Kearney needs an Intergity Commissioner

In 2006, the Municipal Act was amended to add a new part, entitled "Accountability and Transparency". This authorized municipal councils to establish a code of conduct for members of Council and town committees. Municipal councils also have the power to pass by-laws respecting accountability and transparency of the municipality and its operations that would make clear the ethical behaviour expected of members.

Each municipal council is also empowered to appoint an Integrity Commissioner who reports to Council and is responsible for independent oversight of Council and committees with respect to the code of conduct, rules and policies governing their ethical behaviour.

The municipality and its local committees are required to give the Integrity Commissioner any information necessary for an inquiry. The Integrity Commissioner also has free access to all books, accounts, financial records, electronic data processing records, reports, files, and all other papers, things or property belonging to or used by the municipality for an inquiry. The Integrity Commissioner must preserve secrecy, but at the same time, the municipality is required to ensure that reports received from the Integrity Commissioner are made available to the public.

The most important function of the Integrity Commissioner is to educate members of Council with respect to ethical conduct.

We've reported time and time again on the blatantly unethical behaviour of Kearney's current council. Everything from waiving fees and environmental impact studies for campaign contributors, to violating rules of conduct, failing to declare conflicts of interest, (or declaring a conflict, then acting in conflict anyway), and on and on.

The Town of Kearney desperately needs is an Integrity Commissioner. If Council can afford to hire their own "Ombudsman" so they'll not longer be answerable to the Provincial Ombudsman (a free service), then lets also see an Integrity Commissioner. It's a part-time position for cities like Toronto, so Kearney's "as needed" costs would be minimal.

But sadly, all our tax dollars are going to a full-time CBO (who, according to several witnesses, spends his shifts shopping in Huntsville or napping in his truck) and a private "Ombudsman" who will sue you for costs if you file a complaint against Mayor Tomlinson and his chums. Meanwhile, Council (aka The Proudfoot Four) has cut the rink attendantjob, a Fire Service job, and is planning to eliminate the Operations Managerjob, because, according to Mayor Tomlinson, "the time has come where we can’t do the services we used to do."

No surprise there.

More service cuts for Kearney

“Perhaps the time has come where we can’t do the services we used to do” - KEARNEY MAYOR PAUL TOMLINSON

The above is a quote taken from the Almaguin News article of November 15, 2012, “Management job remains unfilled”. It seems that Budget Coordinator Councillor Wadsworth and Mayor Paul Tomlinson, faced with huge operational deficits in 2011 and 2012, are now pondering the possibility of not replacing the Operations Manager, a vacancy left by Dean Hall.

As you have been reading in the Almaguin News and on the Concerned Citizens of Kearney Blog, Tomlinson and the Proudfoot Four have boxed themselves into a corner with nowhere to run or hide. They reduced the property tax rate in 2011 and 2012 to the point the Town does not have enough revenue to meet its operational obligations. For 2011 and 2012, the solution has been to take the shortfall out of Reserves or cut the much needed roads reconstruction program.

Well, 2013 is looming and the Town’s revenues are still falling short of meeting operational needs, and the Reserves are just about gone. So now, Tomlinson and Wadsworth have few options still open to them; raise taxes or cut services.

Raising taxes would be an open admission that this council has deliberately put this Town into a financial hole to “cut taxes at any cost”. Tomlinson and Wadsworth don’t want to let the tax cut promise go just yet so they are now considering further cuts to services. Yes, further cuts. The nice heated washrooms, built by the Kearney Lions Club) at Lions Park are closed to save money. In their place are 2 lovely yellow and purple porta-potties, also financed by the Kearney Lions Club. Probably doen’t matter because there is nobody to look after the rink this winter.

Our beautiful walking trails are strewn with fallen trees and nobody to clean them up. Our volunteers have walked away in disgust from economic development, town beautification, and good roads management. Our roads are deteriorating at a rapid rate and we now have residents billing the Town for lost business and safety violations.

The sidewalks on Main Street will see another winter without snow removal. Getting property owners to clear in front of their properties turned out to be illegal and it is just a matter of time when someone takes a serious fall and the town is faced with a huge lawsuit.

The only thing Kearney now has in abundance is stupidity. We still have a $100,000+/year Chief Building Official (CBO) who continues his ludicrous and illegitimate septic inspection program in hope of nailing some poor souls for Building Code violations. What will he do this winter when sceptics are covered with snow and he will have no excuse to trespass? Of course, there are those businesses in Kearney that are trying to open or expand and the CBO has been very diligent in finding ways to prevent that.

