Trust in the details

(I apologize for the Grammar in the coming quotes. It’s difficult to remove all the umms, ahhhs and pauses when transcribing from a video.)

Sometimes in order to fully understand issues, it is necessary to actually listen to the decision makers during their Council Meetings.

An overwhelmingly large percentage of our population simply do not have the time or they just don’t care to watch. I watch most Council meetings either live on YouTube or the recorded version after the fact.

Most of our Council have scripts ready for the truly important issues. Then, the discussion takes a turn. A few of our Council members and particularly our Mayor, simply cannot help themselves and when an issue is suddenly debated or discussed, they often go off script and THAT is when their true feelings come out.

There are two issues that have demonstrated this recently. Both the Free Parking passes and the Snow Clearing subsidies have provided opportunity for Council Members to reveal their true colours.

Why do these observations matter? Why should they matter to everyone? Every decision made by our Council has the possibility of touching all of our lives, so who are these people?

In my humble opinion, there are some good Politicians who speak from the heart at all time. They reveal both their strengths and their weaknesses when they speak candidly. With this type of politician, it is easy to see who they truly are. I enjoy their dedication and their humility when appropriate.

Then there is the Politician who wants you to always see them as the ideal candidate, so they represent that candidate. However, it is not really them you see when they are reading the script. Then if you watch over time, their true colours start to get revealed. With this kind of Politician, it seems like their stage presence is always turned on.

If you are not sure what I’m talking about, just watch any meeting and pay attention to Mayor Smith when he lectures everyone. He usually does so after everyone speaks or if he (or an idea of his) is challenged. If anyone crosses him, he almost always will say, “ So’s what I’m hearing is blah blah blah, but I disagree because blah blah blah.”

It is important to pay attention to the small details in order to grasp which type person a particular politician is.

Let’s first look at the Council decision to go with electronic parking passes. Originally, the seven were so happy to say we were getting free parking. They were so generous in year one. They allowed two passes per household and had no real restrictions as far as lending them out. Nobody knows which members of Council or Staff member was offended by the original process. SOMEONE, felt the town was being ripped off. So now… in order to get your two passes, they must be assigned to a vehicle and we have to produce ownership for these automobiles. I remember watching the meeting where this was discussed and I was astounded by how obnoxious our seven elected were in starting to impose their restrictive terms to their “free” parking.

https://www.youtube.com/live/m958N8uM6nU?feature=shared

Want another great example? At the most recent Council meeting, (link attached… fast forward to 1:25:00 into the meeting.) Councilor Dileo wanted to make recommendations for next year’s snow removal program. They were receiving a report on the statistics of this past winters snow removal program budget.

The conversations were actually moot, because next year’s program will be discussed during appropriate budget deliberations, but boy… do they like to speak when it’s a touch point issue.

Councilor Dileo had prepared and read a well put together opinion. She wanted the use of the Guaranteed Income Supplement to no longer be an eligibility factor. I get it… her goal was to have all windrows cleared after the Town plows, so she would prefer no restrictions if possible. But the responses of other Council members is what to pay attention to. It should be noted first that only $6500 of the budgeted $100,000 was even used to compensate eligible taxpayers.

So first to speak is the Deputy Mayor. She and the Mayor try to figure out what to do next because none of them are actually aware of process. It is decided that Councilor Dileo wants an amendment to the motion to accept the report. But she never makes the amendment. (Bizarre leadership)

Next to speak is the clerk who says it’s not a good idea to amend it and they should seek another report first.

Then Councilor White is up. He simply wants to sound good so says nothing, but it does take him several sentences of catchy words to do so. He supports it or he doesn’t… it’s not clear.

Next is Councilir Timms. She is the first to reveal her true feelings. She is not sure she agrees with removing financial criteria. She feels it’s only computer savvy people getting the money and says so with slight distain.

Councilor Ego simply wanted clarification, as she often does not follow what is actually being discussed. She got her confirmation that Councilor Dileo just wants financial criteria removed.

