The Cornwall Free News Makes its First Endorsement for City Council – Gary W. Samler – October 7, 2010 – Cornwall Ontario EDITORIAL – VIDEO

Cornwall ON – Pat Finnerty tonight proved that when a city spends $150 million plus dollars in a year perhaps pinching on those that make the decisions how to spend those dollars and tax its citizens is penny wise pound foolish.

An example if you may.    Imagine a council with poor business skills.   Lack of experience; lack of skills to negotiate and work together.   How much would that cost Cornwall?   Would 5% be a reasonable estimate?  I think that’d be low, but 5% of $150M is $7,500,000 dollars per year.

How much would a good council improve the financials for a city?  Same 5% would be another $7.5M.   The line between the two extremes is enough to buy you half or so of an over sized hockey rink that you probably would never use either.

That being said there are people, and not just voters, but media people here, and politicians who would suggest that paying councilors less than $15K per year is a good thing, and that it’s “just a part time job for retired people” which any good accountant or business person would tell you is wrong.

That $15M potential whip to me would be better optimized with the best that we as a city could afford on Council.    I respectfully suggest that full time councilors with salaries to reflect that, even if it’s a reduced council is the way to growth and the way to a strong future.   You want to break that 50,000 population barrier?

Don’t mistake me.  It’s not that we absolutely need a whack of MBA’s sitting on council.   We need people that care about others.  We need people that will fight for those that need help and who are weakest in our city too.

It’s why tonight we are offering our endorsement to Mr. Gary Samler.   He has our vote for city council of Cornwall Ontario.   His speeches show where his focus is, and his actions have backed that up.

I don’t agree with all his policies.  I don’t think that he’s the best man for the job.   I don’t think he has the full skill set, but I do think he’s earnest; has integrity of his beliefs, and is passionate for the welfare of his fellow Cornwallite.     I think he’ll work well with City management too, and will be able to learn some of the things that could make him a good councilor, and I think he will work well with other councilors and whoever the mayor is.

We do need to evolve and improve.    As well as the last council performed,  things can always be better.   Based on watching two live debates, reading, and listening to a lot of material and opinions we fully support Gary Samler as our first city council endorsee for Cornwall Ontario.

Remember, we can get better and grow.  Or we can end up with Pat Finnerty for City Council.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79h6akSGtS0

Here are some videos of Gary in action.  We missed his best speech which was at the Chamber of Commerce debate, but you can listen to that on podcast on Seawayradio.com

Gary at the Labour Council.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSgNUJzoZEk

Gary on Living Wages

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3hyPbMrvX4

Gary at the Mark MacDonald Rally

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJf4gSjMxzY

What do you think Cornwall?   You can post your comments below.

(Comments and opinions of Editorials, Letters to the Editor, and comments from readers are purely their own and don’t necessarily reflect those of the owners of the Cornwall Free News, their staff, or sponsors.)