Not cheap

Simcoe.com editorial April 6 2010
EDITORIAL
More cash, less accountability. That seems to be the order of the day for members of New Tecumseth council.
Recently the Town of New Tecumseth released the final tally of remuneration for members of council in 2009 and in the process of looking into them, The Herald discovered some disturbing information. Attendance records are no longer available for council’s committee meetings.
If you recall, there was quite a debacle back in 2008 when council members’ attendance at meetings for committees they had been appointed to was called into question. There were accusations at the time that some members of council weren’t pulling their weight. In the end, councillors Dennis Egan and Barb Huson, resigned from all of their respective committees, except for the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority meetings, which councillor Huson continues to attend. They have been inactive with all other committees ever since.
They did try and regain some of their committees in the time since, but council shut them out. It seems they are still being punished for the episode. This week Egan announced he would not be seeking re-election this fall.
At the same time attendance records have gone the way of the dodo bird, council’s remuneration and expenses have climbed 32 per cent between 2006 and 2010. Do you know anyone who has experienced a 32 per cent hike in pay and expenses at their place of business over the same period? Remember too that 2009 was a particularly rough year for our economy. Many workers are thankful just to have a job.
But that didn’t stop New Tecumseth council members from dropping more than $16,000 on two conventions. The Good Roads conference and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference. The high roller at both of these events was Counc. Richard Norcross whose bills topped $1,853 for ROMA and more than $2,280 for AMO. These are four-day events. Even if the hotel bill was $200 a night, with registration $640, and travel at say $200, that’s still more than $200 a day in other expenses for Norcross at the AMO convention.
While these aren’t huge sums of money and while we don’t feel members of New Tec council are overpaid by any means, we do think they could be showing a little more restraint in tight times.
Remember, the costs to local taxpayers of our municipal government will be climbing again this fall as we take on an additional councillor under the ward boundary changes.
The point is, when times are tight you tighten your belt and the public purse strings. Clearly New Tecumseth council has done neither.