C19. THIS MAYOR AND HIS ADMINISTRATION

C.19.:

Are Wendy and Bobby playing the same tune?

The false tenor in Ms. Wendy Elliott’s article in The Advertiser under the headline “Wolfville sets it rate” (this is not even correct English) made me become upset about this kind of reporting on what had happened during the Council meeting on June 22, 2009.

This article reminded me of another printed and distributed one prior to an actual Council meeting last year quoting the Mayor, Robert Stead, to have said something during that meeting which he actually did not do. The author of that article failed to act as a mind reader predicting what Mayor Stead would say during the meeting days later.

I regard it as a disgrace how Ms. Elliot reported about Councillor Irving in her article. To me he was the only Councillor who fought hard for a decreased tax rate to at least $1.39, but the other Councillors and the Mayor seemed to have no interest in listening to his arguments. And I am talking here about the Council meeting on June 15, 2009 when Ms. Elliott was not even present. Mr. Irving fought a frustrating up-hill battle, and if new elections would be due tomorrow and I could vote for one Councillor only, he for sure would get my vote.

Ms. Elliott’s sentence: “This year marks the fifth consecutive year the residential rate has declined.” is a foolish way to report about the realities in this Town. As an unbiased reporter she should have written that this year’s tax rate - as the ones in many consecutive years before - will result in another increase of the taxes to be paid by residents instead of covering this important fact up to make the Town Administration look good.

Listening to the recording of the June 22nd Special Council Meeting and taking certain parts down verbatim, I found that Mr. Stead did not use Ms. Elliott’s freely invented word “disparagement”. The Mayor did not speak in general terms - as Ms. Elliott describes it in her article - but related to comments received regarding the Hospice issue only, quoting them in his very personal opinion as “uneducated”, “inappropriate” and “unfair”.

Covering this “motivational” speech of Mr. Stead at the end of the meeting, there are three very questionable parts that got my attention.

The first one is Mr. Stead’s sentence: “What we have expressed over and over again and the budget will reflect that, we are not prepared to see the character of the Town changed for reasons that in our opinion or estimation are not sufficiently good”.

This made me come up with questions like:

• What has the budget to do with the “character” of the Town?
• Where and when has Mr. Stead ever defined his opinion or a collective public one on what the “character” of the Town is or has to be?
• Does Mr. Stead, who was re-elected by a minority of voters, really understand what he is talking about here?
  

In my opinion the “character” of this Town has deteriorated drastically during the too-long Mayor-ship of Mr. Stead. As just one example I would like to refer to the “Railtown monstrosity” built on a flood plain. As another one I would like to draw the attention of the reader to the fact that I was able to count 14 empty business locations on Main Street alone lately. Maybe a change of the Town’s “character” would only require an exchange of some people who try to govern Wolfville and obviously misunderstand their mandate of good stewardship.

Secondly, Mr. Stead went on to say “..there are enough of us at the table that are prepared to support those things that we think protect the integrity of the Town while at the same time committing ourselves to frugality..”. This statement of Mr. Stead confused me even more. To me “integrity” is directly related to an honorable person.

• How can integrity relate to a Town?
• Does Mr. Stead really understand the meaning of such a powerful word?

If the people in charge at Town Hall would show and demonstrate real openness, transparency and accountability my confusion might be put to rest.

The third point covers Mr. Stead’s statement that the whole budget process (without the public being allowed to ask questions at all) had been teambuilding as well and that he hoped “..that we are now at a point where in fact we are ready and able to operate as a team of seven..”.

My hopes are entirely different.

I hope and wish that Mr. Irving and other Councillors will not be swallowed in and will go on to put their feet down whenever necessary and in favour of Wolfville residents to be represented.

• Is a teambuilding of seven a required part of the given mandates?

I do not think so!

Lutz E. Becker / June 30, 2009

Cc/ Voices of Wolfville
Wolfvillewatch