2012 Kearney Council Report Card

In January 2012, we presented a performance report on Mayor Tomlinson and members of council, mostly because Tomlinson has never followed through on his campaign promise of quarterly reports from council. Unless you want to count the occasional flyer explaining how everything can be blamed on past employees or computer glitches. Anyway, we were going to provide a more detailed report on Tomlinson's fairy-tale interview with the Almaguin News, but we have since learned that council is planning to start releasing a formal "Report from Council". So instead of flogging the interview, we would provide our second annual performance report on Mayor Tomlinson and Council.

Performance is rated as follows:

A - Outstanding

B - Very Good

C - Good

D - Poor

F - Failure

and a new category: "T" - Tyrannical.

Mayor Paul Tomlinson

In terms of personal contributions, leadership, guidance, and management, we would still rate Mayor Tomlinson as last year: An "F". However, given the many instances of misbehaviour, lying, bullying, harassing, lack of conscience, terrorizing the vulnerable, and so on, we were forced to come up with a new category for his outstanding anti-performance, and his many acts of tyranny. Any accomplishments for the betterment of the town during Tomlinson’s first 2 years are projects started and funded through the previous council. Everything else has been negative, or regressive, or punitive, or tyrannical. Mayor Tomlinson also continues to be conspicuously absent from most community events or makes only a minimal appearance for the photo-op. He's also never belonged to any of the community organizations that form the backbone of our town.

Grade: T+

Councillor Ken Ball

Ken’s quiet, positive approach and strong support for doing the right things, has been instrumental in ensuring council transparency and keeping Mayor Tomlinson in check. Well done Councillor.

Grade: A-

Councillor Barry Dingwall

Barry Dingwall continues to contribute nothing, continues to ask stupid questions at council (indicating he still doesn’t read the council material beforehand), and in 2012 he ratcheted up his bullying ways to the point where he was even slapped down by his former best friend, Councillor Sainsbury. Is it any coincidence that Dingwall's next-door neighbours, Cindy Varcoe (of "inbred idiots" fame), and James "Rhys" Milner, who achieved fame by stalking and threatening the former mayor and his family, then attacking the former mayor’s son, were all pumped up ready to do Dingwall's will? And like his pal Mayor Tomlinson, Dingwall has never belonged to any community organizations and is rarely seen outside the council chamber. Doesn't live here. Doesn't want to know you.

Grade: F- 

(or "T"-wannabe)

Councillor Art Murdy

We are moving Councillor Murdy from C to B- given his strong support this past year in censuring Mayor Tomlinson and asking for the Mayor’s resignation. You have given the good guys the balance of power at the council table and some positive things are starting to emerge. You also show up and participate in community events. Thank-you Councillor Murdy.

Grade: B-

Councillor Steve Sainsbury

Councillor Sainsbury has been pivotal in turning this council around and shutting down Mayor Tomlinson. That took a lot of guts and has been a strong indication that Councillor Sainsbury wants to do the right thing for the people of Kearney. But he has a long way to go to distance himself from the favouritism he's shown his campaign manager Tim Brown (while denying he ever knew the man), and focuses more on moving the town forward in areas such as the economy, restoring services, financial management, and bringing the seasonal folks around to a better understanding without the divisiveness we still have. Stay away from doing Skelton’s wishes by trying to reduce the size of council from 7 to 5, and admit you made a mistake in pushing for the dissolution of the Wards System. This will take a lot of guts but we think you can do it. Keep up the good work and show us that your actions are born from genuine concern for Kearney and not just political savvy.

Grade: B-

Councillor Louise Wadsworth

We're moving Councillor Wadsworth from a C to an F. While Councillor Wadsworth  worked hard and successfully to promote recreational programs in 2012, as chair of the budget committee, she's sticking to Tomlinson's mandate of reducing taxes at any cost. Under her watch, the Reserves dropped from $1.4 million to less than $1,000,000 in 2012. Now the town will have to borrow $200,000 for bridge rehabilitation that would have been covered by Reserves. The Reserves are also not being replenished, so by year end, the Reserves will likely be down to $600,000 and well below Municipal Affairs & Housing guidelines. Taxes will rise in 2013 but only by a token amount. Meanwhile we continue to carry a $100,000/year CBO who brings in less than $30,000 in building permits. Wadsworth has demonstrated that she has no real leadership abilities and will allow her husband Cam and his buddies to sway her against town policy and take control of her meetings.

Grade: F

Councillor Yvonne Wills

Councillor Wills, now Deputy Mayor Wills is not afraid to stand up to the Tyrant. Wills has several significant achievements in 2012 including the new gym floor and kitchen, providing a leading role on creating the new Seniors Centre Agreement, the Seniors kitchen renovation, Regatta (which we know was a very frustrating exercise) and, of course, putting Mayor Tomlinson in his place on several occasions. Deputy Mayor Wills is also very involved in our community. Wills almost rates an A+, but she's failed to step up on a couple of harassment and bullying incidents, preferring instead to look at her feet, or worse; leave the room. Sorry Councillor, but community leaders need to demonstrate that they'll protect their constituents' rights and not just look the other way.

Grade: A-

As we said, council has announced that it will be publishing a regular Report from Council in 2013. Hopefully, it will provide specifics instead of Mayor Tomlinson's usual "I'm just one voice. It's everyone else's fault" or the alternative "It's all lies, but I never have any actual facts to support that." 

We also noticed in 2012 that Mayor Tomlinson attended some very expensive conferences at tax payers’ expense, yet not one word from the mayor about any value-for. Perhaps council should take a look at its policy of providing free holidays away for Mayor Tomlinson and instead send someone who will bring something back instead of a cell phone bill for $1000.

In 2012, Mayor Tomlinson was asked by his council to resign. He refused. That was probably a good decision on his part, although he made it for the wrong reasons. If Mayor Tomlinson resigns, he leaves under one of the biggest black clouds of any mayor in Kearney'shistory. However, if he hangs on, Tomlinson has an opportunity to come clean and try to turn things around, and end his term next year on a positive note. But, we don't think Mayor Tomlinson is smart enough to realize his opportunity nor capable of changing his ways. He's dug in his heels only because he's a self-righteous asshole who just likes to talk the talk.

And we know Mayor Tomlinson never, ever, EVER reads The Blog but maybe his sycophant Barry Dingwall - who we know does - can whisper our observations in Mayor Tomlinson’s rear. While we're at it, maybe we should post council meeting packages on the blog. Then Council Dingwall might know what’s going on. If he even cares.

One final bit of trivia: Mayor Tomlinson likes to pretend that he and members of council are far too sophisticated to read or even speak of our blog, but His Honour might be interested to know that not only does his council read our blog, but several councillors actually subscribe to it. This means that they get our articles delivered directly to their email inbox.

Are you surprised?