So in an earlier Vancouver Sun article before we read that BC Provincial Liberal MLAs got free Olympic tickets to go to the Olympic events. The Provincial Libs said it would only be used to accompany approved government business associates! Yeah right!
Now we hear that the feds have 1st class olympic tickets without having to wait in line. Meanwhile our whole family after 3 times trying the Olympic lottery for tons of tickets
Monday, January 25, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
What Grade Does Mayor Green & His 2009 Annual Report Card Deserve?
Rookie Langley Township Mayor Rick Green earlier this evening at the Council meeting presented his long overdue past year's (2009) annual council achievement report card which is normally proudly presented as somewhat of a taxpayer's pre Xmas present listing of ALL the previous year's Township Council achievements. I don't ever remember seeing it used as a personal political platform justification attempt before. This presentation traditionally is presented by each Mayor in early to mid December and never as a short after thought. This
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Fort Langley May Day Parade LFP-YouTube of Langley Politicians
Our LFP photographer attended the Fort Langley May Day parade and captured the following LFP/YouTube videos of parts of the parade. The first video showed some of the local politicians early on in the parade including Councillor Kim Richter and the second video shows her on the sidelines after, looking on to the continuing parade participants.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Stephany's Langley NDP Press Release Supports Mayor Green's Protection Of Passenger Rail Corridor Through Langley
Township Mayor Rick Green at Monday's council meeting informed his Council of:
"Today, May 4,2009, I am providing Council with the following information relating to the history and protection of our old Interurban Passenger and freight Rail Corridor through the Township and City of Langley."
He further told Council:
"This agreement expires on August 29,2009. Therefore, in order to preserve the rights of BC Hydro and the public I am requesting the support of the Township Council to send a letter to B.C. Hydro requesting their immediate response and assurance that they will renew the Agreement in question prior to August 29,2009."
KUDOS especially to Mayor Rick Green and his Council for supporting their Mayor and endorsing his request on Monday's council meeting to renew the agreement to protect the old Interurban Passenger Rail agreement through the Langley's!
After asking the local MLA election candidates for their support too: "We are asking for
"Today, May 4,2009, I am providing Council with the following information relating to the history and protection of our old Interurban Passenger and freight Rail Corridor through the Township and City of Langley."
He further told Council:
"This agreement expires on August 29,2009. Therefore, in order to preserve the rights of BC Hydro and the public I am requesting the support of the Township Council to send a letter to B.C. Hydro requesting their immediate response and assurance that they will renew the Agreement in question prior to August 29,2009."
KUDOS especially to Mayor Rick Green and his Council for supporting their Mayor and endorsing his request on Monday's council meeting to renew the agreement to protect the old Interurban Passenger Rail agreement through the Langley's!
After asking the local MLA election candidates for their support too: "We are asking for
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
First Ever BOTH Langley Riding's All Candidates BC MLA Election Debate Boycotted By Coleman & Polak
From 7pm to 10 pm last night April 27th at the Fort Langley Fine Arts School Chief Sepass Theatre the first ever 'All Candidate Debates' for BOTH Langley Ridings of all the candidates took place. Many people including guest host Rafe Mair commented that it was 'despicable' that two candidates refused to attend. Specifically both Langley Liberal MLAs and Ministers Rich Coleman & Mary Polak chose to boycott the debate. The debate was sponsored by the Langley Teacher's Association and curiously less than 5% of the agenda covered education!
Many people including Rafe commented very negatively on the absence of both Liberal candidates. Some of the words used to describe their boycott were arrogant, despicable, smug and snubbing. It's curious to note that even our local Langley municipal election candidates attend CUPE and International Association of Firefighters sponsored debates for municipal elections. So why won't out Langley MLAs/Ministers?