Mayor Tomlinson and Councillors swore a Declaration of Office upon taking Office in 2010 to “truly, faithfully, and impartially exercise this office to the best of my knowledge and ability” and “I will disclose any pecuniary interest, direct or indirect in accordance with the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act”. This is so blatantly laughable if it wasn’t so tragic. Mayor Tomlinson has been asked by his own council to resign. Mayor Tomlinson has been censured by his own Council.

Recently we have seen many Mayors in Canada forced to vacate their Offices or they are being investigated for misconduct. Unfortunately, the Town of Kearney does not rank with urban misconducts for media attention, but even then our illustrious Mayor has managed to make the CANADA Section of the Toronto Star with his buffoonery.

Council can’t force Tomlinson out of Office, but at least Council can shut the Mayor up and get rid of our huge CBO cost burden. Please Council, do the right thing as you promised. 

Kearney Residents Demand Compensation

We reported in September that the Town was planning to close Higgins Road for 3 days to replace a culvert. We suggested at the time that this was not a good idea as it obviously placed residents on the far side in jeopardy and would negatively impact on businesses isolated as well. Council's reason for closing Higgins Road completely was because it was cheaper than keeping one side of the roads open while the other side was worked on.

In typical Tomlinson/Proudfoot 4 style, that was of no concern. Remember folks, as a reward to the Proudfoot property owner associations who contributed to their campaigns, the Proudfoot 4 promised to cut property taxes at any cost. The property tax rate was reduced in 2011 and again in 2012, which left the town unable to meet its operating needs in 2011 and forced Council to take $627,000 out of Reserves.

With the Proudfoot Four still forcing tax cuts 2012 opened with the Town of Kearney running another $600,000 deficit. You do the math and that leaves very little left in the original $1.5 million Reserves. Council desperately needed to find ways to trim the 2012 Budget. And they did. They cut the roads reconstruction budget for 2012 and 2013 (contrary to the 2007 “Roads Needs Study”) to save $500,000.

So, to save a few dollars by completely closing Higgins Road for 3 days, Mayor Paul Tomlinson and his Proudfoot gang, including Jim Skelton, who leads the Capital Management Committee, not only placed residents in jeopardy but they hurt affected businesses and our struggling economy. All to save a buck. (Are you surprised?)

Not to worry, Mayor Tomlinson says. According to the Almaguin News article of November 15, 2012, Page 11:

“One letter, written by a local resort owner, indicated that she was told by Mayor Tomlinson and the president of the Grass and Loon Lake association that she would be taken care of, and that they were entitled to compensation, enclosing an invoice of more than $800.”

“Tomlinson denies that he told any resident that they would receive compensation for the inconvenience.”  

“[A] second letter alleges that the town had an 'obligation and duty' legally to leave access to the homes which was ignored. The resident invoiced the town $1,400 and added $28 in interest at 2 percent.”

In addition to placing the public in jeopardy and negatively impacting businesses, the actions of Mayor Tomlinson regarding this matter are so inappropriate as to be astounding.

1) Mayor Tomlinson allegedly promises compensation. The Mayor does not have authority to make that promise and such a promise, without Council approval, is a misappropriation of Town funds.

2) Mayor Tomlinson denies making that promise. Well, I don’t think we have to convince anyone, except maybe the Mayor himself, that Mayor Tomlinson is known to lie whenever and wherever it is convenient to do so.

3) Mayor Tomlinson with Ron Duff, president of the Grass and Loon Lakes Residents Group, are quoted as promising “…that she would be taken care of”. The question here is what council does Tomlinson belong to? The elected Council of the Town of Kearney or the quasi-council that really got the Mayor and his Proudfoot 4 elected: The Council of the Grass and Loon Lakes Residents Group?

4) Mayor Tomlinson completely ignored the needs of disabled residents callously putting some of Kearney's most vulnerable in jeopardy and causing them severe hardship.

Well, we say to the Proudfoot voters: You have been had.

Proudfoot voters allowed the dissolution of the Kearney wards system which allowed the Grass and Loon Lakes Residents Group and the Sand Lake and Area Property Owners Association, and a handful of those you trusted, to seize control of the Town. Sainsbury and Dingwall, supported by Tomlinson and Wadsworth, orchestrated the dissolution of the wards and lo and behold all four now control the current Council. Probably just a coincidence.

Town Council (2010 – 2014) now comprises a majority of Proudfoot members who ignore the real needs of the Town of Kearney and its residents, both seasonal and full-time, rewards their campaign manager and supporters by waiving fees and environmental assessments, reduces taxes while driving Kearney into financial ruin, and paying for a $100,000/year CBO to manage $25,000/year in building permits, while bullying and harassing the elderly and the poor through phony septic system inspections in the hope it will generate revenue by finding Building Code violations. All the while, the Proudfoot elite enjoy tax cuts on their waterfront properties and insist the Proudfoot Four are "a breath of fresh air."

