T Rich
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City's winter maintenance program to go under review
GuelphToday
28Spending more money on a value for money audit and waiting months for the results is nothing more than kicking the can down the road. What steps have been taken or will be taken TODAY to identify the cause of the problems? You don’t need an auditor to tell you there was a shortage of salt, staffing or equipment issues. That’s why we have Managers. Ask them and hold people accountable.
1- T Rich
City seeks collaborators for Guelph’s 200th anniversary
GuelphToday 3How much tax money is being spent on this party? It was removed from the budget only to be added back.
8- T Rich
MUST READ: Two councillors won't be running again; one considering run for mayor
GuelphToday 1Oh come on Lee, if she needs to commit to measurable objectives that would take all the fun away. We need all those innovative pie in the sky ideas to keep our city employees busy with research and surveys. Speaking of sky, whatever happened to the dark sky project and all the other work our city employees are asked to do that go nowhere? We don’t need more innovative projects. We need our elective representatives to focus on the day to day running of the city.
4- T Rich
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OPINION: How does transit this bad keep getting worse?
GuelphToday 5They speed and then hit the brakes so hard anyone standing up is at risk of a fall. I won’t use transit for that reason (even if it’s free to seniors).
- T Rich
Councillors to receive nearly 12% pay hike next term
GuelphToday 4It’s my understanding Coun. Leanne Caron took it upon herself to investigate and bring back to the table rationale to support these increases. Remember this when she formally announces her run for Mayor. These are part time positions that come with the help of an administrator, full benefits and paid expenses. For the councillors that claim it’s more than a 20 hour a week job - please do your full time employer a favour and resign or don’t run for re-election. More than a 60 hour work week means you aren’t doing either job well. Perhaps we need to build some accountabilities and objectives that can be measured so councillors aren’t spending time and money on things that fall outside of core city business. If they do that well and have time, by all means, work on creating by-laws forcing restaurants to accept customers take out containers or any other pet projects as long as there is no impact to the city staff workload..
1- T Rich
OPINION: How does transit this bad keep getting worse?
GuelphToday 1Why is transit free to seniors (and high school students)? Not every senior needs financial assistance. That money should be used to improve transit.
3- T Rich
Councillors to receive nearly 12% pay hike next term
GuelphToday 2It’s my understanding City staff recommended a 33% pay hike by using questionable comparisons with other Municipalities. There was a motion on the floor to reduce the pay hike to a reasonable 3.95% but instead of voting in favour, Caron wanted time to work with staff on their numbers. (Personally, although I’m sure it was well intentioned, I feel her direct contact with staff is a conflict of interest). Your support of a 12% (above rate of inflation) increase can’t be justified by comparing it to a faulty 33% number. We aren’t talking about Guthrie but if he’s working 60+ hours a week it just proves my point.
1- T Rich
No violations to-date of city’s lobbyist registry rules, says clerk
GuelphToday 1To be effective, the lobbyist registry should include both financial and non financial groups since bothinfluence how decisions are made by council. This step would improve transparency, which many have suggested is lacking with current council.
1- T Rich
OPINION: How does transit this bad keep getting worse?
GuelphToday 2I don’t disagree with you Alex but how will you overcome the safety issues? Isn’t that why the washrooms were closed?
- T Rich
From a fire station to a radio museum: Doors Open Guelph to highlight 11 spaces
GuelphToday 2Too bad the Old Drill Hall isn’t on the list. It would have given us the opportunity to see where our tax dollars are going. If you don’t know, the city acquired the building in 2017. It required 5 million to stabilize and it has sat vacant since. Annual maintenance costs are $125,000. The City recommended to council to sell the property as studies indicated its planned use was not viable but that idea was dismissed. Yes, it’s nice to preserve these older buildings but it’s been almost 10 years and over a million dollars in maintenance costs. Let’s stop pretending and get real about the cost and budget.
- T Rich
Mayor’s raise axed, no decision on pay bump for councillors
GuelphTodayI hope city staff took into consideration the fact that the Mayor created a new position (Communication Manager to the Mayor) to help him perform his duties. There was also money in the budget last year for the Councillors to hire an Administrator. Those two new positions need to be considered when comparing the salaries and duties of comparable city councils. Perhaps if councillors were more selective and prioritized there wouldn’t be a need for these additional positions and expense. Just consider all the projects that were initiated and ended up in the trash like Night Sky!
1- T Rich
Councillor Dan Gibson considering run for mayor
GuelphTodayOldCityGal - I would like the councillors who own heritage properties to declare their interest and abstain from voting for reduced taxes for these properties.
- T Rich
MUST READ: Two councillors won't be running again; one considering run for mayor
GuelphToday@straightshot - how about the millions spent on bike lanes and maintenance? The extra 18 million to upgrade the streetscape plan for downtown from “good” to “better”, the high end library and all the other decisions that were made without a plan to pay for it while basic services like roads are neglected.
- T Rich
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