By Pepper Parr
November 12th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
OPINION
So what is the next step on getting to the point where we know what the budget number is going to be ?
On Monday five of the six Councillors will be scurrying from meeting to meeting trying to convince their constituents that this is a good budget.
Councillor Sharman and the Mayor know what they are going to do – the Mayor has presented her Budget and now waits to see what the members of Council want to change.
They put forward by way of Motions what they want to propose – those motions are due in the Clerk’s Office on Monday. They will be made public by the end of the week (or at least that is our understanding).
The following week, on the 21st and the 23rd Council will hear the Motions and debate them.
This is their opportunity to bring their changes to the budget – we will learn then if these people have the public interest and the will of the public at the heart of what they do.
When Councillor gets his teeth into something – he doesn’t let go easily. However, he is a pragmatic man and knows that his sails have to catch the wind.
Or will they all fold and give the Mayor and Councillor Sharman what they think is best for the city.
Councillor Sharman said at Council last week that the 2026 municipal election will be the first opportunity people have to decide if they have been well served by the current city council and should be returned to office.
That would suit Paul Sharman, all the bother and badgering that members of Council will have to put up is as people want to voice their opinions is not to Sharman’s liking. Takes him way out of his comfort zone.
In a comment made by Wendy Fletcher she mentions “Someone forwarded me a copy of an exchange with Sharman today. They’d written him and the Mayor to protest this budget and let them know they wouldn’t be getting that households votes next election if they pushed forward with it. … He made it clear they wouldn’t be changing what they were doing. … He said the vast majority are able to pay and implied they were willing to.”
Having made up his mind – don’t expect Paul Sharman to change it at this point in time. Maybe, just maybe sometime later in the month – depends how much noise the citizens make.
Sharman is serving his fourth term as a Member of Council; that will provide him with a decent pension and he can ride off into a sunset or perhaps gather with his friends under that tree where he made the decision to run for Council back in 2009.
He was elected the same year Marianne Meed Ward was elected is as the Councillor for ward 2
Back in 2010 and 2014 when Mead Ward was Councillor Paul Sharman was one of the councillors who gave Marianne a very very hard time. Sharman and Councillor Craven were quite prepared then to tar and feather the woman and ride her out of town on a rail. Councillor Dennison decided that he wasn’t going to get in their way.
There was never any love lost between Councillor Lancaster and Councillor Meed Ward. Politics does make for strange bed fellows; a conclusion a British artist came to in 1899
Today Sharman is basically Meed Ward’s financial adviser and has more influence on her than the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Joan Ford.
The levels of animosity between the Mayor and Councillor Stolte along with Councillor Kearns (this despite the fact that Mayor Meed Ward consistently spout the line that this will be a collaborative budget.
Mayor Meed Ward leading a parade in Japan with City Manager Tim Commisso (Center) strutting his stuff.
If signs of emotion, glee and joy were permitted in the Council Chamber expect them to form a circle, hold hands and sing kumbaya with City Manager Tim Commisso dancing around knowing that it won’t be too long before he can leave this zoo and enjoy his retirement.
What could upset this pretty picture is an electorate that has people who feel the power they gave the Councillors when they were elected should be pulled back enough to make them listen.
Marianne Meed Ward was just a citizen when this picture was taken.
That will depend on whether or not enough people in the city can move from their complacency and require their council to be both transparent and accountable – a phrase that Meed Ward basically owned when she was running for office in 2009.
All this is really good opera – the down side is learning later just how much tickets to this farce are going to cost.
Salt with Pepper is the musings, reflections and opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette, an online newspaper that was formed in 2010 and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.
Not true publisher; that may be what they are saying, but our Councillor does not want to talk to us about the bidget. Tom Muir’s councillor is emphatic he does not wish to talk to him on anthing so why would he wish to talk to him on the budget.
We don’t expect the bear hug Effie always gives us or the interest in what we had to say from Natalie and Karina. A simple nod would have been appropriate instead of looking the other way when walking past and toward us. .
Most of them don’t want to talk to you about the budget or hear what you have to say. That’s no reason for people to not go. Every single person who is able should be going to these meetings. And telling whoever their councillor is,
“Hi, my name is X, and I live in Y neighbourhood (eg orchard, tansley, roseland shoreacres, etc). I just wanted you to know that your budget is ridiculous. Expecting taxpayers to foot this bill is ridiculous, and you won’t be getting my vote in 2026. Have a great nite”
No discussion, no opportunity for them to spin anything. It’s well worth the 30 m or whatever to drive there and back. Nothing rings louder in a politicians ears than “you lost my vote”.
What is Sharman’s background.The little I know he did not hold any real executive positions in his past life.
Editor’s note: He was a middle manager at NorTel and then worked as a consultant and travelled extensively. He edit a financial journal.
Good point, Jim. It is also used often for them to tell you what your already know, but are afraid to acknowledge………..until an “expert” points it out. Great time, money and accountability waster. Used voraciously in private business as well as government in my experience.
My experience is all in the private sector. The consultants actually determine what the client wants to hear so that they get repeat business.
I believe the correct term is confirmation bias just like for Petitions and surveys.