Finally, a Quarterly Review... Sort of.

When Paul Tomlinson became mayor of Kearney he promised to eliminate the "From the Mayor's Chair" newsletter and to publish a quarterly report from council. The newsletter was eliminated, but not surprisingly, the quarterly report never materialized. Mind you, if we had Tomlinson's track record, we wouldn't publish it either.

But recently we heard news that Mayor Tomlinson would be publishing a report summarizing council's activities over the last year. So instead of creating our own summary, we thought we'd see what His Honour had for us. We hate to use up space here, republishing his letter, but it's short.

On behalf of The Corporation of the Town of Kearney Staff and Council may I extend Season’s Greetings and our Best Wishes for a joyous and healthy New Year to our ratepayers near and far!

December marks the first anniversary in our four year term of office. Mindful of the old adage

You can please some of the people all of the time
And all of the people some of the time,
But you can't please all of the people all of the time…

I believe your Council has accomplished just that. We have approved our 2012 budget (a first – before the budget year actually commenced!) and for the second consecutive year we have held the line on our tax levy. What does this mean to you? Unless you have made improvements to your property affecting your property assessment, your taxes should remain the same as last year. Once we receive confirmation of our Provincial education taxes we will proceed to pass a by-law setting out our 2012 tax ratios. We have done this through a concerted effort by our staff to reduce our operating expenses and reallocate those savings to offset capital purchases, reduce debt or increase our reserves (money set aside for unforeseen events). This has also been accomplished without increasing our debt (actually reducing our debt) and absorbing a 2% tax increase to fund our share of improvements to Highway 518E. We in fact are “doing more with less” through ever-improving efficiencies.

A very good example of this is the Town’s decision to join a purchasing consortium which comprises various levels of federal, provincial and municipal governments. You can imagine the purchasing power this consortium has, and Kearney is now the beneficiary of this, with huge savings expected in many areas ranging from office supplies to equipment. The Town is now also in discussions with neighbouring municipalities to see what equipment might be shared to avoid the necessity of purchasing or leasing needed equipment often underutilised. We are currently in the process of updating some of our accounting software and here again, we expect process enhancements.

Road maintenance and improvements will continue unabated, with road reconstruction scheduled for 518E and replacement of the Higgins Road Culvert, as well as an additional $225,000 budgeted for road maintenance based on our revised 5 year plan which is to be tabled in the first quarter of 2012. We are not finished there, as money has been also set aside for improvements at the Kearney Community Centre, with our kitchen being completely remodelled thanks to a Trillium grant, and our gym floor being replaced after too many years of wear and tear.

With the continuing support and efforts of our management and staff, working as a Team with your Council, we will continue efforts to maximise use of all the precious resources available to us, in order to make Kearney an affordable place to live, work and enjoy!



PAUL H TOMLINSON
MAYOR

Mayor Tomlinson sets the stage nicely with "...to our ratepayers". Not "friends", "neighbours", or even "citizens", but "ratepayer". What is a "ratepayer"? It someone who pays the local taxes. Brings a tear to your eye doesn't it? Can you feel the love?

Then Mayor Tomlinson warms up with a nice ass-covering "old adage":

You can please some of the people all of the timeAnd all of the people some of the time,But you can't please all of the people all of the time…

And gets it wrong.

The quote, attributed to Abraham Lincoln, is actually:

You can fool some of the people all of the time,
and all of the people some of the time,
but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

Nice try, Paul. But in your case we have to admit that either version works.

Mayor Tomlinson then gives us a bit about the new budget and tax levies and offsetting capital expenditures and tax ratios, without really telling us anything. He certainly steers well clear of discussing the 9.5% municipal tax decrease that neatly dove-tails with the 9.5% provincial property tax increase that only the Proudfoot waterfront property owners will experience. Aren't you proud of the 9.5% decrease, Paul? Why so shy?

Then he summarizes that section with "...doing more with less..." A nice cliche, but more what? And less where? 

Tax levies and tax ratios and reallocating offsetting capital expenditures and fooling all of the people some of the time...

Thanks for clearing that up, Paul.

Purchasing Consortium. Here's a good idea made to sound way bigger than it is. His Honour likes to use a lot of $20 words, but what it sounds like (we had trouble chewing through it, too) is that several municipalities (and possibly the province, or the whole country) will order stuff in bulk for a discount, or it'll be a swap-meet where municipalities can trade stuff or share stuff. But Tomlinson has a history of screwing other mayors and reeves, so this might be a tough one to get off the ground.

...Road maintenance and improvements will continue unabated...

Just like every other year, under every other council, everywhere? Way to be ordinary, Paul.

Then Mayor Tomlinson takes credit for getting the Trillium Grant for the Community Centre. The kitchen isn't getting remodelled "thanks to a Trillium Grant", it's getting remodelled thanks to Councillor Yvonne Wills who went out and got the Trillium Grant. The Grant didn't just pull into the parking lot one day, Paul. One of your councillors actually showed some initiative and did something positive instead of spending all their time whining about having to be social butterflies while giving themselves raises. But Tomlinson hates Councillor Wills because she makes the Proudfoot Four look like a bunch of do-nothing suck-bags, so he's never going to give her credit. But we will: Good job, Councillor Wills!

And finally,

...we will continue efforts to maximise[sic] use of all the precious resources available to us, in order to make Kearney an affordable place to live, work and enjoy!

We don't really need to debunk this line. Just read the papers. Think, Outfitters, the Fine Dining Restaurant, and Strato Steel. The latter two packed up and moved while Outfitters continues to fight bankruptcy as they wrestle through all the new red-tape Tomlinson created for them.

So not much of a report for an entire year. And what's missing speaks more than what's included. Nowhere does Tomlinson mention the tireless efforts of Kearney's volunteers. Why not? Because he ran them all off, that's why. For the first time in Kearney's history there are no volunteers for Regatta and now he's suggesting that a company be hired (at our expense) to run it in 2012.

Stay tuned for the real Year in Review...