Has Mayor Paul Tomlinson worn out his welcome in Kearney?

If you look down the right column of our blog you'll see our poll that asks, "Has Mayor Paul Tomlinson worn out his welcome in Kearney?" A very strongly worded question.

As we write this, there are 381 votes saying "Yes". What's so significant about 381 people voting that Tomlinson should go?

Well, in 2010, it was just 381 votes that put Tomlinson in the mayor's seat. That was less than 16% of the popular vote ("popular vote": total possible votes of the population). Heck, even candidates for councillor positions - that lost! -  got more votes than Tomlinson. Regardless, thanks to less than 16% of Kearney's eligible voters, and a split vote, Kearney is where it is today.

But, Just-One-Voice Tomlinson is playing it tough in the face of demands for his resignation, saying that the voters wanted him as mayor so he's staying the full term. But it was only 381 people who wanted you as mayor, Paul. But now that everyone's had a chance to see what a blowhard fall-down (and all around asshole) you really are, 381 people, AND Council, AND a petition with hundreds of signatures, are telling you to hit the bricks.

381 might have voted for you in 2010, but all you could scrounge up for a "No" vote for our poll was 22 out of 406, which was mostly you, your wife, your kids, Dingwall, Wadsworth, Skelton, Goodings, Brown, Milner, and assorted boot-licks. Seriously Paul, you couldn't even get all of the 50 or so members of the Grass and Loon Lakes Residents Group to throw a vote your way, so...

Hit the bricks already.

Kearney council to take further action to remove Mayor Tomlinson

A Special Council Meeting has been called by Council for 9:30 AM on Friday, September 21, 2012. Item #5 on the agenda caught our eye:

5.  Council Reports

(a)  Resolution 5(a)/21/09/2012

WHEREAS Mayor Paul Tomlinson has been found in contravention of By-law 2010-31 being a By-law regarding Violence and Harassment in the Workplace, specifically in this instance, Harassment and Bullying;

AND FURTHER this Council believes the Mayors conduct has fallen below the standards of conduct which are expected of a member of Council;

AND FURTHER this Council believes that the operation of the workplace should be free from harassment and bullying;

AND FURTHER this Council does not accept the Mayor decision to ignore Councils request for his resignation;

BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Council of the Corporation of the Town of Kearney

1.  Authorize Council to request a delegation with the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing; formally requesting her assistance in utilizing her legislative authority to commence action to remove the Mayor of the Town of Kearney from office.

2.  Authorize Councillor Steve Sainsbury to contact the Towns Municipal lawyer to develop a series of actions for Council consideration that will result in the Mayors current powers and authority being eliminated and or minimized.

3.  Rescind the portions of Resolutions 12(a)/07/09/2012 and 12(b)/07/09/2012 approving the Mayor’s attendance as an official representative of the Town of Kearney at the District of Parry Sound Municipal Association Fall Meeting and the Almaguin Highlands OPP Detachment Grand Opening

AND FURTHER directs staff to identify all other existing resolutions and by laws approving the Mayor’s attendance as an official representative of the Town of Kearney. Once compiled a motion to remove all official representative duties will be presented to council for approval.

AND FURTHER consistent with Councils objective of openness and transparency, a report identifying current remedial actions concerning the Mayor that have been put in place and the cost for both the investigation and legal fees (year to date) be made public.

Are you surprised?

Did Tomlinson Violate the Building Code Act?

Here's yet another issue that Council needs to address.

The Building Code Act states:

Code of conduct

7.1  (1)  A principal authority shall establish and enforce a code of conduct for the chief building official and inspectors. 2002, c. 9, s. 12.

And,

"principal authority" means,

(a) the Crown,

(b) the council of a municipality,

(c) an upper-tier municipality that has entered into an agreement under subsection 3 (5), 6.1 (1) or 6.2 (1),

(d) a board of health that has been prescribed for the purposes of subsection 3.1 (1) or has entered into an agreement under subsection 6.1 (2) or (3) or 6.2 (2),

(e) a planning board that has been prescribed for the purposes of subsection 3.1 (1), or

(f) a conservation authority that has been prescribed for the purposes of subsection 3.1 (1) or has entered into an agreement under subsection 6.2 (2); 

So what?

