From the Mayor's Throne

One of Mayor Paul Tomlinson’s promises was to discontinue Mayor Johnston’s “From the Mayor’s Chair” and instead publish a quarterly “Report from Council”. Like many of Mayor Tomlinson’s campaign promises, the report never appeared. So, to help out His Worship, we’re providing a first edition to get him started.

Chief Building Official/Building Inspector

Kearney shared with Perry Township an excellent CBO, Paul Schaeffer, until Mayor Paul Tomlinson arbitrarily decided it was suddenly “the law” that the job be put out to tender. In one fell swoop Tomlinson managed to piss off Perry Township, Paul Schaeffer, and leave Kearney without a CBO/Building Inspector. Now because of Tomlinson’s arrogance, the town will have to hire its own full-time CBO, which will cost the Kearney taxpayer about $65,000 more a year: Paul Schaeffer cost the town about $35,000, minus about $25,000 generated by permit fees, so really just $10,000. But a full-time CBO will cost about $100,000 with still only about $25,000 generated by permit fees. So $75,000 a year of taxpayer money. $10,000 vs. $65,000 per year, or $40,000 vs. $260,000 over the term of this council. Kind of like paying a Financial Consultant $50,000 to do a Data-Entry Clerk’s job at a few meetings, eh Paul?


Volunteer Committees

The town of Kearney had several very successful volunteer committees, until Mayor Paul Tomlinson arbitrarily decided to cap the number of volunteers and dump more work on the Public Works department, or just cancel stuff completely. It was only after the Dog Sled Committee stormed the Bastille that Tomlinson did a quick back-pedal. But, when he was questioned about this at the public meeting in March, Tomlinson decided to insult everyone’s intelligence and lie about the whole affair.

Economic Development and Beautification Committees

Two more committees destroyed by Mayor Tomlinson. In this case the Mayor backed off (sort of) when a petition with hundreds of names was presented to him. The Beautification Committee was restored, but is now “Friends of Beautification” (whatever that means). The Economic Development Committee is now comprised of members of council only and their sole task is to determine whether Kearney needs economic development. Well, DUH. Hey, how about a Roads Committee to determine whether Kearney needs roads, Paul?


Volunteer Appreciation

It’s no secret that Mayor Paul Tomlinson has never attended a Volunteer Appreciation dinner in his life, and his recent decimation of all the volunteer committees sent the message loud and clear about how he truly feels about anyone who might steal some of his glory. But, once again, after public outcry, Tomlinson did a fast back-pedal.

Now, in past years, to show their appreciation for the volunteers, the mayor, council, and members of the public would roll up their sleeves and volunteer their time to prepare and serve food and drink at the dinner. But the Proudfoot Four would never lower themselves to serving those icky Townies (Dingwall didn’t get elected to be a Social Butterfly, you know), so Tomlinson decided to spend $3500 of taxpayer money on caterers instead. But his half-assed effort to cobble together some kind of last-minute appreciation dinner fell through. Oh well, eh Paul?

As for Kearney's Veterans... Well, Dingwall made it very clear how he felt about them.


2011 Budget

We’ve already covered this in detail, so here are the key points:

To create the zero tax increase their masters demand the Proudfoot Four must deplete the Reserve (emergency) Fund, which could bankrupt the town in four years. The next council will have to increase taxes by double-digits. Pay a little now, or a lot later…

And remember Tomlinson’s promise to "give direction to town staff on the 2011 budget within 60 days"? Sounded mighty impressive at the All Candidate’s meeting, but it really amounted to Tomlinson telling the staff, “Hey, cut 5%!” No wonder he wanted a full 60 days to come up with that; it’s pure genius!


Ice and Snow Removal

In January, the Kearney Seniors Club wrote to Mayor Paul Tomlinson asking that the sidewalks on Main Street and Rain Lake Road be cleared of ice and snow. Kearney’s elderly and disabled were being forced to walk on the road as logging trucks rumbled past. Not only did Mayor Tomlinson not bother to have to sidewalks cleared, he didn’t even acknowledge the request until well into April! At last report, Tomlinson was having lawyers (at $300 an hour of taxpayer money) look into whether the town had to do it or not. What Tomlinson doesn’t seem to care about is how catastrophic a slip or fall could be for an elderly or disabled citizen, or how expensive the subsequent lawsuit could be for the town. So will Tomlinson have the ice and snow cleared next winter? Well, there’s nothing in the 2011 Budget. Fortunately, we have Reserve Funds in case the sidewalks do have to be cleared… oh, wait…

Photo courtesy of the Kearney Senior's Club

Fire Safety Board

Mayor Paul Tomlinson restaffed the Fire Safety Board with his pals who have absolutely no fire-fighting knowledge whatsoever, except for the Fire Chief. But wait! To ensure that policies totally lack any intelligence Tomlinson also removed the Fire Chief’s right to vote.

Other “Accomplishments” of the Proudfoot Four

• Revenue-generating initiatives – Score: ZERO
• Participating in community committees, organizations, and projects – Score: ZERO
• Snubbing MPP Norm Miller and MP Tony Clement at the Dog Sled Races – Score: MINUS 1
• Lying about it – Score: MINUS 1
• Cancelling the Economic Development Committee – Score: MINUS 1
• Trying to vote down the Dog Sled Races, Regatta, etc. – Score: MINUS 1
• Not informing the general public of meetings, but personally inviting the Proudfoot Associations (Although some uppity Townies blew the whistle and spoiled their fun!) – Score: MINUS 1
• Same approach for the 2011 Budget meeting, ensuring that no one shows up to criticize their super-awesome-amazing budget. – Score: MINUS 1
• Cancelling the Lord’s Prayer – Score: MINUS 1
• More secret meetings. The latest in an attempt at damage-control over the CBO issue, because even Tomlinson is realizing that paying $260,000 of taxpayer money to have someone sit around twiddling their thumbs is about the stupidest thing you could imagine. – Score: MINUS 1

We could go on, but you get the idea. And the newspapers have certainly covered all this enough times. In less than six months, Mayor Tomlinson has managed to create more damage and destruction, on so many fronts, we can only wonder if besides being an arrogant bully and all around asshole, if he isn’t grossly incompetent as well. Tomlinson never takes responsibility for his actions, blames council for his stupid mistakes, and outright lies.

Petition for Resignation

There’s a petition circulating asking for Mayor Tomlinson’s resignation. Many have felt we needed to give Mayor Tomlinson time to demonstrate his true worth and it was too soon to be demanding his resignation.

But ask yourself this:

If the first six months is an example of what we can expect over the next three and a half years, can the Town of Kearney afford Mayor Tomlinson and his Proudfoot cronies? If your answer is NO, then sign the petition for Mayor Tomlinson’s resignation. But if you like the idea of a bankrupt town, a mayor that caters to the Proudfoot property owners associations, a mayor that opposes events like the Dog Sled Race and Regatta, a mayor who cares nothing for Kearney's seniors, volunteers, or veterans, a mayor who never participates in town organizations or events, a mayor who puts personal loyalties above town safety, and a huge tax increase in four years, then feel free to do nothing.

Hee hee! Stupid Townies!