By Pepper Parr
December 16th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
Mayor Meed Ward, sporting her civic “bling” ran a tight council meeting – was challenged twice on decisions she made and missed completing the budget – ran out of time.
They started at 6:30 – went without a break and listened to 11 delegations – then they jumped into the 2020 budget with the hope that they could nail that but they ran out of time.
This city council has a hard adjourn at 10:30
No one is all that clear as to just where the budget increase is – it was at 3.99 then looked like it could drop to 3.5.
There was $800,000 for the eight bus drivers that will be needed for the four new buses that are due in September.
The practice with the previous council was to have staff line up at the transit offices on Harvester Road and applaud as a new bus broke through a red ribbon.
Several council members felt that there was no need to budget for a full year’s expense when the buses weren’t going to be delivered until the fall. They decided that they would budget just $400,000.
There were other savings, small ones, and there were a number of items that Councillor Sharman had hoped would benefit his constituents. He couldn’t get the support of his colleagues on either of them.
The Clerk’s office is now going to look at the individual council members’ calendar and find the half hour to an hour that is going to be needed to get this budget passed so everyone can get away for some earned and deserved holidays.
A detailed report will follow once we know when they are going to meet.
