Dear Editor:
Re: Time for a new perspective, Letters to the editor, The Record, Sept. 17.
In response to the passionate letter from Jen Arbo in support of Jonathan Cote, I'd like to point out that it wasn't Mayor Wayne Wright who made all the decisions in the past 12 years. In fact, it is city council that makes the decisions.
As for the mayor, regardless of who sits in the chair, unless there is a tie vote, they are deemed to have voted in favour of all questions raised for votes at council. As a member of that council, Jonathan Cote and his council colleagues are responsible for the decisions made by our local government.
So, Jen, if you have issues with the decision-making in New Westminster, maybe you should first look to the five members of council that have driven our city's direction for the past decade or more.
For voters, in my opinion, the lack of balance on city council is probably the most important issue they should be grappling with in our upcoming election.
Our current council has brought us: an administration, and associated costs, that is growing nearly three times faster than the population; right-wing purchasing policies that absolve staff from finding the best deal for the taxpayer and an increase in discretionary spending limits from $10,000 to $75,000; ever higher levels of debt; roads in bad repair; congested streets and neighborhoods full of rat runners; higher taxes; higher utility fees; higher user fees, and the list goes on.
At the same time, in the nine years Mr. Cote has been on council, the city's bank accounts have swollen from about $20 million to something over $140 million with $125 million in surplus revenues in just the past five years (as at Dec. 31, 2013). That's nearly two full years of net tax revenues.
These results are fuelled on decisions like the one made Monday night to borrow $24.8 million to pay for a substation upgrade, which we, as taxpayers, have already been billed for in the budgets for the council's current term.
New Westminster deserves better than that, and its taxpayers have the right to a fully transparent municipal administration - an administration that represents and is responsible to all taxpayers because that's what councils are elected to do.
Harm Woldring, New Westminster
