By Pepper Parr
October 28th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
On Monday, City Treasurer Joan Ford will take Council through what in normal times would have been a draft budget for 2024.
These are not normal times – the era of Strong Mayors is upon and we now have a Mayor who can hire and fire at will gets to put forward a budget – and, due to the City Council the City has she will challenge then to make changes. They are unlikely to change very little if anything.
There is a reason the current Mayor is referred to as The Red Queen.
The document Joan Ford will present is named Financial Needs and Multi Year Forecast.
The red outline is not part of the design – we added that graphic to emphasize that the document is not a budget – it is a responsible person behaving responsibly.
During the next few days the Gazette will dip into the 780+ page document and pass along what a very experienced, frugal and cautious treasurer thinks the city should be doing given the Strategic Plan it is expected to work within, the level of debt the city can handle and at the same time deliver the service levels tax payers expect – and suggest a tax rate the public will learn to live with.
City Treasurer Joan Ford
There are two different philosophies at play – those who spend what they know the city will have and those that will spend what they hope the city will haul in in tax receipts due to the increased assessment from the huge increase in residential dwellings that will be in place by 2031 – a date that is not likely to be met.
More to follow.
We expect to see what the Mayor puts forward next week.
Stand By.
Itizens of Burlington: this state of affairs began with MMW leading the decimation of our Procedural bylaws and removing transparency, accountability and the need to consider public opinion as part of a clerk and council sub-committee, without any legislated authority, in 2016.
MMW had, at that time, already taken the steps to have those who would get her elected as Mayor in 2018 to believe she was the odd ball on council who listened and responded to public opinion. Those who did her bidding in this regard after believing her rather than the facts that were espoused at the lectern by those who saw through her tactics, have long ago admitted they were used to begin the removal of the gains made in terms of transparency, accountability and engagement. Gains put in place by former Clerk Kim Phillips and the Councils and City Managers who engineered seven years of 0 tax increases, making us the envy of all Ontario communities.
MMW believes she is safe in her now strong Mayor position with a set of procedural bylaws that don’t support the legislated requirements for transparency, accountability and public engagement. However, we believe she has underestimated the power of the few that know the truth and are bound and determined to set the Halton and Burlington communities free from her dictatorial gains in the administration of the city, we will always call home.
We came to what we saw as our promised land in 71, Burlington in 72. In 97 we started identifying the course of correction during the election processes that were needed and continued to speak truth from the lectern until physically shackled by a 2 year trespass letter, again without any lawful authority.
Regardless of the tactics of MMW who began her path to power as a citizen rep on JBH Board helping to hide the true cause of 90+ deaths at JBH; then saddling the community with a huge tax based support of incredibly poor health care decision making; we believe the truth will one day soon see another in a long line of dictators topple.
The means to do this could well be the Tier 1/2 review. Q1 of 2024 and what should be the beginning of Q4 of a 200 year old City of Burlington we need to ask will that or won’t that be in the best interests of those who love and have supported this city. Or do we need to destroy the roots of what we have allowed to happen.
Content edited.
Anne and Dave:
I applaud your continued attempts to hold those at the seat of power accountable. Unfortunately, I think that your enthusiasm has overtaken you when you use comparisons, implicit or otherwise, between the current situation and those experienced with Nazi fascism.
With any charismatic, popular leader there is a degree of self-absorption that prevents achieving a balance between the will of the people and personal motivations. In the worst cases, this self-absorption becomes delusional narcissism. As such, the leader is strongly attracted to overt display, to mass adulation and to engaging, emotional rhetoric. It is largely ‘form over substance’. Whether or not that applies here in Burlington is, of course, entirely a matter of opinion.
I am disappointed that the Editor allowed your Hitler remark to stand.
Editor’s note: A sentence that made mention of Hitler was removed.
Publisher and Blair we are sorry if you believed our comment related to speaking up rather than remaining silent on political policies and legislative requirements can change political history was offensive Certainly there was no intent to offend or to compare those times with now. The intent was to promote the Gazette and publisher’s oft stated position that failure to speak up about a loss of democratic Burlington governance policies and principles and provincial legislative requirements by more than a few readers will be regretted.
The treasurer as a city employee has no incentive to cut the budget since her pay depends on keeping tax $$$rolling in!