Sir: I am confused. I was born in this city just over 71 years ago and have had ample opportunity to observe a multitude of mayor and council scenarios.
During my career, I was at one point the global director of IT for Bendix/Siemens with a department that spanned Canada, the U.S., Korea, France and Brazil. After an early retirement from Siemens, I spent almost five years as the V.P. of software development for one of the world’s largest Internet commerce companies, retiring for good at the end of 2000.
During my time in Chatham watching municipal politics and during my career working across multiple cultures, with multiple value systems and multiple languages, I thought I had witnessed every administration and financial screw up possible, but apparently not. It seems that over the past 10 years or so our municipal leadership has overdosed on stupid pills. Not all councillors, but enough to pass idiotic proposals.
My confusion stems from missing the point at which government for the people morphed into government for the government. Our strategic plan seems to be based on councillor and department head egos, politically correct and feel-good programs, and lots of ribbon cutting and look-good photo ops. Oh, and I cannot forget Chinese food.
Our municipal leadership is spending money we don’t have, that taxpayers cannot afford, on projects we don’t need. As Mr. Jack Parry so aptly pointed out “Chatham-Kent can’t even afford to fix its bridges or balance a budget and yet council can find $6 million for a bike trail.”
C-K is sitting on more than $3 million in railroad assets on a right-of-way that could easily be converted to a bike trail if we really need one.
Council has abdicated its governance responsibility for hiring by delegating this to the unelected bureaucrats. This means department heads can determine (for example) that there is no firefighter in all of Chatham-Kent or in all of Canada for that matter capable of filling the role of deputy chief, forcing us to recruit in the United Kingdom. I would love to know how Canada Department of Immigration approval for a foreign hire was obtained.
What was council thinking when they approved the creation of a “foundation” for fundraising for the fire department? Is this a clear signal to taxpayers that the fire department has no plan to live within its budget but is going to “raise” money by other means? Maybe they can have lemonade stands at fire halls or chicken dinners. I know: Chinese food suppers!
It is as if C-K council and administration have taken a page out of the provincial Liberal government’s playbook. Since you won’t be in office forever, do as much irreparable damage to the community as you can before you are turfed.
Councillors, you were elected by the citizens of Chatham-Kent to represent the needs of Chatham-Kent residents and to make wise and prudent decisions with taxpayer money. By and large, you are doing an abysmal job with reckless and frivolous spending of taxpayer money on pipe dreams.
I know some of you are “professional board sitters” so some incompetence is to be assumed. But for those of you who have even a smidge of common sense, wake up, look at what is happening around you and get your heads on straight.
Citizens of Chatham-Kent, find your way onto the C-K web portal. With a little digging, you will find the minutes of all public council meetings and can track each councilor’s voting record.
Then get ready for the next municipal election!
David Goldsmith
Chatham
