Vultures are swooping in on the taxpayers’ wallets
To the Expositor:
The taxpayers of Tehkummah deserve a change for the better.
At the council meeting of June 19, I had to leave early because what I was witnessing was making me ill.
Although it was not yet public knowledge that council had terminated the employment relationship with the clerk-treasurer two weeks ago, we quickly connected the dots when council passed motions to have consultants prepare the budget and act as interim clerk-treasurer.
Wait a minute…isn’t that the job of the acting clerk-treasurer?
Wait a minute…where was the call for Request for Proposal to provide these services?
Wow…the vultures sure swooped in to pick the pockets of Tehkummah taxpayers.
At this meeting an expense of $16,575 was approved to hire e4m to provide clerk treasurer services. Prior to that, council passed a motion to hire Doug Nadarozny at a cost of $4,000 per week for a minimum of six weeks to draft policies and do the budget and address the recommendations from the ministry of municipal affairs report. Then there was a motion passed to hire another consulting firm to prepare the budget at a cost of about $3,000.
The cost of not having the acting clerk-treasurer do the work of clerk-treasurer is at least $40,000.
Now add the costs of dealing with a workplace harassment complaint, filed by the now former clerk-treasurer Karen Gerrard (paid suspension, investigation, legal costs for defending five individuals and the corporation for an Ontario Labour Relations Board application for unlawful acts of reprisal, severance package), which all add up to about $90,000 and a probability of an additional $80,000 if the application goes to a hearing.
Tehkummah taxpayers do the math. If you thought last year’s increase was high, wait until this year’s budget is wrangled with.
Are you angry enough now to bring about change?
Sincerely,
James Fawcett
Tehkummah