Well, Mayor Paul Tomlinson, in the September 13th, 2012 edition of the Almaguin News says he directed Chief Building Official Henry Hess as to how he should handle permit situations where the construction was complete. Tomlinson also directed Hess that if he saw signs of an issue, such as a bowed roof, he would purse the issue further. But if things looked sound to Hess, Tomlinson directed that he should be satisfied.

Sounds reasonable, except Hess doesn't answer to Tomlinson, and Tomlinson has no authority to give direction to the CBO on how he should conduct himself. Hess is answerable to the "principal authority", in this case, "the council of a municipality". All this after Tomlinson swore up and down that neither he or council have any authority to give direction to the CBO. And we couldn't find any council meeting minutes that authorize Hess to "handle permit situations" or deal with "signs of an issue" a certain way, nor anything that authorizes Tomlinson to give Hess direction on Council's behalf. So Tomlinson has publicly stated that he has no authority to direct Hess, the Building Code Act says Tomlinson has no authority to direct Hess, but Tomlinson is now publicly stating that he has been giving direction to Hess. "Lies, mostly lies"... How right you are, Barry.

Are you surprised?

Tomlinson has a habit of violating the Conflict of Interest Act

Mayor Paul Tomlinson is one of the founders of the Grass and Loon Lakes Residents Group (GLLRG), which was formed in 2003 to deal with a townhouse development to be built across the street from Tomlinson's cottage. The Town of Kearney had approved rezoning, which was then appealed by the Ministry of Housing after a complaint was filed by the GLLRG. According to the Ontario Municipal Board, the developers, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and the Town of Kearney entered into new discussions on March 26th, 2012.

In the July 26th, 2012 edition of the Almaguin News, Mayor Paul Tomlinson says, “I filed the appeal as president of the Grass and Loon Lake Residents’ Group,” and acknowledges that if the issue comes to council it would put him in an "awkward position". The awkward position is that Tomlinson (and Dingwall and Sainsbury) would have to declare a pecuniary interest in that they all belong to an association created specifically to stop the development. But, despite the obvious conflict of interest, Tomlinson, speaking as the mayor of Kearney, makes a public statement on the issue:

“Duck Lake is right across the road from my house and a number of the residents on the street became very alarmed, the Ministry of Natural Resources became very alarmed as well because Duck Lake flows into Grass and Loon Lake. Grass and Loon lakes are considered lakes at capacity, which means the development would have to have a tile bed set back 300 meters. Duck Lake was also considered a lake at capacity although there was no development around the lake, but it flowed directly into Grass Lake. You can imagine how septics from 43 townhouses could affect the quality of the water.”

All of this may be true, but Tomlinson violated the Conflict of Interest Act by making very subjective and biased statements to the media. As we mentioned before:

Where a member, either on his or her own behalf or while acting for, by, with or through another, has any pecuniary interest, direct or indirect, in any matter and is present at a meeting of the council or local board at which the matter is the subject of consideration, the member shall not attempt in any way whether before, during or after the meeting to influence the voting on any such question.

The issue isn't currently before Council, but Tomlinson obviously expects it will be and the moment it does, he will have broken the law. Again.

Tomlinson Violates Municipal Conflict of Interest Act

The Municipal Conflict of Interest Act, section 5, subsection 1 states:

Where a member, either on his or her own behalf or while acting for, by, with or through another, has any pecuniary interest, direct or indirect, in any matter and is present at a meeting of the council or local board at which the matter is the subject of consideration, the member,

(a) shall, prior to any consideration of the matter at the meeting, disclose the interest and the general nature thereof;

(b) shall not take part in the discussion of, or vote on any question in respect of the matter; and

(c) shall not attempt in any way whether before, during or after the meeting to influence the voting on any such question. R.S.O. 1990, c. M.50, s. 5 (1).

But this is exactly what Mayor Tomlinson did after declaring a pecuniary interest, but before leaving the room, when he read a prepared statement to council on his harassment and bullying of town staff. Tomlinson could have read the apology after the voting was completed, but chose instead to try and influence the vote by reading his statement beforehand.

