly bashing Cornwall and adding negativity to every platform. We get it, you are glad you moved away…now move on and STHU!!
They will hide behind the act, pay the $5.00 get the ball rolling, wait for a response, if you’re not happy with the response appeal their decision. While waiting compile an opinion poll from the public and submit it with an appeal application.
23. An exemption from disclosure of a record under sections 13, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21 and 21.1 does not apply where a compelling public interest in the disclosure of the record clearly outweighs the purpose of the exemption. R.S.O. 1990, c. F.31, s. 23; 1997, c. 41, s. 118 (2).
Awesome David!
Jules…Keep on Talking the truth …I can just imagine that you probably moved from CornHole because of the way people treat each other here…I was Bashed out…of my city …bashed by city counsellors the likes of Syd Vicious….Bernie baby…and a couple others…..They lied to the public concerning sexual assault by prominent people…” Keith Jodoin” Nelson Barque, Ken Seguin and the fat one Richardson from Unemployment …well they are mostly dead now….smuthered by their lies….Cornwall is Pedville…nothing but…and never will be anything good for people…Catholics rule…!….I hate cornwall, its nothing but a bashing ” Town” it willnever be a city….only a pathetic town ….Now watch and see all the comments i get for hating a
town …so much…..glad to have moved away …and i will bash them forever…..wherever i go in life….stop accusing me of telling you my life story assholes…….Stop bashing and raping people….Cornwall Institutions are controlled……work together…and are dangerous…!
Holdfast …Cornwall would be better off without people like you…..what are you a ped protector or what…can’t you see truth when it knocks you in the face……i know a whole generation who left cornhole in the 80’s and never looked back on your pathetic ” Town” …I remember all the painted snow banks….Sin City…., pedville….666…..we we’re abused in schools by clergy… by the police…by probation officers…and judges….Nelson Barque had 6 charges of assault against him and still was hired by Cornwall …your all fucking liars……
Marc, I became aware too late that Keith J. had skirted away a box of tapes that he left in a panic with a certain contact as he was about to be house searched by the R..P.
Her boy friend opened the box after consuming a few beers too many though she was under strict orders to ensure it not be opened.
Later thta evening she returned from an outing to discover his anger. After a physical altercation she kicked him out.
Keith came back the very next day, likely after the search. He may have been holding the tapes for someone else, I don’t know.
By this time he had opportunity to skirt them away further or even back to one of the perp’s like a certain crown attorney ‘fiend’, er friend of his.
Anyway, all was too late for follow-up.
I empathize with you and ALL the others….including Constable Perry Dunlop who was your only salvation and hero for your cause. He was castigated and take advantage of as a police officer because he was right to NOT trust his co-workers, They black balled him in every way they could to make him out to be a liar and a crank.
At that time, the city police, administration, Bishop, catholic church, and all you said were in cahoots together so as to save face for their jobs, their positions, their city.
They were all an embarrassment to themselves and the city, the whole God damn bunch of them.
What they achieved instead was a mockery of the whole process, including a few related police and councilors and now years of vexation by you and all others.
Jaime.. If you need 5 bucks I’ll pony up brother.
thanks amigo, but we’re good and have a few FOI requests going in. If you like CFN though please consider becoming a paid subscriber. $25 or more per year shows your love! $250 or more puts you in the VIP section!