The news behind the news. Exploring the political issues, debates and voting records in the Township of Langley and sometimes beyond.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Mayor Rick Green - More Proof of Our Regional Shame

Yet more proof that rookie Township Mayor Rick Green has shamed our lovely community in the eyes of the region. The Urban Development Institute (UDI) is holding a luncheon and Regional Mayor's Forum to discuss all the growth in Langley, Abbotsford and Coquitlam.

As you know, the Township of Langley has about 104,000 residents, while the City of Langley has only about 20-25,000 residents. Yet UDI, in its search for real mayors to speak at this forum decided to invite Mayor Peter Fassbender of the City of Langley to speak. This is yet another sign that even private industry are shying away from our raging bull mayor.

See for yourself right here folks in this UDI flyer announcing the event. Emails have circulated around the planet and Mayor Rick Green does not appear anywhere on it. This all despite the fact that the Township of Langley has over 3 times the growth of that of the City of Langley. As we have pointed out before, Mayor Peter Fassbender is a well-respected public official in ALL of Metro Vancouver. Mayor Rick Green can only dream of obtaining half of that respect.

One has to ask themselves why such a respected organization such as UDI would shun Mayor Rick Green. Examine the facts. Examine his record of not getting anything done since elected. Examine his methods of operation and all those "fight" announcement from him on the various issues. Examine his alienation from the various professional boards and commissions, MLAs and other orders of government. You could also point to the fact that unless Mayor Green is reading word-for-word from a pre-prepared statement, the man is NOT a very good public speaker, while Fassbender waxes eloquent EVERY time, no mater what the topic.

Now can you understand why Mayor Peter Fassbender was selected over Green to represent Langley in a professional manner? Stay tuned for more news on this story. Late today our Editorial Board got a news flash from our friends in the development community. Apparently Mayor Green was VERY enraged by this event flyer and some phone lines were burnt in the process. More news to follow soon.

Rick Green Wasting Taxpayers Dollars on This Blog

The Long Arm of The Law

Perhaps Mayor Green doesn't know it, but through our tracking systems we can tell when a major company, ISP or law firm accesses our site. This tracking information tells us when the firm visited, how they came to us (search engine, direct, etc.), what web pages they read and how long they stayed on the site.

We have now confirmed that once again Bull Housser & Tupper LLC, the law firm representing the Township of Langley, has accessed our website. This is now the ninth (9th) time that Bull Housser & Tupper has perused the site. Each of the nine visits directly followed our posting of an article that was unfavourable to Mayor Rick Green. The mayor really has a BIG problem with us exposing the truth!

Bull Housser & Tupper LLC (BHT) is a very good law firm. As they work for municipal governments, they are not a cheap firm to engage. Check out that website with the leather furniture and prime offices hanging sky high above Vancouver. The firm bill out to the Township at hundreds of dollars per hour for a little look at this website and the resulting report to the municipal official that ordered the legal opinion. With nine BHT visits to our site just this year, Mayor Green is foolishly wasting our tax dollars to chase this blog. In our opinion the mayor should really get himself some thicker skin and stop wasting our tax dollars.

Our investigation shows further that Mayor Green has wasted far more tax dollars for legal opinions than that of his predecessor, former Mayor Kurt Alberts. Just how much money has Green's insecurity, thin skin and easily bruised ego cost us taxpayers? Mr. Mayor - Thicken your skin and stop wasting our hard earned tax dollars. The Township lawyers are not your private consigliere. They are for official Township business to consult on matters of special interest and protection of our residents rights. All of these legal fees are coming from budgets that you Mayor Green have never voted to approve in the 2+ years you have been in office.

Mayor Green, if you are so tender and delicate then you don't belong in politics. You can't bully ever news editor around like you do to one particular local editor that you have in your pocket.

It is high time that Mayor Rick Green grows up and stops the folly of chasing an anonymous blog!