Are you surprised?

Can the Town of Kearney Fire Mayor Tomlinson?

Despite Council's vote, getting rid of Mayor Paul Tomlinson might be harder that we think. Apparently a member of council (including the mayor) can only be removed from their post if convicted of a breach of their office. There are lots of cases of politicians keeping their jobs after criminal convictions because the criminal activity wasn't related to their political office. There's an article from the Owen Sound Sun Times on the censure of South Bruce Peninsula's mayor in 2009. Tomlinson has breached the Code of Conduct on several occasions, but has been allowed to get away with it by Council until now.

But all is not lost. Council can still keep Tomlinson reined in so he can't do anything else idiotic, at least not without committing a breach of conduct. Council can pass resolutions that restrict Tomlinson in several ways such as:

• Prevent Tomlinson from having any dealings with town staff unless another member of council is present.
• Not allow Tomlinson to issue statements, memos, emails, tweets, etc. as the mayor, or as representing The Corporation of the Town of Kearney without the prior approval of Council.
• At the beginning of each meeting, ask Mayor Tomlinson to vacate his seat. If he refuses, anyone at the table can put forth a motion to adjourn the meeting. Or Councillors could leave the meeting and break quorum, preventing any voting.

It'll stall town business at first, but Tomlinson needs to get the message: Council doesn't want him. The people of Kearney don't want him. 

Keep what little dignity you have left and just resign, Paul.

Then we can talk about Dingwall's behaviour.

A Concerned Citizen Writes Us

I would like to say I was happy to see the motion put forward tonight for the resignation of the Mayor(word used loosely).

I was also happy to see that the majority of council finally understands the ongoing problems that this mayor is going to cause.

Of course no surprise was the no votes (thanks to Dingwall and Wadsworth).

Poor Barry couldn't get the video camera to be turned off. Better luck next time.

Now to all the people that think this assault of Jeff Johnston Jr. was "coming to him" or "deserved", I put this to you... No one deserves to beat in front of his or her family. You people need to grow up. It's not bad enough that there are lawyers on here calling locals "rednecks", now you promote beat downs. You should also think about who is going to pay the bill for Tomlinson's lawyer when a civil suit starts. You will be dumbass!

After the meeting I came home and wrote 3 lengthy emails, one to Andre Marin (look him up*), one to Norm Miller and one to Tony Clement. I wish to see this mayor forced from his position seeing he doesn't want to go willingly, as I am sure does many residents of Kearney.

Please withhold my email address from this post. You may post my name.

Thank you.

Bill Tonge

Kearney 

We're just dying to find out who leaked confidential town information to Barry Dingwall's neighbour, James Rhys Milner (the alleged assailant). As we understand it, Milner knew of a letter to the town's legal counsel three days after the town received it.

* Andre Marin is the Ombudsman of Ontario

Sainsbury Leads Charge to Oust Tomlinson

Councillor Steve Sainsbury

Has Tomlinson worn out his welcome in Kearney?

We posed that question here and so far 350 citizens of Kearney have said YES. Now we know that a majority of Kearney's council also agree.

Councillor Steve Sainsbury has been increasingly distancing himself from the other members of the Proudfoot Four as they've embarrassed themselves and the town again and again with their antics. But no one expected it when Sainsbury, at the council meeting on Friday, September 7, 2012, tabled a motion asking council to demand Mayor Paul Tomlinson's resignation. Mayor Tomlinson has a history of harassing and bullying the town staff and town citizens, and a majority of Council agreed that it would just be a matter of time before Tomlinson did it again. Of the six councillors that voted, the only two that thought Tomlinson was still doing a bang-up job were fellow bully Councillor Barry Dingwall and Tomlinson's meat-puppet Deputy Mayor Louise Wadsworth. (Are you surprised?) Sadly, if Deputy Mayor Wadsworth becomes acting mayor it will allow Tomlinson to still govern as mayor in exile. And Dingwall will happily step in to harass and bully people in Tomlinson's stead.

