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September 30th 2004

The Cobourg DBIA gets the runaround:
The Cobourg Downtown Business Investment Area, is the collection of merchants that do business downtown. They have to pay a levy on their taxbills and get to have a say in what goes on down there. In the Walmart debate a couple of years ago there was stiff discussion amongst the members about an objection the OMB to defend their interests. The DBIA played tough for a while and managed to get bought off, by Royal Cobourg offering some money to them. An offer of $60,000 for marketing and promotion (and Walmart was supposed to put signs around the place saying what a wonderful place Downtown was to shop). This money was supposed to be paid in instalments, so when the DBIA went to get their money this year (the outstanding amount of $20,000) they have been told that the man they normally deal with is not there. Chris Wong, the lead in Royal Cobourg has moved on to York University, and nobody at Royal Cobourg wants to talk to the DBIA about their money. Things have got so bad that the DBIA executive is thinking of asking the Town's solicitor to get it for them. Speculation is that Royal Cobourg may have been restructured, after all it was only a shell company doing First Professional's development for them and running interference for the debts. When talking to the Mayor all he could say was, "That could have interesting implications!" Stay tuned

100 people sat through the usual stuff!
Wednesday 29th Seotember at the Columbus Hall in Cobourg about 100 people sat through presentations from various people pushing their idea of tax change. A mixture

of Californian tax plans (the proposal for a referendum if 10% of the voters sign a petition) and angry rural ideas (an assessment freeze and a rollback to five year old values) were suggested as being part of the panacea of "tax relief". Speakers included the Mayor of trent hills - Hector MacMillan and the Deouty Mayor of Cobourg - Bob Spooner.

Editorial comment
By confining all their suggestions about assessment change to the manipulation of the exisiting assessment system these folks have boxed themselves in and are danger of being written off as "one-trick ponies". To be taken seriously they must be willing to look at innovative ideas and broaden the debate. How about a Municipal income tax?

September 27th

How about this:
A screen shot of the Town of Cobourg's website taken on Monday morning - a hacked site!

More on the Cramahe situation
It is alleged that on Sept 12th the Council met with Merlin's lawyers to discuss a counteroffer that could have, if not saved money, but at least got some value for the money owed to Mr Dewing. The offer went like this: Merlin would work off the rest of his contract as the Project Manager for the "Keeler Lands Project". This is a development where the municipality, as the owner of the land would take an active role in the building and selling of the lots and houses. The Council voted not take up the offer and presumably awaits the big brown envelope from Merlin's lawyers claiming damages for wrongful dismissal and loss of reputation. In the meantime on the Town is still on the hook for his wages whilst he sits at home doing nothing on Cramahe's money.

An interview with Councillor Tim Post about the split on Council between the Mayor and a majority of Council,revealed an interesting slant on democracy. Stating that, "The Mayor only has one vote, it may indicate that he doesn't have the confidence of Council!" However he went on to say that, "So far we haven't had it [the tail wagging the dog}" But he does anticipate some intense discussions about issues that have divided the Council in the past and which the majority now want reopen, such as the Water Tower discussion. Asked what can the public do about this apparently dysfunctional Council he replied, "They can say what they want but they will have to wait until the next election to do something about it."

In an interview with the Mayor, Lee Dekeyser revealed that he has some misgivings about the possibility of a dysfunctional Council but he is optimistic that they can get over the issue of Mr Dewing's dismissal. "I was against it and told them [the councillor's who wanted to fire the CAO] that it would be expensive but I couldn't talk them out of it. But I'm hoping that once this is over they will work together after we get over the issue of Mr. Dewing's dismissal." Well stay tuned for that!!

What I don't understand is How John Kerry can't get his message across.
All he has to say is, "I voted to give President Bush the authority to go to war and them voted against giving him more money to spend on the war because he screwed up as soon as we gave him the authority!"
Michael Moore says it best about the way he feels about the voters of America, in this letter to his friends here. "Titled Put Away Your Hankies...a message from Michael Moore" read it and send it to all of your friends if you agree.

We lost a great guy
A couple of weeks ago the Town lost one of its energetic personalities - Doug Warling. Doug was one of the driving forces, a real engine [cut it out.ed] , in the fight to eliminate train whistles. Keeping the group together and organising the implementation and delivery of a 1500 person petition to the Council and keping on top of the elected politicians was his responsibility. A loss for the Town and even more so for his family. They and the Town will miss him.

Statistics, damned statistics and lies/ Figures lie and liars figure!
The above quotes have been attributed to and used by many people least of Benjamin Disraeli, Mark Twain and Bill Clinton. But the intent of the phrases is clear - many things can be done with figures to prove anything the proponent wishes to show.

In the debate about the Sewer rates, at Cobourg Council the other evening, figures were swatted around faster than mosquitoes at a family picnic in swampland. At the heart of the discussion was the assertion by the Town's consultant that water/sewer rates will only rise 50% from the present base over the next 10 years. On the other side, using the consultant's own figures, yours truly tried to prove that the rise will be at least 100%. That is if you believe that the base rate will not increase in those ten years.

This is one promise that this bunch of council members should be held to. They should remember that the era of being able to say that they didn't raise taxes is over. This band of profligates have increased taxes 8.1% this year more to come next year. For instance by adopting the report that mandates "full cost recovery" for the water/sewers Council will commit the taxpayers to an $18.1 million debt in the next 10 years. They will need $13 million in five years alone!!