So it is indeed a very controversial and questionable decision not to attend the debate. Rafe Mair even commented that if he had boycotted an election debate when he was a cabinet minister in the then ruling Socred government, the Premier then would have been furious. He also pointed out that this was another reason that he recommended the public also vote YES for the STV because he bet the two Liberal cabinet ministers would most likely have certainly attended if we had STV! See the Langley Times news report here with more details.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Rail For The Valley Protests Along Highway #1 Overpasses & Stephany Interviewed
Double click Videos to enlarge videos.
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Township Council Votes For 5% Tax Hike AGAIN for Each Year of next 5 years! & Our LFP Cartoonist, Prost's Perspective
April 8/09 Langley Times:"Township taxes jump five per cent" by Al IrwinApril 9/09 Langley Times: "The tone for tax increases is set" by Editor Frank Bucholtz
April 10/09 Langley Advance: "Add five per cent more to taxes" by Heather Colpitts
Sunday, April 05, 2009
The Gold-Plated “Era of Entitlement” Has to End - And A Current Case Study Example
Note to Langley Township Council: In case you haven’t noticed, there is a recession out there and it’s now being felt in Langley as shown previously in LFP. When are you politicos going to realize this?
We know that the majority of the current Township councillors derive most of their personal income from the public teat (i.e. Councillors Bateman, Fox, Ward, Ferguson, etc.) but this is no excuse to ignore the financial pain
being felt by many Langley Township taxpayers who don’t have the same luxury of a guaranteed annual income compliments of the taxpayers.
On March 24, 2009, Councillors Bateman, Ward, Ferguson, Long and Dornan agreed to send a preliminary budget increase of 5% out to the public.
Since then, the firefighter's and sports group's “partisan political enforcers” have again been whipped into an overtime frenzy. They have sent many letters/emails to the local papers and council saying: “YES! WE WANT A 5% TAX INCREASE”. One has to wonder why.
Have you ever seen anyone in Langley purposely asking for a tax increase unless there was some hidden agenda?
What garbage and misinformation have these well-meaning citizens been fed? By whom? And for what ulterior motives? Do these groups even realize that they are being politically manipulated? (Or do they even care as long as they think they have political power?)
Mayor Rick Green was elected on a platform to control and restrain taxes. Shortly after he was sworn in as Mayor, he appointed a Finance Committee. This committee was comprised of very qualified members of the public who spent 7 weeks (in between childish outbursts from Councillors Ward and Ferguson) reviewing Township financial records.
The Finance Committee recommended that a .93% tax increase was feasible and obtainable this year with NO CUTS to current Township service levels.
Councillors Bateman, Ward, Ferguson, Long and Dornan have purposely chosen to ignore the Finance Committee’s advice. They did not once raise any of the recommendations put forward by the Mayor’s Finance Committee before they voted to send a 5% tax increase to the public. Why?
Also interesting to note is how the Mayor’s Finance Committee spent 7 weeks reviewing the budget in detail (and recommended a .93% property tax increase) yet Township Council spent less than 6 hours before deciding that a 5% property tax increase was OK to send to the public.
So who really controls Langley Township Council? Is it the public? Or is it Township Administration and its [provincial Liberal] lackeys on Council?
You decide but here’s one last example for you to consider.
On March 23, 2009, Langley Township Council received a report from Township staff recommending that Council approve a Mowing Maintenance contract for 2009 to 2011 for $1,075,839 (the “Gold Medalist”). The “Silver Medalist” price was $811,388. Staff recommended the “Gold Medalist” (a $1+ Million price package). The Langley Times this week reported about this very contract debate between Councillor's Richter & Fox and is scheduled to be finally considered again on this Monday's council meeting again.
The difference between these two price packages (on grass cutting alone) is equivalent to a ½ percent annual Township tax increase. This cost difference alone could be applied to much needed service enhancements in other areas like better snow removal or more full time firefighters.
So why are we, the taxpayers, paying more for a service we already have when we could get the same service for less price and still have money left over for other services we really need (like better snow removal)?
This is just one more example of why the Township is well renowned for its gold plated “Culture of Entitlement” and one more example of why we need a Council that works for the people who elected it instead of those arrogant back room BC Liberal lackeys who think they run it all.
