Proudfoot moves forward to reduce council

The council of Town of Kearney is seeking three volunteers to sit on a committee to address the issue of "future council composition". What this means is that the Proudfoot Gang, led by Jim Skelton, wants to reduce council from 7 members to 5 members.

First of all, what problem is Proudfoot trying to solve? "To reduce costs", they say. Well, this council has given themselves a 21.5% salary increase over the past two years and Tomlinson is telling us that with only 5 council members, they could attract the higher-educated seasonal folks, by paying them more, instead of those “Kearney inbred idiots”.

But, what’s the real reason Tomlinson, Skelton, and the Proudfoot Gang want to reduce council? 

Answer: Ultimate Control. 

Cast your minds back to 2008 when the Wards Committee was formed. It was comprised of GLLRG's Barry Dingwall and Steve Sainsbury, SLAPOA's Dave Matson and Jim Skelton, with Mayor Johnston, Councillors Fetterley & Lesperance, and 2 members of the public. The Proudfoot Gang went through the charade of pretending to listen to the public and to hold a "public" meeting where Proudfoot was notified but the rest of the town wasn't and they tried to suppress any input from Mayor Johnston. The committee majority (again, the Proudfoot Gang), not surprisingly, voted to dissolve the ward system in Kearney.

Council of the day rejected the committee’s recommendation asking that the committee consider new information. Mayor Johnston wanted to consider the new information, but the committee majority (again, the Proudfoot Gang) refused. Instead, Skelton organized a Proudfoot petition, and Sainsbury/Dingwall ran to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB). Throughout the process, Skelton and the Proudfoot Gang also pushed to have the OMB reduce the size of council from 7 to 5. The OMB dissolved the wards system, but stated they had no authority to rule on the size of council. So, now Proudfoot is on to Plan B.

So, how has the dissolution of the ward system worked out? The Town of Kearneyis now controlled by a handful of autocrats in Proudfoot Townshipwhile we witness the steady demise of our town.

However, given the ghastly behaviour of Mayor Tomlinson, Dingwall, and Wadsworth, the rest of council has recognized the tremendous damage that can and is occurring with a power base being centred in one corner of town. However, reducing council from 7 to 5 gives the Proudfoot associations’ (GLLRG and SLAPOA) electoral machine an easier road to total control through the use of propaganda  emailed out to absent seasonal property owners. We all saw this in action in 2010.

The town is looking for three volunteers to sit on the Council Reduction Committee along with Councillor Dingwall (Chair of the Wards Dissolution Committee) and ex officio committee member Mayor Paul Tomlinson, who voted in favour of dissolving the wards system. 

But what problem is reducing the size of council going to address? If there is a problem, where is that defined? Why limit the committee to three members of the public if true public input is being sought? What are the criteria for selecting the volunteers? Why will council base their position on the recommendations of a committee that is suspect to begin with, and why no full and open public debate? Why not pose this question during the next election along with "Should the Wards System be reinstated in Kearney?" Candidates in the next election (2014) can state their positions on the two questions and the voters can decide by electing candidates that support their views on these two issues. Or, why not hold a referendum and let the people decide?

  

Meanwhile, to head off the Proudfoot Power Machine, submit your name to be a member of the council reduction committee, officially known as “Future Council Composition Advisory Committee”. If you don’t stand up and fight, we all lose.

To help understand the general public view, and given that our blog has had a pretty good following, with over 50,000 hits, we are conducting our own survey on;

1) Should the Wards System be reinstated in Kearney?

2) Should Council be reduced from 7 to 5 Members?