Township Council will vote on the budget bylaw next Monday, March 22, 2010.
Councillor Kim Richter announced she will be on Kwantlen business for that March 22nd meeting, but read her motion in the last Special Meeting of Township Council. in her motion, Richter calls for the mayor and council to take cuts in pay and benefits. This sounds aweful familiar to the stunt Councillor Dave Hall did in Langley City Council. Now Isn't that nice of Councillor Richter to do this? Just as she will miss this upcoming meeting for "Kwantlen business", taking her away from ToL Council business that she was elected to do, she will be paid for it all by Kwantlen and the ToL. Between Kwantlen instructor salary at $80-100K, plus the monies paid to her for her Board of Governor status, she can certainly afford to skunk her fellow councillors. ToL benefit cuts? Not a problem as Kwantlen also provides those. Cllr. Dave Hall is also on the education teet, so birds of a feather here folks. Cuts on the City or Township level will not impact Hall and Richter, so what the heck, eh?
The danger in these kinds of votes (apart from pandering to the press for a little smiling picture and article), is that you are saying with your motion that the common man can't run for mayor or Council. The message is, only the elite with good paying public teet jobs should run because they can take or leave their municiple benefits. What about retirees? Well, they need to come well-financed in Richter's version of public office. Single Mom's? Sell the farm and pony up cowgirl. What Richter hasn't figured out is that other members of Council may work harder than her. She certainly missed all the budget meetings and her contents within her motion make it obvious that she didn't understand what was proposed with the budget because she asked for Council cuts to cover things that are already covered under the proposed budget!
It's really good that the majority of Council came to work and didn't take an outside salary. It's equally good that those other members didn't stab their colleagues in the back and use this outside compensation to strong-arm their colleagues. So, come to the Council table self-financed or go home folks. This is Kim Richter's version of politics. Let's question her regarding her late arrival or no arrival at Council in the next election, shall we? Let's get her to disclose her non-Township salary and benefits, how's that? It is high time we hold her to the same standard she tries to set for everyone else in our humble opinion.