In September, Council voted in a resolution asking Mayor Tomlinson to resign. He refused. Apparently he is not finished doing the damage that the Proudfoot Associations voted him in to do. The resignation request from Council may have been partially in response to a petition with approximately 200 Kearney signatures, submitted to the Town, asking the Mayor to get rid of the prohibitive costs of a full time CBO ($100,000/year) and return the town to a shared CBO service ($35,000/year), or resign. There was no direct response from the Town or the Mayor. (Are you surprised?)

At the same meeting in September, Council voted to “censure” Mayor Tomlinson. This is merely an official reprimand but Council does have the authority to curtail the Mayor's activities. For starters, we would again respectfully suggest that Mayor Tomlinson be prohibited from talking to the media and from issuing any written or oral statements while representing his Office as Mayor, without prior Council approval. If Council took this small action, we would not be reading about Mayor Paul Tomlinson’s lies, false promises, and unilateral actions, and the continuing negative shadow the Mayor casts upon the Town of Kearney.

Dingwall and the Duck Lake issue

As most readers know by now, the Grass and Loon Lakes Residents Group (GLLRG) was created in November 2003 primarily to rally opposition to the Duck Lake townhouse development. Mayor Paul Tomlinson and Councillor Steve Sainsbury were founding members of the GLLRG. Councillor Barry Dingwall wasn't a founding member but served on the GLLRG Board of Directors from 2007.

So Dingwall was a director for several years of an organization created to oppose the "Duck Lake Development". So why didn't Dingwall declare a pecuniary interest, as did Tomlinson and Sainsbury, when the Duck Lake issue was discussed by Council? Dingwall may not have been around in the beginning, but obviously supports the GLLRG's mandate, not just enough to become a member, but to seek and secure a seat on the Board of Directors.

Is Dingwall's failure to declare a conflict of interest illegal? Maybe, maybe not. But it's certainly unethical.

Are you surprised?

Citizen Appreciates Fire Department's Efforts

I would everyone to know of the outstanding work of our very own Kearney Volunteer Fire Team during the wee hours of November 4, 2012.

I was out and about that night and there was a huge fire at the end of Lake Ave in Kearney. I was amazed on the quick response and professionalism of this team. They were amazing to say the least and though the house was not saved surrounding structures were. As far as I know no one was injured and I don't know if anyone was home at the time of the fire.

I hear many b.s. comments about our fire dept but I have a renewed sense of appreciation for the brave men and woman who serve this community for very little in return. The were out all night, I know because when I woke at some point and they were still there.

I can only imagine the stamina needed to perform the tasks they did so late and likely after spending a whole day doing their daily lives either working or working at home. Imagine working all day and late at night your out in cold temperatures battling a fire with smoke, heat, wind and so many other factors.

Next time someone has bad things to say just think about the heroic work these fine upstanding citizens do to help our community, to help save us from tragedies at all hours of the day, 24/7, 365 days a year.

A heart felt thanks goes out to the Kearney Fire and Emergency Services for a fabulous job done and you have the eternal gratitude of so many residents. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the letter! Apparently, the family was home, but everyone got out safely. Our fire-fighters have proven themselves time and time again. It's too bad that Mayor Tomlinson and his minions don't share our appreciation.


And, it's too bad that in The Meanest Little Town, citizens are afraid to sign their names to letters, even the complimentary ones.

Can't Resist

We've been trying really hard to steer away from making fun of Council, or more specifically, the Proudfoot 3.5. But this photo of Council, pulled from the Town of Kearney website, was just too funny to let pass.

BUH?

Town revamps website, again

After 2 years of trying to shame Council into taking action the Town of Kearney is finally revamping its website (instead of just getting rid of the content that encouraged people to visit elsewhere) and Mayor Tomlinson is promising great things. There's still very little about tourism, and nothing much about local businesses, but we shall see. The new look is great, but it's the content that's key.

Help Wanted

After getting rid of Operations Manager Dean Hall, and questioning whether the position was required, the Town of Kearney has decided they need an Operations Manager after all.

Click on image to view full-size.

Reader Mail

Kearney unfortunately has provided itself with justification for Amalgamation - if any other partners would accept. I hope that this Amalgamation option is never considered or deemed necessary.

I expect that Council and staff are aware that the Province set aside 90 Million dollars to facilitate “asset management” in Northern Ontario. Applications for funding to prepare a plan was to be submitted by October 22, 2012. This exercise would be essential for Kearney, as future funding and healthy management is dependent on this exercise.

Asset Management is a combination of management, financial, economic, engineering, operational and best practices applied to physical and human assets with an objective of providing the required level of services in the most cost effective manner. One current estimate is that each and every household in a rural Northern Municipality has a Municipal Asset investment in excess of $100,000.00.

Elwood Varty