P.S. Monday we will see what Council votes on this mowing contract. Bet the Gold plated Group of Six votes for it? We have asked an expert for his comments on this bid process and the above bid summary document about the above Mowing Maintenance RFQ 3PRE09-302 that the Township of Langley requested and got bids for. He pointed out a few interesting things.
Another suggestion is that perhaps the Township split the service area into 2, 3 or even four zones to then have better future comparisons and alternate ready emergency back ups and this would certainly require far less equipment by any one super mowing contractor while spreading the wealth around as well and staying away from any real or perceived bias. At worst case, he says if absolutely necessary, that all bidders be invited to first pre-qualify to bid and that they be weeded out (forgive the pun) in this process first and then the contract goes to the low bidder. But again our expert says that this process is also fraught with questionable risks and issues as well, but it is a better compromise.
The bottom line is that this case clearly documents that The Gold-Plated “Era of Entitlement” Has to End and that it is NOT and never has been about cutting the essentials like Fire and Police portions of the Township budget. There is obviously lots of fat or grease that can be skimmed out of the constant 5% annual tax increases other than in protective services! It's time to stop looking and pointing at the must haves like Fire & Police and start looking at the nice to have as demonstrated in this mowing contract case study....
We know that the majority of the current Township councillors derive most of their personal income from the public teat (i.e. Councillors Bateman, Fox, Ward, Ferguson, etc.) but this is no excuse to ignore the financial pain
being felt by many Langley Township taxpayers who don’t have the same luxury of a guaranteed annual income compliments of the taxpayers.
On March 24, 2009, Councillors Bateman, Ward, Ferguson, Long and Dornan agreed to send a preliminary budget increase of 5% out to the public.
Since then, the firefighter's and sports group's “partisan political enforcers” have again been whipped into an overtime frenzy. They have sent many letters/emails to the local papers and council saying: “YES! WE WANT A 5% TAX INCREASE”. One has to wonder why.
Have you ever seen anyone in Langley purposely asking for a tax increase unless there was some hidden agenda?
What garbage and misinformation have these well-meaning citizens been fed? By whom? And for what ulterior motives? Do these groups even realize that they are being politically manipulated? (Or do they even care as long as they think they have political power?)
Mayor Rick Green was elected on a platform to control and restrain taxes. Shortly after he was sworn in as Mayor, he appointed a Finance Committee. This committee was comprised of very qualified members of the public who spent 7 weeks (in between childish outbursts from Councillors Ward and Ferguson) reviewing Township financial records.
The Finance Committee recommended that a .93% tax increase was feasible and obtainable this year with NO CUTS to current Township service levels.
Councillors Bateman, Ward, Ferguson, Long and Dornan have purposely chosen to ignore the Finance Committee’s advice. They did not once raise any of the recommendations put forward by the Mayor’s Finance Committee before they voted to send a 5% tax increase to the public. Why?
Also interesting to note is how the Mayor’s Finance Committee spent 7 weeks reviewing the budget in detail (and recommended a .93% property tax increase) yet Township Council spent less than 6 hours before deciding that a 5% property tax increase was OK to send to the public.
So who really controls Langley Township Council? Is it the public? Or is it Township Administration and its [provincial Liberal] lackeys on Council?
You decide but here’s one last example for you to consider.
On March 23, 2009, Langley Township Council received a report from Township staff recommending that Council approve a Mowing Maintenance contract for 2009 to 2011 for $1,075,839 (the “Gold Medalist”). The “Silver Medalist” price was $811,388. Staff recommended the “Gold Medalist” (a $1+ Million price package). The Langley Times this week reported about this very contract debate between Councillor's Richter & Fox and is scheduled to be finally considered again on this Monday's council meeting again.
The difference between these two price packages (on grass cutting alone) is equivalent to a ½ percent annual Township tax increase. This cost difference alone could be applied to much needed service enhancements in other areas like better snow removal or more full time firefighters.
So why are we, the taxpayers, paying more for a service we already have when we could get the same service for less price and still have money left over for other services we really need (like better snow removal)?
