Category: Entitlement

Councillor Shits on Democracy

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Staff and administration / TaxesOne Comment

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In a recent story in CollingwoodToday, Councillor Jeffrey is reported shitting on the democratic process. Rather than respecting a previous decision of council as policy requires, she chose to bring back a vote to add another staff person to our already overstaffed townhall. In doing so, I am confident she was well aware that she was voting to further burden taxpayers, simply because she didn’t like the way the vote went when she wasn’t at the table. Coun. Kathy Jeffery noted that the Nov. 20 … click below for more ↓

More Oppressive Budget Bullshit

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Taxes4 Comments

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Council is still eyeing a massive hike to Collingwood property taxes, proving they lack any concern about the problems facing seniors and others on fixed incomes, low-income earners, and the many working-class people simply trying to make ends meet in an increasingly expensive town. Every tax increase, every utility increase, every user fee increase makes their lives harder. No one at the council table seems to have the spine to stand up to staff demands for more money, more employees, more stuff in their offices … click below for more ↓

4.25% Tax Increase! WTF Is Council Thinking?

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Financial follies / Taxes5 Comments

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A story in CollingwoodToday says the latest draft of the town budget puts a 4.25% increase on property taxes for 2024! WTF is council thinking, adding more costs to residents during a period of high inflation? People are already struggling with rising costs for food, electricity (the Saunderson-privatized EPCOR got a 5.23% rate hike this fall*), gas (vehicle and natural), water, clothing, mortgages, transit, lumber, vehicles, and just about everything else. A property tax hike this size will send our already-steep rental prices soaring even more. … click below for more ↓

Another Abuse of Power and Position

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Election 2022 / Entitlement4 Comments

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As this term of council winds down, with only a few weeks before the election, it seems some members at the table can’t help themselves abusing their position and their power. Their sense of entitlement is an embarrassing display. At tomorrow’s council meeting (Sept. 20), Councillor Jeffery will make the following notice of motion: THAT Council appoint Acting Deputy Mayor McLeod as Deputy Mayor for the duration of the current term of Council. This isn’t just a change in title: it is a political gambit to … click below for more ↓

What About the Code of Conduct?

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Election 2022 / EntitlementLeave a comment

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I attended a two-hour seminar hosted by the town about Collingwood’s Code of Conduct last week. It was intended as an introduction to the policy for new candidates and a refresher for incumbents, and was presented by the town’s Integrity Commissioner, whose slides ranged from conflicts of interest to accountability, from public behaviour to confidentiality. Councillor Bob Madigan wasn’t there. Four incumbents running in this election attended (Doherty, McLeod, Hamlin, and Berman), for which I give them credit. Madigan didn’t show. Perhaps it’s because the … click below for more ↓

Hypocritical Candidate Wants to Return to Council

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Election 2022 / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviourOne Comment

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Two more of our local “basket-of-deplorables” incumbent councillors (aka quidnuncs) have filed their papers for re-election: Steve Berman and Kathy “Me! Me! Me!” Jeffrey. So has former councillor Cam “Sleepy” Ecclestone, who announced he was running in the provincial election for the fringe “Consensus Party” then never appeared on the ballot. Readers will recall that both Berman and Jeffrey willingly participated in the bullying of former councillor, Tina Comi. Both signed identical copies of councillor McLeod’s complaint to the town’s integrity commissioner. Both defended their … click below for more ↓

Council’s Inappropriate Pay-Raise Decision

Collingwood / Conflicts of Interest / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Election 2022 / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Financial follies / TaxesLeave a comment

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Late last month — less than three months before the next municipal election — council made significant decisions about their own pay and the role of the mayor. Given that four of them have filed to run again (and a fifth is pending), and two of those are vying for the mayor’s role, this was a highly inappropriate decision and of questionable ethics. In the story in CollingwoodToday, it noted: ..council voted to approve changing the position of mayor from part-time to full-time, keeping Collingwood … click below for more ↓