Not surprisingly, Tomlinson is refusing to resign saying that the people elected him (thank you, people of Proudfoot) and he will serve his full term. This despite the petition, the people of Kearney presented to the Town this week, demanding Tomlinson's resignation. That means that Council will have to censure Tomlinson and not allow him to take his seat at the council table. He'd still be mayor, but have no voice or vote (except through Wadsworth). The other option is to apply to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to have Tomlinson's mayoral status revoked.

But the fun didn't end there. Along with Mary Beth Hartill of the Almaguin News, a reporter from the Queens Park Review (a publication of the Toronto Star) was also in attendance with her video camera. Naturally, Councillor Barry Dingwall objected to the video-taping of the meeting and the matter was put to a vote. Council voted in favour of allowing the video-taping and the standing-room-only crowd was treated to Dingwall turning purple and sputtering and fuming before being booed down by the crowd. Stupid democracy, eh Barry?

But let's go back to Councillor Steve Sainsbury. There's still a taint on him from the Tim Brown fee waiving debacle and the ill-conceived abolition of the wards in Kearney, but in the grand scheme of things Sainsbury has been demonstrating that he'll put the greater good ahead of whatever alliances he may have had with Tomlinson, Dingwall, and Wadsworth. Nobody's perfect, and compared to some of the real "can't do" clunks we have on council, Sainsbury's practically golden.

GLLRG Still Backing Tomlinson

A few days ago we reported on two letters to the Almaguin News. In the second letter, former Kearney councillor Shirley Reeds spoke of an unnamed citizen who "stood up, turned to the audience and gave his personal admiration of council, expecting applause." There was no applause.

But who was the mystery man who felt such admiration for the kick-ass job that Mayor Paul Tomlinson and his flunkey's are doing that he had to stand up in the middle of a council meeting and make a speech about it? Why none other than Ron Duff, the current president of the Grass and Loon Lakes Residents Group.

Are you surprised?

Tomlinson Still Trying to Suppress Information

Despite Kearney's town council passing a by-law that allows photographing and video-taping of council meetings (so long as council is given prior notification) Mayor Paul Tomlinson is threatening legal action against anyone who tries to show it or pass out copies. Which again begs the question: What is council trying to hide? Or is Tomlinson just being an asshole because it's Jeff Johnston who emailed the notice to council? Deputy Mayor Louise Wadsworth similarly says it's okay to video-tape, but also forbids it being shown to anyone.

Are you Surprised?

Actually, given the buffoonery Mr. Johnston got on tape the last time he tried to record a meeting (before Wadsworth had the police drag him out while her husband and Jim Skelton jumped around) we're not at all surprised that neither one of them ever wants to be video-taped again.

Sorry Paul. Never on the first date.

Anyway, here's the email exchange, in the usual reverse-order (start at the bottom):

Mayor Tomlinson,

As the municipal by-law is silent on the use of video or photography of public officials at public meetings, I will defer to past practice set by THE CORPORATION OF THE TOWN OF KEARNEY of freely distributing same without consent. Unless of course, THE CORPORATION OF THE TOWN OF KEARNEY now wishes to acknowledge that the unauthorized distribution of photos and video of private citizens, with disparaging remarks, was illegal, hence your caveat regarding legal consequences should I engage in a similar practice.

Jeff Johnston

From: Paul H Tomlinson [mailto:kearneytomlinson@gmail.com]
Sent: September-04-12 17:43
To: 'Jeff Johnston'; 'Paul H Tomlinson'; louiseinkearney@gmail.com; cricket8@xplornet.com; stevesainsbury1@gmail.com; kb1174@gmail.com; Murdy, Arthur; Barry Dingwall
Subject: RE: Video Recording of Council Meeting

You have so advised in advance of the event and aware of the legal consequences of your actions.

Paul

PAUL H TOMLINSON

MAYOR

THE CORPORATION OF THE TOWN OF KEARNEY

8 MAIN STREET

KEARNEY, ON

P0A 1MO

(705) 636-1608

From: Jeff Johnston 
Sent: September-04-12 5:38 PM
To: 'Paul H Tomlinson'; louiseinkearney@gmail.com; cricket8@xplornet.com; amurdy@bradleycoredrilling.com; stevesainsbury1@gmail.com; barryinbarrie@yahoo.ca; kb1174@gmail.com
Subject: RE: Video Recording of Council Meeting

I will happily extend the same respect and courtesy that Mayor Tomlinson, the Town of Kearney, and council have shown to me and my family in regards to the public distribution of photographs and video, and commentary on same. I trust that should be more than satisfactory.