This is just one more example of why the Township is well renowned for its gold plated “Culture of Entitlement” and one more example of why we need a Council that works for the people who elected it instead of those arrogant back room BC Liberal lackeys who think they run it all.
P.S. Monday we will see what Council votes on this mowing contract. Bet the Gold plated Group of Six votes for it? We have asked an expert for his comments on this bid process and the above bid summary document about the above Mowing Maintenance RFQ 3PRE09-302 that the Township of Langley requested and got bids for. He pointed out a few interesting things.
- He first found it curious that the two Township Evaluators had different points given under the price evaluation column for only the last 4 high bidders and the exactly same points given for the 3 low bidders. How can that be? After all bid price is bid price isn’t it?
- Secondly he was concerned that it would seem that the actual bid price was far less than 20% or at best one fifth of the DECIDING criteria ranking of the whole bid consideration as to who got the work! In other words price is not an object or criteria that ranks in importance with the Township of Langley it would seem! And why not? After all they can every year go back to the taxpayers for another 5% tax hike!
- Third it obviously seemed that experience with the Township gave what would seem a very unfair advantage to only one bidder because it appears only one bidder has had Township experience. Our expert said imagine if all Township contracts were awarded with this criteria. We would most likely always have premium prices and ever less competitive bids coming in and invariably always use the same contractor . He also pointed out that in other than Langley's jurisdictional government bids this was proven often as an easy way to take care of close friends at times.
- Fourth he questioned how the point evaluation scheme had the exact same points given to all the bidders for experience and references yet the two evaluators had big variances in Equipment evaluations. Why the difference here?
- Fifth who were the evaluators and did they clearly before receiving bids specify their evaluation formula and specific points awarding details to all the bidders?
- Finally our expert says that there has been a long documented history especially in Governments that have led to very questionable biases and much worse allegations of corruption around these similar subjective bid evaluation methods. Many of which have gone to court for both civil and criminal reasons. Use of only two evaluators he frankly says is ludicrous and dangerous and puts an inordinate amount of pressure and stress and unfortunately perhaps opportunity on these two public servants.
Another suggestion is that perhaps the Township split the service area into 2, 3 or even four zones to then have better future comparisons and alternate ready emergency back ups and this would certainly require far less equipment by any one super mowing contractor while spreading the wealth around as well and staying away from any real or perceived bias. At worst case, he says if absolutely necessary, that all bidders be invited to first pre-qualify to bid and that they be weeded out (forgive the pun) in this process first and then the contract goes to the low bidder. But again our expert says that this process is also fraught with questionable risks and issues as well, but it is a better compromise.
The bottom line is that this case clearly documents that The Gold-Plated “Era of Entitlement” Has to End and that it is NOT and never has been about cutting the essentials like Fire and Police portions of the Township budget. There is obviously lots of fat or grease that can be skimmed out of the constant 5% annual tax increases other than in protective services! It's time to stop looking and pointing at the must haves like Fire & Police and start looking at the nice to have as demonstrated in this mowing contract case study....
Ribbons fly in fight to save fertile farmland (The Province, 05 Apr 2009, Page A13)
The final battle looms. Will ALC give final Approval to the Bateman/Falcon Liberal Overpass to Nowhere? Kudos to Elisabeth Robson and her green ribbons!
Ribbons fly in fight to save fertile farmland
Brian Lewis
The Province
05 Apr 2009
Ask long-time Langley Township resident Elisabeth Robson about the quality of farmland in her neighbourhood that the proposed Mufford/Glover Road overpass will destroy, and she opens the family photo album. “Look at this,” she says, showing a...read more...
Ribbons fly in fight to save fertile farmlandBrian Lewis
The Province
05 Apr 2009
Ask long-time Langley Township resident Elisabeth Robson about the quality of farmland in her neighbourhood that the proposed Mufford/Glover Road overpass will destroy, and she opens the family photo album. “Look at this,” she says, showing a...read more...
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