Dysfunctional Conflicted Corrupt Cornwall Ontario City Council Heads to Ombudsman While Budget Burns by Jamie Gilcig 042418

Cornwall Ontario –   One area lawyer refers to Mayor Leslie O’Shaugnessy as a hobo.   They get irate that the man won’t wear a tie to council and dresses shabby even to going as far as once saying he was going to drop some coins onto the mayor’s desk to help him go to Agape and buy a used suit…

After watching video of a donneybrook  at council where the Mayor had not only lost control of the horseshoe, but was participating in the mayhem last night’s council meeting reached farcical levels.

At the root were tweets a seemingly frustrated Mark A MacDonald made calling those on council who had signed a pledge to reign in taxed two faced and hypocrites.   MacDonald expressed that he had looked up the words in the dictionary and they fit and that he’d continue to fight to keep taxes down in this community.

And he’s right.   Which is more important, to wear a nice suit or to have integrity and accomplish what needs to be done?

In Cornwall sadly clothes and cars do play a larger role than normal.   People like Gilles Latour clearly lacked integrity, but gosh darn dressed nicely and even after their scandals sadly would be more acceptable to far too many than say our hobo mayor or this writer who’s been maligned for my own choice of attire (and of course for being overweight and in certain hushed circles, for being….Jewish – Cornwall is indeed a special community)

https://www.facebook.com/standardfreeholder/videos/10156141510326827/

People like Claude McIntosh, Bernadette Clement, and those those that supported this motion clearly show why they are unfit for office at any level.   They may mean well and at  some levels and they may want to help their community, but right now the only thing council should be focusing on is how to resolve the budget.

Instead they are still racking up bills, seemingly gleeful because the auditors said that there’s plenty of room for the city’s credit threshold like teenagers that find out their maxed out credit card just got its limit extended.

You can’t run a city like that any better than you can your own life.  Eventually you hit a wall and in the meanwhile you end up not being able to pay for important things because you did crazy things like buy old bank buildings for what would be several times the cost of a building you could’ve already purchased that would pay for itself.

No, anyone that actually cares about the city they live in, cares about how much they are paying in taxes, and cares about building a better community; one that doesn’t see its young flee and doesn’t like so many empty storefronts needs to shake their heads and realize that dramatic change is needed.

But then I’m an overweight apparently badly dressed Jewish outsider.  What the heck would I know….



The next question will be how much cash and staff time will the city have to devote for this exercise of taking Councilor MacDonald to the Ombudsman when clearly he’s the only one on council voicing a clear desire to fight rising taxes (other than those wanting to cut pizza to committee meetings)

And the other delicious irony in that the thin skinned mice are actually highlighting his strength in trying to actually serve his community rather than their very clear failings.

You can of course post your comments below.

9 Comments

  1. Ridiculous. Just do a quick search on councillors and calling out hypocrisy among the ranks…it’s endless. Two of seemingly endless examples:

    1. Toronto council descended into a shouting match as Councillor Doug Ford accused his fellow councillors of “hypocrisy”

    2. The press release goes on to describe six of his fellow councillors (both current and former) as “vermin” and “hypocrites”

  2. Let’s rewrite that headline… “Dysfunctional Cornwall City Council Gives Mayoral Candidate Mark A. MacDonald A Winning Platform Plank” — what a lovable bunch of idiots.

    And being that truth is a pretty good defence… those fools around the council table — that fell in line with its foremost stooge Claude McIntosh — have just made the mayor’s chain of office Mark MacDonald’s for the asking.

  3. Not often I agree with Jamie. But he is right, as is Mark A MacDonald. I guess the rest of the monkeys don’t like getting called to task for their failures. It is almost May and the budget is still being discussed. This should have been finalized months ago. But with council’s continual game of pass the buck will this budget ever pass?

  4. Author

    Mark is the only one who has clearly identified why our tax levy has gone up nearly 20% this term. It’s not on fargin pizza for committees or mowing grass.

    Mark is also the only councilor who wants to dialog on it. Yet he’s been hatcheted by the Freeholder with none of council stepping up to support him, yet council circles the wagons when he calls out those that signed the pledge to fight taxes and who don’t?

    Something is upside down about this picture.

  5. I guess Councillor MacDonald is one of those people who call a spade a spade. Councillor Clement comment on respect was interesting. Respect is something you earn and she has a long way to go.

    Take Care,

    Diane

  6. Author

    Flipper Clement seems to be in a contest with the mayor to see who can talk more at a council meeting….

  7. Lets all sing….I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts….there’s Leslie, Elaine, Claude, Bernadette, Carolyne, Dave and all the others from up in the tree. This clueless bunch need a calculator to count to 10. The electorate WANT lower taxes NOW. You all talk of reducing services, but it’s time for this council to cut administration a.k.a wasteful managers and their deputies/ assistants.

  8. As I’ve said before Councillor Elaine MacDonald has never met a tax or “service fee” hike she hasn’t liked. And now we can expand that to include most of the current crop of monkeys sitting around the horseshoe.

  9. Perhaps someone should point out for Ms. Clement that respect is not an automatic feature. Respect is earned. Claude McIntosh might benefit from a dictionary once he gets past the denial phase. Looks like a duck, walks like a duck…….

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