Jeff Johnston

 

From: Paul H Tomlinson [mailto:kearneytomlinson@gmail.com]
Sent: September-04-12 4:11 PM
To: Louise Wadsworth
Cc: Jeff Johnston; cricket8@xplornet.com; amurdy@bradleycoredrilling.com; stevesainsbury1@gmail.com; barryinbarrie@yahoo.ca; kb1174@gmail.com
Subject: Re: Video Recording of Council Meeting

I similarily[sic] direct you not to redistribute in any form at any time whatsoever my image unless I give you expressly[sic] written permission at each instance. Any sound bites of me will not be edited in any way.

Paul

On Tuesday, September 4, 2012, Louise Wadsworth <louiseinkearney@gmail.com> wrote:
> For the record, you may record, however, I do NOT give you permission to distribute or publish in any manner any videos that contain my image.

From: Jeff Johnston
Sent: September-04-12 3:52 PM
To: kearneytomlinson@gmail.com; louiseinkearney@gmail.com; cricket8@xplornet.com; amurdy@bradleycoredrilling.com; stevesainsbury1@gmail.com; barryinbarrie@yahoo.ca; kb1174@gmail.com
Subject: Video Recording of Council Meeting
Importance: High
 
Members of Council,

Please be informed that I, or members of my family, will be video recording the council meeting scheduled for September 7, 2012.

Thank you.

Jeff Johnston

A Concerned Citizen Says It All

We should DEMAND his resignation!!!!

Now, I don't know about you, but as former business owner with many employees, if this had happened in my company, it would be grounds for dismissal!!!

[Name withheld by request]

What? Resign? But this was probably just a fluke occurrence! Just look at the picture at the top of our page and tell us that Mayor Tomlinson isn't a total snuggle-bun who treats everyone with dignity and respect.

Mayor Paul Tomlinson Faces Censure

From the agenda for the Council Meeting scheduled for Friday, September 7, 2012:

13. Other Business 

(a) Resolution Re: Motion of Censure

WHEREAS Mayor Paul Tomlinson has been found in contravention of By-law 2010-31 being a By-law regarding Violence and Harassment in the Workplace, specifically in this instance, Harassment and Bullying

AND WHEREAS this Council believes these actions fall below the standard of conduct which are expected of a member of Council

AND WHEREAS notwithstanding the Mayor’s letter of apology to Council and the Complainant

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT this Council formally expresses its censure of Mayor Paul Tomlinson for his conduct in this matter.

Censure isn't much more that an official slap on the wrist, but as for the rest of it...

Are you surprised?

Dingwall and Reeds Write the Almaguin News

A letter from Kearney Councillor Barry Dingwall appeared in the August 31, 2012 edition of the Almaguin News. Does Councillor Dingwall speak to the town's finances, what initiatives he's going to propose to improve tourism, the progress of the Ralph Bice Centre he promised to bring to fruition? Does he express shock or horror at the recent attack on a citizen and his family (allegedly) by his neighbour and fellow GLLRG member? No. Instead he's still whining about our blog and the "small-minded" (according to Dingwall) people who read it:

Click on image to enlarge

Amazing how much hyperbole you can cram into such a small space, eh? But, we especially like the part where Dingwall tries to show his rapier wit with "Anonymous blogs are seen as non-artistic graffiti with punctuation". An ironic quote in that it's from the 2011 movie Contagion in which a blogger tries to expose deceptive government policy. Not surprisingly, Dingwall doesn't credit the line to anyone but himself, although he did alter it enough that hopefully nobody will notice he plagiarized it. Good choice though, Barry! Almost as good as Tomlinson's "fool some of the people all of the time" misfire.

