I picked up tonight’s Daily News to find a Letter to the Editor from Mayor Pond. His letter was in reference to a couple of articles last week pertaining to the Rushbrooke Trail project. One of the front page articles featured a couple of citizens concerned with the lack of progress with the repairs to the trail despite the municipality having received provincial funding for the project. Signage posted at the trail indicated that the project was to be completed by June 2008.
In his letter he referred to the citizens as complainers and then compared them to a couple of lazy fairy tale characters.
This mayor has completely lost touch with his constituents. When you start publicly insulting them I would expect that it is time to hang 'em up. He obviously cannot handle the criticism that goes with being in public office. Right now is one of the toughest times for him since being elected into office. Times like these are when you expect a leader to rise above and show his true colours. It sems to me that he has.
LOL, jeez somebody has to hide the pens and pencils around city hall, everytime the Mayor pens a response in the Snoozle he ends up digging himself in deeper than when he began.
Never knew that asking about the status of a project meant you were being a whiner.
Very interesting re-election strategy, working to pick up enemies at every turn…
Near as I could tell the folks asking about the trail simply wanted to know what was going on with the trail and if the money had been re-allocated elsewhere, a pretty basic quetion.
In fact, in a follow up article in the Snoozle I though that the whole issue had been handled by some bureaucrat in Victoria, who explained that there actually was another year to go before the trail had to be completed.
Why the Mayor would decide to bring the whole thing up baffles me, other than he■s a tad annoyed at the paper when they made it look like he was speaking on behalf of the everyone up here when it comes to oil development. And he just wants to take them to task for the sake of taking them to task…
Talk about losing your focus… and judging by the front page today and the announcement of the Citys Financial Officer as the uh, third party review official on the great Tanalee Hesse hiring debate, Im pretty sure the Mayor will have a few more opportunities to respond to articles and letters in the near future…
He shouldn’t have said anything, the readers can make their own decisions about the people complaining about the project. I also see the necessity of holding the Mayor to a higher standard than usual. Still, after six years in office he’s entitled to defend himself and City Hall, I think–even if that means stepping on a few toes.
I have to ask, is Rupert on a different calender than the rest of the world?? Because reading that line about the CFO operating as the third party review official (with some outside legal help) made me think it was April Ist up there. Was it too much effort (or just too embarassing) to ask an outside source from Terrace or Kitimat to run this new version of the ongoing dog-n-pony show??
LOL, well at least you and eccentric can head out to the prospective beer and wine store at Maverick Mart and talk over local politics over a case of beer or a couple of bottles of wine…
Obviously Herb and his cronies are betting that their clumsy attempts at sleight of hand and other diversionary tactics will fool Rupertities.
It would be funny in an April Fools or Keystone Cops kinda of way if it was’nt for for the personal attacks that Herb makes on those who dare question him and the seriousness of the issues at hand and facing the city.
His stock response of attacking the motives, integrity and character of those who are looking for straight answers to serious questions is offensive. Regrettably, this appears to be his trademark and that of his council and administration.
I think that Mayor/Council’s thought process is that they should only spend money on what their own personel are not qualified to handle. I’m very glad to hear that the legal matters, which are perhaps the most important, are being handled by an outside source. Still, the optics would have been much better had they just splurged on a comprehensive, conclusive study by an outside body or person. Odd move, especially since the resolution passed by Council during the September meeting called for a third-party investigation into the matter.
It seems to me that City Administration is now getting Dan Rodin to do exactly what Doug Jay was doing. Are they going to turf Rodin too if they don’t like what they hear? I would hope that when Rodin comes back with his findings that he will be quoting the opinions of those qualified to interpret the law in this matter, not his own interpretation of it. He should only be an information gatherer and not be providing any personal or professional opinion on it.
Mayor Pond’s statements in the Daily News indicate that Mr. Rodin will not be asked to report about the legality of the matter–City Hall has hired lawyers for that.
Edit: Having finally read the letter to the editor by Mayor Pond, I don’t see him insulting anyone. If you don’t wanna be called a complainer, don’t complain. I’m sure that Rotary would welcome help from the community in order to get the trail finished earlier–I wonder how many of the complainers have contacted the Rotary Club to offer their assistance. Perhaps he shouldn’t have said anything at all, but what he said was reasonable.
WOW you GUYS are missing the point… this trail was to be finished JUNE 2008, its OCT… And In the last 15 or so months Nothing Has been done, I walked that trail 2 times a week AND not once did I ever see anyone there a Survey team on the trail
There is close to 750 thousands dollars that is doing what?
eccentric since you ears, and Mouth are so close to Mr Pond, what have they done!!!
Why is it taking so long, ?
why have no one come out from the city or the Rotarian’s explaining why its taking do Long ?..
Do you not think they owe us an explanation?
I think the letter that Mr Pond wrote was out of anger and in doing so he angered more people with his comments.
I sure cant wait for the people to be able to vote!!!
As Mayor Pond stated, the target date was not imposed by the City as a condition to the money, but was adopted by the Rotary Club in the hope that the work would be done. Again, I’d love to know how many concerned people have contacted Rotary with offers of assistance.
For a pool employee who is in school for 8 months out of the year and presumably 4 weeks into the first semester, you sure spend an awful lot of time defending the actions of City Administration.
Uh maybe re read it again there eccentric, drawing your attention to the second line of his letter to the editor.
Where he chastises the Daily News for listening to the `complainers■`, and then offers up some kind of nursery rhyme as a form of reproach.
Some might consider that insulting… just saying…
Letter to the Editor
The Daily News
Wednesday, Oct 1, 2008
Page four
Let’s support the trailblazers
To the editor,
It was good to see no just one, but two front page stories last week on the Rushbrook Trail Project. It’s a pity that you featured the complainers, not the super busy community volunteers running the project.
The men and women of Rotary are working hard to give the citizens of Prince Rupert a new trail and have fallen a little behind on their self imposed time line. Big deal!
I’m reminded of childhood stories of the Little Red H en, where the lazy animals criticize the industrious hen, offer absolutely no help and then impatiently demand all the benefits.
Thanks Rotarians. We’ll continue to support your project.