Condescending Councilor Joe Belanger then explains the budget process to his peers. Then he waxes on about climate change and tells them all that it may become a non-issue if it continues to get warmer. Climate change is real, but does he think it won’t snow next winter? You really have to listen to his teachings. (It’s a small part of your life that you will never get back, but it is funny).

Yep, Deputy Mayor Snell is up next. She should know the rules by now as she could be called upon to chair a meeting, but she wants to sound as important as everyone else so she has to say something. She merely wants the unused funds to go back into casino funds. I guess those funds are easier for them to access.

Councilor Dileo speaks next (remember, the clerk has already said they should deal with this later) and makes a valid point about eligibility being at such a low income threshold that very few qualify. Staff intervene and explain the application process further. He points out that staff do not want to be in a situation of going through applicants financial info to see if they qualify.

Ok… this sparks off Councilor Dileo to say what she REALLY means- GREAT! Good for her! Her point is that this is only a $200 grant and she wants to give ALL taxpayers the benefit of believing they will not apply if they don’t need the money.

So here goes Mayor Brian Smith, as he OBVIOUSLY disagrees with her. HE HAS NOW BEEN TRIGGERED AND GOES OFF-script; (This is Brian’s next tirade in its entirety)

“ I think in all fairness and reality though, I, I, hear what your saying Councilor Dileo. The issue is we have $100,000 in a budget. Um this year, and I agree we need to start advertising this almost now for next year, so as that there is a bigger uptick, and that we do a better job at advertising that. It was a last-minute, late in the year, so I understand why staff do what they do. But my thoughts are we have $100,000 and if we remove any limitation, you now open the door to 15,000 household, who could be applying for $200. they won’t, but we could chew through $100,000 rather quickly. And my concern quite frankly, you know is, in seven years I will be a senior and I certainly do not need any funding, umm for someone to plow or clear my driveway, nor should I be eligible to apply for that in my opinion because there’s a lot more people who um need that service. So my thoughts here, because I hear all the comments and don’t disagree with any of them necessarily or completely. But this is now going to be going into the second year and I think if we start to advertise this now and we change how we advertise it and we get it out there in a much more broad form. Perhaps we’ll get it into the next newsletter. We can get this into the next water bill and so on and so forth. My thoughts are, let’s see how this year goes and how many people take us up on this, because I think last year was 30, 32 people that applied for this Kevin. What’s that number? (Staff responded) so 35 applicants in total that applied for this out of 25,000 people or 15,000 households, let’s put it that way. That’s a really low uh group of people. Listen I, I have in every campaign I have run, I have talked about working towards trying to remove windows from peoples driveways, specifically people who are seniors or less fortunate and maybe cannot afford to do this. And that’s always been my intent. It’s never been for everyone. I’ll tell a quick story. My first year as mayor Kevin may remember this. I think it was my third day in office we had a heckuva snowstorm. I think it was my first lesson in how often and how quickly phones can ring and I received a call from one lady who was beside herself. She just moved to Wasaga Beach from Vaughan and her driveway was full of snow, and her words to me were something along the line of how dare you people push all of the snow off of the street into my driveway. And my response to her was Well ma’am you know you’ve moved here from the city, you’ve moved to a lakefront community, we have lakefront snow, you’re in a snowbelt area and at the end of the day you’re in Canada. We’re not unique in Canada snow gets put into your driveway. And she said to me in the city of Vaughn they came and removed all that snow. So I asked her, I said ma’am, do you mind me asking why you moved to Wasaga Beach from Vaughan? And she scoffed, it was immediate and she said the taxes in Vaughan are outrageous. And I replied we can quickly come and remove your snow but we’re going to match your taxes in Vaughan. So, I believe wholeheartedly in assisting those who required and need it our seniors, those on disability, in getting the windrows out of their driveway. I struggle to give anyone any kind of funding who financially doesn’t need it, or is physically able to shovel their driveway like anyone else in this country or across North America or anywhere else where there’s snow for that matter. So I would like to see where give this another year, let’s get advertising it let’s move it forward and let’s see the uptick. Because if we end up with 40 people we know that there’s really not a great need for it. Doesn’t mean that we stop it, we keep it in place. I also don’t have a problem saying for this year, let’s maybe even double that from 200 to 400 and see what the uptick is. Um but I struggle to remove a qualification that quite frankly is really the only way we have to determine, other than disability, but financially the financial viability, and um, um, without having to ask people their personal financial information. I’m not so certain we have the legal ability or can ask for that information. I think the only way to prove it would be for them to show us their notice of assessment from their income tax. I don’t know that we have the ability, maybe that should be in the report. Um, where we stand in being able to ask for that information. So at the end of the day, counselor, I hear you loud and clear, I don’t disagree with everything you’re saying. I hear the rest of counsel. Now let’s get a staff report done and back to us as quick as we can. Let’s see what it has to say and what other options are out there and then we can make a decision from there. That’s fair!”

