Last night - WL Council gave approval for the 2010 Statement of Financial Information or SOFI Report which must be in Victoria's hands by June 30th
See the Rush story here
While Mayor Cook and Councillor Bourdon made mention that the City has saved $473,000 in senior management salaries in 2009/2010 (which is true) and total WL Council expenses have dropped since 2007 (also true), both Mayor Cook and Councillor Bourdon failed to address the issue of an increase of $676,000 over the last 7 years (2003-2010) to City Staff Salaries/Expenses for those who make less than $75,000 in any given year, including a $400,000 increase in this category in 2009 vs 2010
Also - Mayor Cook has not addressed the issue of how her expenses ($18,867.11) over her first two years in office were earned, compared with Scott Nelson, who had racked up $8,464.19 in expenses in his first two years in office (2006-2007) (twice Kerry Cook's expenses for the same time period) and compared to Rick Gibson's expenses of $3,101 in his first two years in office (2003-2004) which is roughly 6 times what Cook has submitted for expenses
Also - Tom Barr's expenses were tops for Councillors' in 2010 compared to 2009 where he was last in Councillors' expenses and I believe if he runs for Council, that he have to explain to voters on this in addition to the WL Fire Hall Budget overruns of $528,000
Why not? - I believe she didn't address it as it wouldn't be in keeping with her "openness/transparency" and "fiscal prudence" messages as we get closer to November's civic vote
Greg Fry, from the Rush, interviewed me on this subject this morning and I'll post the link here when available
UPDATE - June 23rd at 5:09pm - See the Rush's story on this here (interview with me)
5 comments:
Nelson gave the union its latest contract, don't forget Steve. And if Cook loses, it will be another mayor who signs the next contract.
She can't address the increase to under $75,000 because she had nothing to do with the union contract. She was stuck with it, like the rest of us taxpayers.
Thanks to "Anonymous at 10:54am" for their comment but I'm curious, if Mayor Cook loses her re-election bid, what would you, as a City taxpayer, consider a fair contract with the City's Union (IUOE) for the next contract period (2012 - 2015/2017)?
You either pay for quality (skilled employees) or you lowball and get sub par work and drive the city into the ground. You have to pay to attract quality staff and if you dont, they will look elsewhere.
Thanks for your comment but I would respectfully point out that there is a difference between paying a fair wage that you have the ability to pay vs paying for staff when you know paying for it will cost taxpayers' money when they themselves do not have that money to give to their local City Hall
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