Today's Langley Times talks about the City withdrawing from Township joint facilities funding. First of all let's dismiss the absurd comments quoted calling for amalgamation of both Langley City and Township by Councillor Steve Ferguson in the Times and by others on their blogs. Any and all thoughts on amalgamation at this time arise purely from shock and desperation and some perverse desire to get even. Get real Steve? No way in your lifetime will it will ever happen. The City has always been guarded and leery of the Township. The animosity started prior to the original separation with the Township and still runs true and deep. The City is now essentially Casino rich, the "Duchy of Fenwick" aka City of Langley, no longer needs the Township. Get that through your head, amalgamation is a non starter. It will never happen. Now get over it and get on with it and manage our money better guys! Now please try to earn your #&%)@*! automatic pay increases!
This whole situation is a clear slap in the face for Township Mayor Kurt Alberts by the City. Why did this catch him off guard? Was he asleep at the wheel? Where was his communication with the City? His many speeches in the past spoke of "courting" the City before ever thinking of any marriage. Well guess what, the City wants a divorce and we never even married. They want a financial divorce settlement now and there was no consummation! Unless you call what the City did now to the Township Mayor and Council consummation. Who can blame the City to refuse to continue co-investing with the Township especially under this Township Mayor's watch when his administration has almost doubled spending on the joint City/Township Grandstand $ 3-4-5 million project to over $5 million from the original budgeted $3 million amongst other fiascos. Not to mention multiple other capital project over runs.
Yet the Township Councillors have been stupidly approving the increased costs of projects like the Gold Plated Grandstand without consulting the City and further hoping the City would go along with paying their portion. The most recent example was when the rookie Councillor Jordan Bateman got sucked in to moving the increased funding up of another $1 million more on the $ 3-4-5 million Grandstand with the caveat that the City pay their fair share. Unbelievable, when will this Council finally say no to overruns and spending. To be fair they equally have no problems raising your taxes either!
We won't even talk about the $7 million Redwoods purchase. Everybody keep in mind that according to the terms on the purchase agreement of the Redwoods golf course, we believe that the Township Taxpayers will be paying for the new GVRD parking lot tax for Redwoods Golf Course as well each and every year. Betcha its similar to the Twilight Drive In who will be paying $20k a year. Lets see $20 k times 10 years would be $200k taxpayer funded for Redwoods Golf Course. Critics said there would be extra unknown new taxes to be paid. They were right. How many and how much more new unforseen taxes will we be paying for Redwoods Golf Course? But we digress.
Read Councillor Kim Richter's articles in this Website's archives to better understand the financial mismanagement issues and history. She has far too many links to attach herein individually on this subject! Richter has been the only one voting NO to this spending and NO to approvals on these out of control projects! She has been ringing alarm bells for years and yet the rest of Council still treats her thoughts and suggestions with disdain to say the least because she is the only one that has the guts to agree to disagree. When are some of the smarter Councillors going to join forces with her in criticizing the tax, borrow and spend practises of this Mayor's Council. If you were Langley City looking in would you want to keep investing with the Township, never mind any thoughts of marriage with the Township drunken, spending sailor?
We predicted previously that the City would tell the Township to go fish. Well they now essentially have. We really can't blame them though. They are smarter businessmen than the Township gaggle of goofs on Council. Would you consider investing with a fiscally irresponsible partner? Worse still is the fact that the City is now pulling out of their funding portion of the Murrayville Blair Recreation center. This is putting a big hole into annual operating costs of that pool aggravating the severe financial situation that this Mayor's Council has put the taxpayers into. Yet the ninnies on Council apparently are considering investing another $9 million expansion into the Blair Recreation Centre which is ludicrous especially since the close by City residents uses that pool a lot yet their Municipality will no longer pay their share of operating costs!
Townshippers, get ready for double digit tax increases for years to come. The rewriting history attempts are now starting to run dry for the boys on Council. The gaggling goofs have nice new offices, blackberrys and automatic salary raises. Life is good if you are a Councillor in Langley Township! They seem to us to care more about their automatic salary increases every three years than they care about how badly they run our finances. Heck, get used to automatic double digit tax increases too every year to help fund the disastrous financial management and the automatic salary increases of Mayor and Council. Even the Mayor at Monday's Council meeting finally admitted that the township is facing problematic financial considerations. Was that said before the City said go fish? We must be really in financial trouble if the Mayor finally admits it folks. Who's fault is it Mayor Alberts? Let us help you with this one. How long have you been in charge as Mayor? Folks, how many of the boys now on Council do you remember saying, while electioneering just last fall, what great financial shape the Township was in. They either lied or worse still did not know or understand the real facts.
Folks, this is the start of a financial turning of the guard in Township hall. What we really need though is a turning of the guard on Council especially the not so silent slate Mayor. Everyone should start the Richter for Mayor Campaign now. She's been the only one on this Council who really cared about our dollars. Good financial stewardship is needed more than monuments to egos such as the way over budget $3-4-5 million Grandstand! Even the Langley Times that has seemed to us to support the Mayor's not so silent slate history rewrite attempts and also seems to us to perpertually dish or ignore Richter at every opportunity, finally in today's article for the first time ever admits that the Grandstand will cost $5.2 million and more importantly finally admits; "It was originally anticipated it would cost $3 million." Pigs do fly!
So what to do now? We suggest sever all financial sharing agreements ASAP that are not in the Township's financial and best interests. It should just be business now. The agreements, if any, that are still in force that are financially beneficial for the Township should be kept. The clear one that easily comes to mind is to turf quickly the sharing of the RCMP with the City. All reports say that the City has been subsidized by the Township to the tune of Millions of dollars for police services and the City is still waffling on agreeing to this issue. The boys on Township have been lolly gagging around on this one for years now. Step up to the plate boys and announce your intention to terminate the sharing of cops and send them a bill payable immediately for the past inequities in the policing costs now and make sure you bill them for any future costs. If the RCMP costs are too high, consider sharing the Abbotsford Police force.
You all look like fools for not seeing this coming. Now finally at least play smart and hard ball financially!If this gaggle on Council dosn't then the Mayor and some of his gaggle should seriously consider calling it quits for the sake of Langley Taxpayers. But we still say that the old boys club on Council absolutely don't deserve automatic pay increases every three years! Especially not now after this additional new fiasco!
Editor- We dedicate this Quote to Langley Township Council:
"Nothing is more odious than the majority, for it consists of a few powerful leaders, a certain number of accommodating scoundrels and submissive weaklings, and a mass of men who trot after them without thinking, or knowing their own minds." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe!....
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