But Dingwall wasn't the only one from Kearney to write the Almaguin News this week. While Dingwall was lying awake at night obsessively-compulsing about our blog and thinking up movie quotes, former Councillor Shirley Reeds was giving serious thought to how Council doesn't seem to know what's going on, or how to comport itself:

Click on image to enlarge

Maybe if Dingwall spent as much time reading up on FIR ratings as he does googling movie quotes, the Town of Kearney might have half a chance.

Are you surprised?

Queen's Park Briefing (Toronto Star) Reporter Writes Us

Hello,

I’m a reporter with Queen’s Park Briefing, a daily subscription-only newsletter covering Ontario politics published by the Toronto Star.

I came across your blog through a news report, and I’m wondering if you could answer a few quick questions for me:

1)     Why did you start the site?

2)     Why is it anonymous?

3)     Town council has claimed you’re bad for business, but I see from your posts you think the opposite is true. Have they tried to shut the site down at all?

4)     Have there been any changes since you started the blog?

5)     How long ago did you start it? How many people work on it?

6)     How long has the person/people who started the blog lived in Kearney?

7)     Are the corruption allegations specific to this administration, or is there a history?

8)     When your next election?

Feel free to answer these questions via email or give me a shout at one of the numbers below. I understand your desire to be anonymous and will respect it.

Thanks. Hope to hear back from you soon.

Ashley Csanady

Reporter, QP Briefing

Queen's Park Press Gallery

qpbriefing.com

p: 416-212-5913

c: 647-448-7577

@AshleyCsanady

Here's what we wrote in response:

Why did you start the site?

We were deeply concerned that a small group of people, under the banners of the Grass and Loon Lake Residents Group (GLLRG) and the now-defunct Proudfoot Township Property Owners Association, appeared to be setting things up to take control of the town. GLLRG members Steve Sainsbury and Barry Dingwall had already successfully petitioned the Ontario Municipal Board to abolish the ward system in Kearney (despite a majority of voters wanting to retain the ward system). Then-Councillor Paul Tomlinson (founder of the GLLRG) and Councillor Louise Wadsworth had been clearly demonstrating that they had very partisan interests favouring Proudfoot Township, especially the Grass and Loon Lakes areas. With the four (since dubbed the Proudfoot Four) of them occupying a majority of the seven seats on council they could effectively control the town of Kearney. When we realized that the Proudfoot Four were using the residents associations and their websites and mailing lists to influence seasonal residents’ votes we tried to balance that with the Concerned Citizens of Kearney blog.


Why is it anonymous?

Originally, we didn’t plan for our identities to be a big secret, we just wanted our message to be about the message, not the messenger. But after seeing the ongoing campaign of threats, harassment, photo & video surveillance, assault, and very public smear campaign against former mayor Jeff Johnston (who has been a spokesperson, well versed in municipal affairs, for many of the local townspeople) and his family, we felt even more strongly that we should remain anonymous. Following the attack on Jeff Johnston’s son, who Mayor Tomlinson has publicly accused of running the Concerned Citizens of Kearney blog, we offered to shut down our site, but the former mayor’s son asked us to continue. For the record, Mayor Johnston and his son have sent us stuff, as do many others, but their contributions posted on the blog always bear their names.


Town council has claimed you’re bad for business, but I see from your posts you think the opposite is true. Have they tried to shut the site down at all?

Mayor Tomlinson and the Town of Kearney have frequently threatened us with the OPP, the RCMP, and lawyers, and there has been harassment and an assault, by friends of the mayor, on those the mayor has publicly declared are responsible for our blog, but no other action that we know of. As for being bad for business: Is a newspaper responsible for falling investments in Ontario if it reports on provincial budget concerns? We editorialize to maintain interest and we’ve received a lot of positive feedback. In fact, the only negative feedback we ever get is from Mayor Tomlinson or his ardent supporters. News sources don’t cause people to become bigots, or suddenly develop a violent nature; that bigotry or violent nature already existed. We’ve reported on businesses leaving Kearney, but they’re not leaving because of the Concerned Citizens of Kearney blog; they’re leaving because the current council and the CBO they hired have made life miserable for them. Why jump through hurdle after hurdle in Kearney when a neighbouring township will welcome them with open arms and help them instead of hinder them? Then there’s the horrendous state of Kearney’s finances, which we’ve reported on at length. Is that scaring away investors? Most likely. But the Concerned Citizens of Kearney aren’t bleeding the town’s Reserves dry, we’re just reporting it. And we’re not coming to these conclusions alone. Most of our information comes from informed citizens of Kearney, such as a local certified accountant who first rang the alarm about the town’s finances. We just reported it.


