By Pepper Parr
April 20, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON
At the end of each city council meeting members of Council get a couple of minutes to talk up the things they are doing in the weeks ahead.
They mention community meetings they are holding; right now the hot item is the CarFree Sundays that are taking place in May as a joint effort for wards 4 and 5 and a solo situation in ward 6. Each Councillor got a $10,000 stash of cash to put on the event.
Councillor Dennison’s Lakeshore Road residence which has been designated as a heritage property is the subject of an Ontario Municipal Board hearing on whether or not the Councillor can seek a severance.
Aldershot doesn’t appear to have a population that uses bikes, cycling isn’t the sport of choice for Councillor Taylor and Councillor Meed Ward, who has been seen on a bike prefers walking tours of her ward. She didn’t get any money for that. Aldershot will have a walking tour – its third – for which the Council member got $500.
The delivering of these little news items is done in a friendly easy going matter. The council meeting is broadcast live via Cogeco television – the hope being that the voters will see what they are paying for in terms of elected talent.
Ward 4 Councillor Jack Dennison either chose not to inform his voters that his long delayed Ontario Municipal Board hearing starts on Tuesday and is scheduled to last for four days.
Councillor Jack Dennison tends to stick to his guns on an issue that impacts his personal interests. The need for a four day OMB hearing will cost the city a considerable amount of money.
This is the hearing that has the ward Councillor fighting a city zoning and Official Plan so that he can sever part of his property on Lakeshore Road and build an additional dwelling.
The event is a don’t miss for many of the Roseland residents – they didn’t need to be told.
Councillor Dennison apparently didn’t want the rest of his ward to know where he was going to be for the rest of the week.
The hearing takes place at city hall
So Tuesday has come and gone, what’s happening with this?
I have several points I would like to make to this article.
1. Most people of Burlington have left Cogeco because of lack of service. Perhaps the City should get out of their personal relationships and look at adding providers providing better service to their constituents.
2. Mr. Dennison is a private citizen and should be able to attend the hearings. However, he should do so with booking time off or time unpaid.
City Councilors and members of the Executive are not “entitled” to come and go as they please. They should be treated like every other employee (Government or otherwise) has to act. We book time off. We use our holidays or personal leave etc. to handle personal matters.
This is called transparency and being accountable for your actions. It’s respecting the office you hold.
3. I am not saying this against Mr. Dennison personally, but ALL City Councilors and Executives. These are not part time positions, it would be nice if councilors and exe’s treated it that way.
While I appreciate him disclosing it. He could have been clearer. Integrity goes a long way. This rubs people wrong with a sense of entitlement. There is enough of that at City Hall That is why many of us do not trust our City Government.
This is a property rights and access to justice issue.
Dennison is a private property owner in this city and has the same rights as everybody else.
We should be applauding the man for sticking up for his rights.
Councillor Dennison is playing his ‘private citizen’ card again, and obviously feels this is a personal/business matter that does not need to be aired in public. He is effectively suspending his public duties, all the while taking up public tax dollars and city hall resources.
Now if I were to take my public employer to task, and required leave of my duties to do so, even for a day, I don’t expect I would receive pay from said employer during that time. Will he?
Mr. Dennison will argue he works hard for his constituents and that we continue to get full service and attention from him and his staff, but that does not make him any different from or better than the other councillors. Is it any wonder folks don’t come out to the polls when they see this dual status, self serving attitude repeatedly exercised and not curtailed?
It will be interesting to see what happens if the outcome is not in his favour.
One can only hope.