REGION'S TOWNSHIPS TAKE A BEATING FROM THE K-W RECORD

This past Saturday the Waterloo Region Record did a major, front page expose if you will of Woolwich, Wellesley and North Dumfries Townships. The article was titled "Trouble in the Townships" and it was a barnburner. In my opnion Woolwich and North Dumfries took the brunt of the bad press, appropriately so. North Dumfries apparently have had several years of fiscal mismanagement compounded by a lack of transparency of the situation, allegedly even with their Council. If we are to believe their mayor Sue Foxton, she and Council had no idea as to how much financial difficulty they were in. It was serious enough that there were apparently threats of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs stepping in and taking over. This is indeed within their scope and authority if they feel that a municipality's governance is badly lacking. What I find difficult to comprehend is the fact that she in particular was unaware of their Township's finances. Afterall she had been a Councillor for seventeen years prior to being elected mayor. The only way that makes sense is if the books had been absolutely cooked and that should have resulted in criminal charges not merely dismissal of an employee.

Woolwich Township of course has had the Todd Cowan saga for a year and a half and the Election Finance Scandal for about a year. Mr. Cowan faces the music in mid June and mayor Sandy Shantz is back in court in just over two weeks (March 23/16). Councillor Mark Bauman was temporarily removed and then surrepticiously snuck back into office by way of Superior Court with honest citizens not even informed of the time, date or venue. What a weasel. Councillor Scot Hahn was actually hammered by the results of a forensic audit done by Froese and Associates yet the Municpal Elections Compliance Audit Committee (MECAC) let him walk. Yes Sandy that is a conspiracy.

While Paige Desmond of the Record did not focus on the behaviour of Councillor Bauman or MECAC she did mention a couple of other issues. The first is the behaviour of the Township's Municipal Clerk. With both Councillor Bauman and mayor Shantz she was both reluctant and tardy in issuing the Notices of Default. She was also responsible for ensuring compliance to the Elections Act when the candidates filed their Financial Statements. Councillor's Bauman's total lack of filing should have resulted in an immediate Notice of Default instead of one, months later. Councillor Hahn's $258 total expenses should have been immediately challenged by the Clerk and was not. To date he is over $3,000 in expenses and he obviously had not filed accurately, even at first blush. The mayor's multiple errors, omissions and inaccuracies were more subtle. Perhaps her 31 years of bookeeping experience at least gave the appearance of honesty and accuracy thus getting by the Clerk.

Paige Desmond also mentioned the not so minor matter of the Ontario Ombudsman taking Woolwich Council to task. The Council had gotten into some very bad and sloppy behaviour in discussing public matters privately ie. in camera. It turns out that Woolwich Council and their high paid CAO have great difficulty in interpreting the rules as they pertain to transparency and public matters. Woolwich now claim that they are on track and understand their duties and responsibilities.

Finally it is heartwarming watching our local mayor pass the buck. That old adage that the buck stops here clearly does not apply in Woolwich. Instead of "manning" up and admitting her own failures, mayor Shantz advises the Record and its' readers that "the cause of the Woolwich issues is really a small group of residents who are unhappy with her and other members of council.". That's it, myself and other residents forced Mark Bauman not to file, Scot Hahn to ignore all his expenses and Sandy Shantz to miscalculate by thousands of dollars, forget some expenses, fail to file an Audit, accept overdonations etc. etc..