By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON April 12, 2011 – Joe Lamb didn’t need much time to get to his point. “You’ve all done a great job and the budget you have delivered” he told Council on Monday evening “is a good budget. BUT”, he said, “the two Councillor pay increases that are before you tonight were approved by a vote of 4-3. “I also see” said Lamb “that three of the four votes in favour were cast by rookie Councillors.”
“I am hoping that one of you will find the humility and show the leadership necessary to reverse this decision tonight. It is very difficult to have the troops follow when you are not willing to make the sacrifice yourself”.
And with that, Ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward fell on her sword, changed her vote and the recommendation to increase council members pay was defeated.
Lamb however, completely missed the point but did manage to scare the pants off council members who are now in the embarrassing position of making the decision as to what they get paid, in their hands.
Burlington was smart enough a number of years ago to create a Citizens Committee that determined what the pay increases for Council members were to be – but rather than stick to the principal,, which was a good one, they ran for the hills when a single person stood before them and tried to embarrass them.
Joe Lamb uses 25 words to scare the pants off a majority of Council members as they scramble to get away from a Citizen Committee recommendation that sets out what they should be paid. Not a lot of guts shown at Council on Monday night.
Lamb who is a council member for Parry Sound where he lives part time now that he is retired, should have known better. Prior to knee capping the Council members Lamb did make a coupe of really good points. He congratulated council and said the budget they brought in for 2011 “looks fantastic and you are all to be congratulated”
“In my opinion your challenge in the next four years will relate to the cost of staffing and the replacing of an aging infrastructure. What is beneath the ground is sadly in need of investment.”
“Employee wages and excellent benefits and an incredible pension plan will continue to weigh heavily on your resources and we need to find innovative ways to address the ever increasing burden associated with this issue.”
After admonishing Council members for accepting a pay increase they had every right to take – they had after all deferred an increase they were entitled to for 2009 and deferred the increase they were entitled to for 2010 – and were now asking for what they had taken a pass on when times were really tough. Council had already done the right thing.
What Joe Lamb now needs to do is agree to sit on a committee that would put in place a procedure for paying our Council members what they deserve so that delegations like the one he made Monday night don’t get repeated..
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