Cornwall Ontario – Last night’s meet, greet, and debate revealed that politicians do lie and I and Council candidate Brent Charles was surprised to finally get an honest answer from Cornwall Mayor Leslie O’Shaughnessy regarding his failures and lies broken promises as a mayor.
During the meet and greet, O’Shaughnessy was asked about the justification of the approximately 20% tax increase again, as he failed to answer it last week.
He responded saying that it was a reflection of inflation. When presented with facts from Statistics Canada showing inflation only grew 12%, his response was
“I’ve only been mayor for four years.”
He was asked about the cost of the fire video and he snapped back clearly irritated:
“I have no idea! What is it to you?”
When asked about whistleblower protection and transparency? His response: “The thing about Diane” (referring to Diane Shay) is…..I cut him off calling him a liar. I also said that he took advantage of circumstances to win as mayor. He became very defensive and said: “I was the only one who stood up for her! I was the only one who stepped down in protest.”
I then said if that was the case, then why hasn’t anything been done? His response:
“What was I supposed to do?”
Well Mr. O’Shaughnessy, from the statements above, it becomes clear who number one is. With tax increases out of control and going up again next year, by your own comment to 7%; not knowing the production costs of a video that is rumored to have cost 20,000 tax dollars; and to abandon the people you “fought” so hard to defend in the last election, equals to shame and failure!
Claiming ignorance and not knowing basic expenditures especially unjustified spending, says that you have no clue what is going on and that you blindly accept what city managers and your CAO Maureen Adams present without question. How Bob Kilger can you get?
I pay over $3600 dollars in property taxes and over 700 in water taxes and am lucky to see a plow during a heavy snowstorm, but the cost of the video isn’t worth discussing because as you said…”What is it to you?” There’s transparency!
We can see through you Mr. O’Shaughnessy. In case you didn’t know, you are accountable to the taxpayer, not city management. I don’t understand why people continue to elect people who clearly show they are not fit for the job?
I spoke to Diane Shay regarding your response and she explained that the reason why you didn’t push for whistleblower protection is because you sought the advice of a lawyer who told you that you may be in a conflict of interest.
How convenient is that? It says to me, that you have no balls to correct all the wrongs this city administration and council have projected to good and honest people.
I suppose that would be a conflict of interest too? When you said: “the thing about Diane is…” That is when I knew how disconnected you are to the victims of this fiasco.
To describe her traumatic events as a “thing” assures me that you will continue to do nothing to protect good people and that she will remain a victim as well as all the whistleblowers who came afterward.
The abuse we whistleblowers endured from the city and the neglect from council astounds me how you can get away with abuse of position and power and still not held accountable and still get elected!?
Julie Johnston was a nurse at Glen Stor Dun Lodge who Whistle blew about patient conditions. She subsequently was hunted down by council and management and is now on disability. She champions causes in the community including supporting other whistleblowers.
This goes to show he should not be re-elected, or for that matter shouldn’t have been elected mayor in the first place.He always has an answer or someone else to blame, but the answers he gives are wrong or the person blamed should not be blamed.We’ll get rid of at least two of these clowns after the mayor’s ballots are counted. Hoping we can get rid of most of the clowns around the horseshoe too.
The problem is that there are not enough new clowns to replace the old ones hugger. How many endorsement sheets did Chris Munro sign? It’s one big clique circle jerk.
New people have to go to be elected and educated not some dummy that knows absolutely nothing at all. You have to know business and politics and not just come out of the blue attached to the dirty, low life clique of Cornwall or anywhere else. This is what kept Cornwall down and no jobs only illegal drugs, booze and anything else illegal. Where are peoples intelligence? Jamie Gilcig for mayor.
Agree with your comments 100% Admin. Hopefully the new council will be better than the last two. But with what we had that shouldn’t be hard to surpass!!
Just a reminder to vote. I voted at an advance voting poll today. I didn’t like any of the 4 running for mayor. As there was no write in option I did the next best thing, the clerks asked me if that’s what I really wanted to do. There have been a few names withdrawn from the councillor list; it is now down to 30 from 32. But overall not a good selection to “run” this city.
julie,
Mr. O’Shaughnessy did speak out in 2011 but it didn.t take long for him to pay a price. He was retaliated against and eventually resigned not because of me but due to the on going harassment he was exposed to. His run for Mayor in 2014 was more tho respond to his treatment not mine. My only role was to be seen supporting him which I certainly regret today.
Take care,
Diane
Congratulations Julie on your encounter with the “bus driver. He sure fooled a lot of people. He championed Diane’s case , then, under the bus she went. He has the audacity to respond to a question by ”What is it to you?” Very Trumpish, isn’t he ? He should of been, all over our, out of town Fire Chief like a wet blanket ? A $ 20,000. video , pathetic. He doesn’t deserve our vote !