When council has to make a decision whether
to give the food bank a couple of thousand dollars
for milk and then budgets $27,050 for conferences
and travel, one has to wonder where their priorities
really are.
When only one member of council has declared
(to the Sooke News Mirror) they are running
in the next election, one questions why at
least four (if not six) of them are jetting off to a
conference in Niagara Falls, or plan on attending
the UBCM conference in Whistler in September.
If the conference was being held in Podunk,
Saskatchewan in February, it is doubtful anyone
would wish to attend. They’d all be fighting for
who gets to stay home. Do councillors partners/
spouses get to tag along? Some do, especially when
conferences are held in attractive and desirable
places, kind of like a mini family vacation. We know
councillors are not paid handsomely for the work
they do, but that’s public service — service without
pay. Service for the community, the public.
Can you see the irony here? What possible
benefit will Sooke get from council attendance at
conferences if they don’t plan on running in the
November election. UBCM should not be held in
September on years when there is an impending
election. It’s a waste of taxpayers’ money and it is
not or should not be a “perk” for past performance.
One could and likely will argue that councillors
learn so much at these junkets and conferences.
Really? When do we see the “learning” at the
council table?
So, who’s running?
Wendal Milne - undeclared
Bev Berger - undeclared
Herb Haldane - undeclared
Rick Kasper - undeclared
Kevin Pearson - undeclared
Kerrie Reay - declared
Maja Tait - undeclared.