Online Town Hall

I like Gerry Barker - I find myself waiting eagerly for his editorial column; a longstanding diatribe about local municipal politics published bi-weekly in the Mercury.

I also like Steven Colbert - Steven is a popular late night TV talk show host featured on the Comedy Network who plays an opinionated and self-righteous commentator who “unwittingly” uses a number of logical fallacies to ridicule the actions of politicians and other public figures. By taking their statements and “the facts” to the furthest (supposedly) logical conclusion, he uses irony and sarcasm to paint a twisted picture of reality.

Both of these gentlemen are gifted satirists and both of them can be very entertaining (and even enlightening) if you don’t take them too seriously.

Satire is a complex literary tool, and it is not uncommon to be misunderstood. Take for example Gerry’s latest rant titled “An Assessment of Guelph’s Finances”. Purportedly a three part analysis of how the current city council is bankrupting Guelph. The Mercury refused to publish the editorial and so it started floating around cyberspace along with emails from the prince of Estonia who needs me to send him money so he can access the family fortune (which he promises to share with me).

According to Gerry’s email - “salaries and benefits have increased by 31.8 per cent” – “council has spent $8,300,000 from this Tax Stabilization Reserve to conceal rising costs and artificially contain tax increases” – “Guelph Transit is a financial basket case” – and there is “imminent danger that huge increases in debt will downgrade our city’s credit rating” all of this to support council’s “vanity projects”. Of course… this spells “a disastrous financial outcome for residents”

WOW

Because of the viral nature of email, Gerry’s writings began to cause quite a stir. With constituents beginning to panic, The Mayor responded:

The information in this column is factually incorrect and misleading. I appreciate this opportunity to correct the record.

Mr. Barker’s assertion that Barrie operates a larger city with fewer employees is full of holes. He has incorrectly calculated the number of City of Guelph staff – we have 1,149 full-time employees, not 1,305. He also fails to mention that Barrie contracts out a number of services – including waste management, snow plowing, and transit – so these FTEs do not appear in their numbers. Guelph, on the other hand, has taken on delivery of ambulance service, a service we previously paid for through a contract with Royal City Ambulance. This is a primary reason for an increase in our FTEs between 2008 and 2009.

Assuming Mr. Barker’s calculations on Barrie’s payroll costs are accurate, Guelph’s costs per employee are actually $21,000 less than Barrie’s.
His assertion that salaries and benefits have increased 31.8% over two years is also wrong. In each year, economic increases to staff were 3%, with additional recognition pay to fire services as per Provincial arbitration.

I could go on. All three parts of Mr. Barker’s column are rife with inaccuracies. In contrast, the City’s budget process – which is transparent and open to the public, and will begin in mid-November – will provide factual information and a true picture of the City’s finances.

Like many businesses and residents in Guelph, the City has felt the impacts of the economic downturn. Through the budget process, Council is prepared to make tough decisions to ensure our city is strong, and our AA credit rating is maintained.

Given the number of inaccuracies in it, I am not surprised that the Mercury refused to publish it. It is unfortunate that it is circulating through e-mail, as those who receive it may not realize the many errors in it.

Phil Andrews managing editor of the Mercury wrote with regard to refusing to publish the writings:

They were declined pending the columnist revealing and enumerating the precise documents cited that gave rise to the data in the pieces. Further, I insisted that I needed to be informed of the identity of the financial adviser who purportedly offered analysis of the data for the columns — before they could be considered for publication. Those terms weren’t met.

OK… So Gerry got a little over excited, and with a just over a year to the next municipal election I guess you can’t really blame him.

And speaking of elections – I guess those with a burning desire for political recognition are beginning to rev up the campaign machine once again – one of the candidates from the previous election published “An Assessment of Guelph’s Finances” on his website asking for people to “forward (it) to those who may share the same concerns.”

Nothing like false controversy and hearsay to get people all worked up!

Personally I think creativity, honesty, and integrity make for better reading AND better leadership in government.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 10:36 am and is filed under Ward 4 News, City Council, Finance, Personal Soapbox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.