State of the City June 2007

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Mayor: This is Greater Sudbury's time

www.northernlife.ca/News/LocalNews/2007/06-19-07-mayor.asp?NLStory=06-19-07-mayor

Date Published | Jun. 20, 2007


BY TRACEY DUGUAY


The dichotomy of a lifetime card-carrying NDPer, now mayor, being the keynote speaker at a luncheon hosted by the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce elicited a few chuckles Tuesday afternoon.

"Tommy Douglas would be rolling over in his grave," said Greater Sudbury Mayor John Rodriguez at the conclusion of his State of the City Address.

After a 45-minute speech, which chamber chair John Bonin referred to as "inspirational" and "powerful," Rodriguez received a standing ovation from the 245 guests in attendance.

The mayor said, "never in my wildest dreams" did he imagine he'd be standing before a crowd of business people, let alone receive a standing ovation for his words.

"We're very, very proud of your accomplishments so far, "Bonin said. "We don't always agree with your decisions but we do agree we want this city to be the best city in Canada."

Bonin's words coincided with the theme of the mayor's speech, which focused on how it was Greater Sudbury's time to thrive, grow and prosper.

Comparing the financial and business momentum in the city to Megan McGrath's summit to the top of Mount Everest, Rodriguez said the climber knew it was her time to go for it, just as it's the right time for the city to elevate itself as well.

"Ladies and Gentleman, this is Greater Sudbury's time. We have the team, we have the momentum, and we have the vision. If we set our goals, do our preparation, and work hard, we can be sitting on top of the world."

Rodriguez cited examples of the high price of nickel, booming housing market, strong economy, low unemployment rate, the city's recent designation as a regional centre of expertise on sustainable development and its commitment to infrastructure renewal as reason why it is a great time to live, play and do business in Greater Sudbury.

See if you can spot anything in his speech that would warrant a standing ovation?

Full PDF version of the mayor's speech.

www.northernlife.ca/PDFedition/2007/StateoftheCity.pdf

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Reality: Here’s a more accurate synopsis of the mayor’s first six months.

He agreed to a recount for a would-be councillor when the recount request wasn't done properly. A candidate must proceed through the court to request a recount; he cannot make the request to council.

-- Cost to ratepayers - 5,000 $


He had ratepayers pay for a recount of the school board trustee. The school board were entitled to a recount as of right, but nowhere does the Act state ratepayers have to foot the bill. The school board is responsible for such costs.

-- Cost to ratepayers - 5,000 $


He allowed the first council meeting to be by invitation only, a violation of section 239 of the Municipal Act as all meeting are open to the public. The city provided 10,000 $ of catered food to those lucky few who were invited.

-- Cost to the ratepayers - 10,000 $


He allowed our former mayor and a would-be councillor to violate the sign bylaw and failed to enforce the fines of up to 200,000 $. Instead, the city went after a private business for 41 $ for posting a Go Wolves Go sign until the media published the story.

-- Cost to the ratepayers – a loss of up to 200,000 $


He flies the Francophone flag in a community of only 30ish percent French when council’s since 1975 have already determined it is not proper to fly it. At no time during his campaign did he advise citizens he was going to do this, and he knew he was going to do it, as this was the first thing he did once elected.


He campaigned on no tax increase and then raised our taxes by 4.3 percent; three percent higher than the inflation rate bringing the tax increase to 29.3 percent over the past four years.

-- Cost to ratepayers - over 10 million $


He stated citizens would understand why he raised our taxes as long as it was explained to them. His explanation is that senior levels of government keep downloading services onto the municipality, but they haven't downloaded anything since he announced he was running for mayor in July 2006 when he made his promise not to raise taxes. Just another bald faced lie. The city has also amassed a 15 million $ surplus in the past 3 years and banked 11 million $ last year alone; but he raised taxes anyway.


He campaigned on raising the plow at every driveway and has now cut our snowfighters budget.

-- Cost to ratepayers in future lost wages from work on snow days – yet to be determined


He refuses to sit on the Police Service Board, a position the mayor acquires by virtue of office. The Police Service is out of control from the top down but he doesn't care. The mayor approves of us taxpayers paying suspended officers full salary when there is no requirement to do so. Once they are criminally convicted they are allowed to return to full duty like nothing happened. Image that, you cannot have a criminal record and become a cop but once you are a cop in Sudbury you're free to acquire a criminal record and still be an officer. What's the point of suspending cops with pay if we're going to allow them to return to full duty once convicted?