Yep… he said ALL OF THAT! Uhu… Possibly providing your Income Tax Assessments for a $200 grant…

Thanks for talking so much Brian. Now, back to the point of this discussion. So, he and Councillor Dileo then do further negotiation regarding what may be acceptable.

Then after all of that, the clerk reminds them they are merely accepting the original report and if they want another report (with all of these considerations) to bring it up at the appropriate point later in the meeting.

He is so pleased with himself that he has placated Councilor Dileo with his 400 suggestion that he then says, “on to the next item”.

But wait… he is then reminded a motion to receive the report is on the floor, so he reads it again and calls “all in favour?”

But wait… he forgot that because someone pulled it, it becomes a recorded vote.

1:42:13, roll call, guess what? They ALL voted to receive the report! None of what any of them said actually mattered in the outcome of the meeting or the disposition of the Snow Removal Grant Program. We all know a little more about each of them, and 17 minutes and 37 seconds have passed since you started reading what they all said.

The guaranteed Income Supplement is paid to those making less than $18,000 and our Mayor (who makes over $100,000.00 just in his municipal remuneration) doesn’t want anyone else to take advantage of the Councils good graces in offering this generous $200 subsidy for a program he claims has been important to him in “Every Campaign”.

Keep talking Brian, we really do like hearing what you really think! More importantly we like hearing what you say. It often reveals what you really think.

I’m not picking up my free passes this year and I never applied for a snow removal grant. To much paper work and the lack of trust is astounding!

One Comment

alanclegg May 22, 2024 at 1:09 pm

The windrows issue; this election promise is an insight into this council.

As I recall, in the run up to last election, these candidate, particularly Smith were full of wild promises, including of course the removal of windrows for all.
They were fully aware that the previous council generated a full and frank report that this would be too costly for a town sandwiched between snow resorts to provide this service, but like many of the promises in the last election, they had zero intention of paying for the votes they bought.

By creating a program for windrows removal with a huge burden of paperwork and frankly a niggardly (an adjective meaning “stingy” or “miserly) recompense of $200 at the end of the winter no less. As many of you are aware, this doesn’t cover the cost of snow removal, so we are left with a snow covered drive with just the windrow removed? No, they have to pay for all the snow to be removed and get a small cheque at the end of the season…if they have filled all the forms out… For a whole 35 homes.

Smith’s off script musings that people would need to provide their notice of assessment from their income tax to qualify??? He has just talked about the low uptake on the program and now think of ways to ensure its even harder.

This aside from demanding confidential information to a town that has leaked confidential information that has been used for the financial gain of a sitting councillor, a town that has been hacked (reportedly repeatedly) and proved its security inadequate wants to gather your confidential financial details just to qualify for a begrudging $200? I would be reluctant to trust the Town of Wasaga Beach with a credit card let alone access to my finances.

Given this burden of paperwork and forms, I also have to ask… how many people are shovelling compared to how many people are processing paperwork for this program?

No. This issue illustrates perfectly how Brian Smith and this council treat its election promises.

It is swept under the rug by Smith “moving on to other business”.