By Pepper Parr
August 21st, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
The politicians love handing out awards; Certificates saying you were at an event – anything to get some ink.
The Gazette has created an award that we are calling the Blair K. Smith Political Maudit Prize.
We expect that there will be more than one award each year – the city and its people are rife with award opportunities.
Maudit is a French word – Quebec French to be precise
An award for:
The Team that made Marianne Meed Ward the Mayor in 2018
The 2018 MMW Core Campaign Team for not becoming the 2022 MMW Core Campaign Team and probably becoming the 2026 anyone but Marianne core campaign team.
Stephen White
Stephen White for consistently holding Burlington Council to account with direct, precise and unbiased commentary. A fine example is this on how Council discussed the July floods: “What struck me about the interaction between the Mayor, the Councillors and public servants in another Gazette article is that we are a month after the flood, and the questions being asked are inordinately procedural, mundane and lacking in specificity. I guess if you live in a world characterized by abstracts and the theoretical a predisposition to action isn’t in your DNA.”
Eric Stern
Eric Stern and Lydia Thomas for exposing the Bros. Grimm faerie tale of Burlington’s tax increase communications. Stern wrote: “Given that the City of Burlington employs people with serious communication skills it’s really surprising that, quoting the mayor, “misinformation, speculation and rumour” cannot simply be explained by someone, anyone, from the city providing “accurate and fact-based” information. As a taxpayer, I have to wonder if the communications department is nothing but a taxpayer-funded PR organization for the mayor.”
Lydia Thomas
Lydia Thomas was as direct: “During the 2024 budget process, there were many residents including myself who identified the need to stop property tax increases and accelerate cost cutting.
“Despite the fact that more than 40 motions were brought forward and some were passed, the budget increase miraculously remained the same at 10.2%. Some quotes from the mayor which I found discouraging were we can “use savings of $1M to fund new Full Time Employees in IT department” and in another instance – that is a good way to “save to help fund the transformation” project.
“The end result was that the 10.2% increase remained the same despite the cost savings motions that were passed. It was clear to me that there was absolutely no intent in trying to reduce resident’s property taxes despite the public outcry for prudence. This tells me that we the public need to get involved earlier and more frequently.”
No actual prize this year.
All well deserved.
It is with complete humility and a profound sense of the true import of having a distinguished award named after me, that I offer the following 2024 runners up.
• The Burlington Cttee of Adjustment – that unelected but extremely influential consortium of distinguished retirees (for the most part) who still meet virtually and earn their healthy per diems from the dangerous landscapes of their living rooms or front car seats. They repeatedly save the public money by making their decisions “virtually incontestable” (unless you have a spare $100k or so to waste at the OLT).
• The Halton Board of Education – for deftly deferring or delaying controversial decisions/actions (two years running) until the Summer recess when they hope that they will magically disappear from public memory or find resolution by some other governance body.
• The City of Burlington’s Integrity Commissioners for handling a workload that would cower even the bravest heart and for adroitly triaging complaints with no consideration of personal risk or reward.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/tongue-in-cheek#google_vignette
My Congratulations to all of these Recepients for their hard work and truthful commentary on everything going on with our Mayor and Council at the COB. Thank you.