Have there been any changes since you started the blog?

Many! In our humble opinions, because of the Concerned Citizens of Kearney blog, we’re seeing a better educated public in Kearney. The Proudfoot Four (Mayor Tomlinson, Deputy Mayor Wadsworth, Councillor Dingwall and Councillor Sainsbury) very clearly expected to run things as they saw fit and we’ve been casting the light of day on their questionable ethics and motives. For example, we exposed Dingwall and Sainsbury’s campaign manager/fund-raiser Tim Brown when he sent (on several occasions) a third-party to council looking for a $1000 rezoning fee waiver, variance waivers, and an environmental impact assessment waiver. Councillors Dingwall and Sainsbury (and Mayor Tomlinson) failed to declare a pecuniary interest and even tried to deny knowing Mr. Brown, although his name appeared on the two councillors’ 2010 campaign brochures, he’s a fellow member of the GLLRG, and he’s been a guest in Mayor Tomlinson’s home.

We’ve also critiqued several by-laws (with the help of contributing citizens), including one that would require the elderly and disabled to shovel snow from municipal sidewalks. Our exposé caused council enough embarrassment that the by-law was rescinded. Several other by-laws we reported on were similarly rescinded, or significantly amended.

And, of course, there’s the town’s finances. Others created awareness of the financial crisis in Kearney, but the Concerned Citizens of Kearney blog has given them a forum. Mayor Tomlinson doesn’t like that. The Proudfoot Four even had the police remove a citizen from a recent budget meeting after he tried to video the auditor’s criticisms. Videotaping of meetings has always been allowed in Kearney, but the Proudfoot Four wanted the budget problems suppressed. Actually, the removal of the citizen helped get the message out! If the videographer had been ignored there would have been about two hours of boring cellphone video with barely audible discussion of stuff hardly anyone understands anyway. Instead, the town of Kearney got an exciting video of council and town staff making fools of themselves (Mayor Tomlinson sticking his tongue in the face of the videographer), a martyr for the cause, and townspeople asking council what they were trying to hide. But, we’re bad for business?


How long ago did you start it? How many people work on it?

We started the blog just before the municipal election in 2012.

The number of people working on the Concerned Citizens of Kearney blog has varied. Some contribute information, others photos and video, or simply edit, but the regulars are a fairly small group. Very often we get insider information from anonymous sources. At the moment, there are four of us who edit and maintain the blog, although one of us acts as a sort of de facto “chief editor”. Entries are often tweaked even after being posted if one of the editors catches something or wants to add a photo, etc.


How long has the person/people who started the blog lived in Kearney?

Again, it varies.


Are the corruption allegations specific to this administration, or is there a history?

There’s no history before this council took office, and we leave it to the reader to decide if there’s “corruption”. We would describe the actions of the “Proudfoot Four” and their supporters as extreme partisan politics, coupled with arrogance and an obvious lack of ethics. It has been very obvious that the GLLRG (or at least several of its members) thought they could take control of the town of Kearney, do favours for their friends, manipulate municipal taxes to offset the provincial property tax increase in Proudfoot, and do it all behind the backs of the townspeople they’ve publicly referred to as “inbred”, “trash”, etc. The Concerned Citizens of Kearney blog has been exposing the Proudfoot Four and it’s been very embarrassing for them. Many of Mayor Tomlinson’s voters have publicly told him that they’ll never vote for him again, there’s a petition for the mayor’s resignation circulating that already has hundreds of signatures, and more townspeople are attending town meetings and asking council hard questions. Even more telling is that Kearney’s MP and MPP, who used to be regular guests (along with the Lieutenant-Governor of Canada) of the previous mayor, now avoid Kearney. Politicians don’t cower in that face of controversial press, especially from a small town blog, so why aren’t they coming around anymore?


When your next election?

2014.