GOODBYE TO 2015

What a truly bizarre year it has been. Woolwich Township Council for the second straight election (Oct. 2010 & 2014) has been totally changed with the one sad exception of the Councillor for St. Jacobs. In my opinion he is best described by the first sentence in today's Woolwich Observer Editorial.

This same Council started their mandate with a campaign to assist our world class polluter, Chemtura Canada, by removing the citizens committee (CPAC) appointed by the previous council. Knowing that this committee single handedly turned on its' head the conventional wisdom held by all authorities that the 2028 cleanup was on track; our newly elected council proceeded to use lying, deception, manipulation and their recently acquired political muscle to slander CPAC and remove those dedicated volunteers from the jobs they did better by far than any other CPAC ever.

This same Council then got their knuckles rapped by the Ontario Ombudsman for holding numerous illegal in camera meetings. Seems that Woolwich Councillors have this idea that provincial legislation simply doesn't apply to them. As long as they can fool and confuse their own citizens with their lying and decption, then the laws don't count.

Again this same Council (O.K. 1/2 of them) tried the same thing with their on-line Financial Statements showing the expenses and donations that they received for their municipal election campaigns. Turns out that once again Woolwich politicians believe that they make all the rules and therefore it's O.K. to break them at will. My favourite nonsensical comment came from Municipal Clerk Val Hummel who stated that it was "Woolwich tradition" not to require acclaimed candidates (read Mark Bauman) to file Financial Statements. The fact that the Municipal Elections Act, the 2014 Candidates Guide and every other reference all specifically state that acclaimed candidates MUST file Funancial Statements was of no importance to our very own Dogpatch (Woolwich Twn.).

On the same subject we have our very own mayor Shantz repeatedly, publicly proclaiming that her missed election expenses were either optional or subjective. Sure they were Sandy. Voting Day Partys and Thank You Notices/Appreciation Notices are all specifically mentioned in the Municipal Elections Act as expenses required to be included in the Financial Statements. Again they are also specifically included by the 2014 Candidates Guide and finally your hiding behind the incompetence of a bureaucrat from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs is simply pathetic. In fact it's exactly like Chemtura Canada hiding behind the Ontario Ministry of Environment & Climate Change. Sandy stated that Tim Ryall of the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and his incompetent and inaccurate advice excused her from either blame or fault in understating her expenses to the point that they were falsely below the ten thousand dollar threshold which also required her to submit an Auditor's report by last March 27/15. The first breaking of the ten thousand dollar threshold came from her financial contortions ($2,600) on the Contribution (donations) side of her Financial statement.

All in all a banner year for dishonest and or incompetent local politicians. Let's see what trouble they continue to get themselves into (at our expense) during 2016.