-- Cost to ratepayers - hundreds of thousands of $


He was told by the chair of the Hydro board that instead of cutting the number of board of directors major savings could be found within the corporation, all he have to do is ask, but the mayor hasn't bothered to ask.

-- Cost to the ratepayers – We’ll never know since he isn’t pursuing the savings, but according to the chair of the GSU, it’s major!


He's hired a deputy clerk and has given the employee a ratepayer funded pension plan when there is no requirement to have the deputy clerk on city staff. The clerk can be an out-of-house employee where no pension benefits would be paid by the taxpayers.

-- Cost to the ratepayer -


He campaigned about ending the culture of entitlement at city hall than took council on a taxpayer funded weekend get away within 6 weeks of being elected. He filed no report on how we benefited from the holiday. He told us it would cost 2,000 $ to hold the meeting at city hall during a weekend when no one else but council uses council chambers. This was his logic for spending 5,000 $ on their weekend get away.

-- Cost to ratepayers - 5,000 $


He promised to entirely end homelessness in Sudbury then gave each of the 400+ recipients 66 cents a day, less then 20 $ a month for shelter. He then gave 8 agencies over 400,000 $ to administer his great 20 $ a month plan. That's 8 agencies and 8 administration expenditures to do the work of one.

-- Cost to the ratepayer – over 600,000 $


He passed the 2007 budget, which raised our taxes prior to even knowing what was in the federal or provincial budgets that came out a week or so later. Had senior levels of government provide municipalities funding of any kind ratepayers would’ve paid even more taxes than the city required for the services they provided.

And speaking of our 2007 budget, it doesn't even make sense. In 2006 the budget increased by 15 million $ or so over 2005 and our tax increase was 6.7 percent, although the city falsely claimed it was only a 5.2 percent increase. This year the budget increased by 32 million $ and the tax increase is reported to be 4.3 percent. Hmmm, how can this be?


He told citizens everyone would have a chance to be selected to sit on the panels he created relating to the arena, art centre and mining tax issue. Days later, before anyone could even apply, he announced his handpicked panels.

The panel members are allegedly volunteers, however, he's given these committees 50,000 $ each and a four year mandate. Hmmm, last year the solution team solved all of Sudbury's issues with a budget of 75,000 $, so why would each of these committees need 50,000 $, for a total of 250,000 $, when it's all a volunteer board?

-- Cost to ratepayers - 50,000 $


He failed to enter our city in the free CBC Hockeyville 2007 contest when Sudbury has a greater hockey history than any other city on earth, and where the prize was 50,000 $ in arena upgrades, and the right to host a NHL preseason game, among other things. A review of the recently passed 2007 budget shows that the ratepayer is being charged 750,000 $ for...yup...you guessed it, arena upgrades.

-- Cost to ratepayers - a loss of over 50,000 $


He wants to start taxing the mining companies because they are making so much money. Sound logical at first, but the mine companies aren’t interested in paying more taxes (are you?) and they will simply cut production, lay off employees, and mine in other areas and countries where they are not subject to these new taxes if they are imposed, and at the end of the day we'll be worse off; not better off. Oh yeah, he gave his handpicked volunteer panel 50,000 $ when both the liberal and PC parties have already indicated they are not giving us any of the current mining taxes and they will not be imposing a new tax on mines.

-- Cost to ratepayers - 50,000 $


He and council have also adopted another motto for our city, community of communities. Seems to me we have an identity crisis, as we are developing more names for this city than there are versions of our Canadian quarter. Let's count them. City of Greater Sudbury. Greater City of Sudbury, Greater Sudbury, Grand Sudbury, Sudbury, Nickel Belt, Nickel Capital, Nickel City, City of Lakes, CGS, Constellation City, My Sudbury, Oui Sudbury, and now, Community of Communities. I did I miss any?


We have a city hall that is paid for yet the nomad mayor is holding 12 meeting throughout the city.

-- Cost to the ratepayers - 14,000 $, which does not include the bus to transport councillors around, the bus drivers wages, and gas for the bus.


He recently wrote a letter of reference for a convicted criminal that was read in court in his attempt to get this person a lighter sentence. Maybe that's why the mayor doesn't want to sit on the Police Service Board, he’s associated with criminals.

-- Cost to the mayor – a loss of what little credibility he ever had

In 2006 the city had 1833 employees but now the mayor claims we have 3000. While the 1167 new employees’ maybe phantom employees the cost to the ratepayers is not.


I don't know about you, but I don't think we can afford another 1000+ 'dazes' like the first 180.

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