The Marionette and the Mediocrity

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Election 2022 / Entitlement / Ineptitude and bunglingOne Comment

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Councillors Mariane McLeod and Yvonne Hamlin have both filed their papers to run for the mayor of Collingwood after a mere single term serving in the least effective, most inept council ever, serving as loyal sycophants to the worst and most disliked mayor in the town’s history. What hubris! Aside from their abilities to vote the way Saunderson expected, to express oleaginous praise for him in public absque verecundia (without shame), and to ignore the needs of the community for the past three and a … click below for more ↓

Grovel, Snivel & Fawn

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviourLeave a comment

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Grovel, Snivel & Fawn. You might think it’s the name of a law firm, but it’s the art of political sycophancy practiced by our own council.* It’s how our council behaved when the former, and much-disliked mayor, Brian Saunderson, took his leave from sucking on the municipal tit last week (it was not disclosed whether he will be paid for his brief, grandstanding appearance to accept the laurels from the committee). One last time our council cabal eagerly and publicly grovelled, snivelled, and fawned over … click below for more ↓

No, Brian Hasn’t Done Any of That!

Collingwood / Entitlement / Municipal Politics / Provincial Politics / Saunderson's MPP campaign5 Comments

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You probably got one of these disinformation campaign cards in your mail this week. It says that Brian Saunderson and Doug “Jabba the Hutt” Ford are “putting money in your pocket.” And then it lists three things Ford did by himself without Brian’s help. Or input. Or even vote because, after all, he’s been the MIA mayor of Collingwood, not an MPP. So how did the unelected (and, I hope, unelectable) Brian do anything like this? He didn’t. Are these claims disingenuous? Or disinformation? Or … click below for more ↓

Saunderson’s Your Guy

Collingwood / Conflicts of Interest / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Politics / Provincial Politics / Saunderson's MPP campaign4 Comments

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With the provincial election only a few days away, I thought I should remind you why you might want to vote for Collingwood’s much-disliked, hypocritical, bullying, and inept mayor, Brian Saunderson. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ve likely read the dozens and dozens of posts I’ve written over the years about his failure to act in even a vague pretense of a leadership role, his hypocrisy, his mismanagement, his personal vendetta, and the constant conflicts of interest he ignores. But just as … click below for more ↓

Council Misses the Bus. Again.

Collingwood / Council / Entitlement / Ineptitude and bungling / Staff and administration / Wacky WTF ideasLeave a comment

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Council’s latest plan will make life harder for low-income and senior residents by making our public transit less accessible, less affordable, and then replacing the schedule with random access buses just to confound riders. All because a well-paid consultant said it was a good idea and well-paid staff agreed. Another WTF-were-they-thinking moment from town hall. And I have no doubt, our pro-privatization, anti-public-ownership mayor would love to privatize our transit service — without any public consultation, of course — as he did our electricity utility … click below for more ↓

Signs, Signs, Everywhere There’s Signs

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Ineptitude and bungling6 Comments

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The Town of Collingwood’s Facebook page has a post that shows photos of our council members grinning at the camera while holding a piece of paper with a word handwritten above a printed text. I am not aware that this bit of self-promotion has been covered in any local media (but then, so little is, these days).* This paper they are holding comes from a County of Simcoe initiative called “#itsstarts” which, the county’s website says, is, “a public awareness campaign designed to take a … click below for more ↓

Utterly Corrupt and Contemptible

Collingwood / Conflicts of Interest / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour5 Comments

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Last night, our council contemptuously appointed a replacement for former councillor Tina Comi, who had been bullied out of office by the Gang of Six of the eight currently at the table. The man they chose was former mayor, Chris Carrier, who also: Is a registered lobbyist in Collingwood for a major property developer and an insurance company (potential conflicts of interest); Donated money to the 2018 election campaigns of five of the six who voted for him to be the new councillor: Brian Saunderson … click below for more ↓

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