Editor: I read aspiring mayor Jack Froese’s letter to the editor (The Times, May 4) with a great degree of skepticism. Obviously Froese did not do his homework prior to putting his foot in his mouth.
His criticism of Mayor Rick Green is totally unwarranted. One of Mayor Green’s first tasks upon being elected was to appoint a Standing Committee on Finance, whose main responsibility was to assist in the budgeting process. In addition to the mayor and two councillors, the mayor appointed three members of the community, all of whom brought considerable expertise to the table.
The three appointees were George Luciani (a retired federal government employee with extensive finance experience), Calvin Patterson (a local lawyer) and myself, Ken Baker. I am a retired chartered accountant with 40 years of public accounting experience.
The committee spent untold hours, without compensation, reviewing the numbers over a five-month period and prepared a comprehensive report for council’s consideration. Council refused to meet with the committee to discuss its report and recommendations.
Instead of implementing a one per cent property tax increase as recommended by the committee, council levied a five per cent tax increase on ratepayers during a time of significant economic downturn.
The justification for the five per cent increase was that a lesser increase would result in reduced municipal services. Horse feathers.
A one per cent increase was achievable for two reasons. First, the municipality had accumulated surpluses over the years which could have been temporarily accessed during tough economic times. Second, there was a significant amount of fat that could have been trimmed from the budget.
Rather than question the budget, council took the position that “staff would not have asked for the money if they did not need it.” What kind of stewardship of the taxpayers’ dollars is that?
Green is a breath of fresh air. He is not prepared to accept the status quo. His questioning of decisions made by previous councils (including the recent $8.9 million settlement related to the Langley Events Centre) has resulted in the “six pack” scurrying to cover their backsides.
They are so busy trying to discredit Mayor Green that they have totally lost sight of their mandate of governing the municipality. Froese’s letter smacks of ”six pack” bias.
As a candidate for mayor, he would be well advised to do his homework before communicating with the electorate. They are very capable of sorting the wheat from the chaff.
Kenneth C. Baker,
Langley
