In this unusual Langley Advance article by Matthew Claxton, Councillor Kim Richter admits to not attending the mayor's closed door workshops and says that basically she support's Councillor Ward in his bid to take notes in the committee workshop."In recent years, the Township budget process has been under control of a committee composed of the entire council. Richter said she just wants to get down to business, but had some reservations about Tuesday's events. "I was concerned as well that Coun. Ward was excluded," she said."
We can only take Councillor Richter at her word here and assume this was an honest comment. Therefore, The Langley Record must be fair and congratulate her for doing the right thing. Might Councillor Richter be tiring of Mayor Green's leadership style or the way things have been going? Only Councillor Richter can tell us and we hope she does.
Lots of money in staff time has been spent on this Standing Finance Committee and the jury is still out on the value we are getting. Next Tuesday's council and committee joint meeting should see the presentation of a report to council. The editors of both papers have now mused that a zero-based budget is nothing more than wishful thinking, and the committee will be hard-pressed to keep things much the same without any service increases, while still being able to recommend no tax increases. However, The Langley Advance goes on to say:
"Richter said she just wants a budget with zero tax increases this year."
Committee member Calvin Patterson has stated at least twice that he views the committee's job strictly as looking at efficiencies and possible budget cuts, disagreeing with Richter that the committee should also look as ways to increase revenue. Patterson views this role as a ToL Council function. Stay tuned.
4 comments:
Quite frankly what the hXXX credentials does Calvin Paterson or Mr. Tim Hortons(oops sorry Mr. Federal employee) or Mr. BDO Dunwoody have! None of the threewere elected to do the job, the Councillors were.
This whole process is a farce, they are lookiing for efficiencies, come on what budget process is that. Mr. Green's self appointed threesome are simply incompeten to do the job and need to go back to serving coffee or whatever.
This is buXXcraX and is a complete rip-off of the taxpayers.
To clarify, next weeks' meetings include Council on Monday (open to public at 4 & 7 PM) & the Finance Committee on Tuesday (closed to public)?
On Tuesday the meeting will be a joint meeting of Council Priorities and the Standing Finance Committee. After receiving the committee's recommendations that joint meeting will terminate and the Council Priorities Committee will then have a discussion. As far as we are aware, its all open to the public.
It is patently ludicrous that a councillor duly elected by the people of Langley is not allowed in a committee meeting by a bully mayor. Shame on Tricky Ricky.
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