Dear Editor
Why is it the mayors/TransLink want more, more, more? Every year “they” need more tax revenue, more employees, more wages/benefits, etc., etc., etc.
But we, the taxpayer, get less, less, less! Less money in our take-home pay/pension, less in the way of services, less in the way of benefits!
The mayors need to take lessons on how to maintain services – both at TransLink and in their own community – with less money!
Here are a few ideas for you:
1. Quit wasting money on non-binding referenda.
2. Take no more of a wage increase for yourself than what a retiree gets.
3.Negotiate wage increases for city employees that match what a retiree gets, and freeze hiring, instead re-deploying employees into more efficient configurations; eliminate empire-building. How much did that fancy little pickup with all that fancy equipment cost me, Mr. Mayor, for two NEW police officers to police truck safety (and, by the way, isn’t that a provincial responsibility on a provincial roadway, which is what Royal Avenue is deemed to be, I believe).
4.Reduce the number of TransLink CEOs to ONE – paid at the same rate as those in comparable positions!
5.Recover ALL the money wasted on Compass (that alone would probably have built a New West/Surrey crossing, (or created) the trains to UBC and Langley).
6.Plug the loopholes in the fare collection system – no pay, no ride!
7.Insist employees spend time productively – 15-minute coffee breaks only twice a day, no extended lunch hours, no personal emails, texts, printing personal stuff on supplies (the hardware, the software, the consumables like paper, ink and power) I’ve paid for. I’m tired of watching public employees take long coffee breaks and standing around chatting in little groups (e.g., the $100,000 transit cops all gathered in little cliques at practically every train station).
8.Turn the heat down a few degrees in all city/TransLink facilities – your employees are all well-enough paid to afford a sweater or a bit of exercise to get the fat-cat chubbiness in check.
9.Work towards money-optimizing goals – how about one municipality instead of how many separate municipalities we currently have in the GVA (we’d only be paying for one mayor, one police force, one fire department, etc)?
10.Make TransLink accountable to the people who pay them – not some overpaid non-elected board (which I’m holding my tongue not to re-name).
I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
Now go out and earn the pay cheque we’ve elected you to be collecting! Quit passing the buck on to us – we elected you to manage, manage being the operative word here, the vast resources in your various municipalities and TransLink. Go and manage them – you have enough money – we have no more to give you (and I bet you’re double dipping by accepting pay from TransLink too, aren’t you).
AND, oh ya, do your jobs and QUIT WASTING MONEY ON NON-BINDING REFERENDA – not to mention $20,000 bills (in New West, that is) to push this stupidity!
Mary Gagnon, New Westminster
