This morning The Hamiltonian received Mayor Eisenberger's thoughts on the Discovery Centre and its lands. Included in the Mayor's reply was his assessment that "By considering options together with the eventual winner of the RFP, we anticipate a better outcome for the entire waterfront precinct than if we were to consider the property’s future in isolation." See the full article by clicking here for additional context.
In response, Member of Parliament and former Mayor of Hamilton, Bob Bratina, had the following to say:
Meaningful plans for the West Harbour precinct would have to take into account the railway yard. This important piece of transportation infrastructure has been misunderstood and generally ignored by previous mayors and councils. The head of economic development for example stated during the Amazon discussion that Hamilton goods movement was tri-modal: air, port and highway. The harbour waterfront is too important to be developed in the current piecemeal manner. Perhaps an international competition could be created to present a new co-ordinated vision for all the lands between the Desjardins and Burlington Canals. There is no immediate need to deal in a permanent way with the site in question, especially in isolation from other areas of that neighbourhood.
Monday, March 19, 2018
33 comments:
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Question: Why run for higher office if you're going to keep playing coulda-been-mayor? I feel like I'm watching a college freshman peacocking in a high school cafeteria.
ReplyDeleteFollow-Up: Couldn't the former mayor's track record (if not entire political career) be reasonably characterized as piecemeal?
Maggie Elms
@ Maggie Elms. This is a typical comment. Rather than weigh in on who you agree with, Bratina or Eisenberger, you criticize Bratina.
ReplyDeleteDo you have any views on what he said, as opposed to what Eisenberger said?
Just sayin
I agree. Nothing meaningful to add here Maggie?
DeleteTrue Hamiltonian
AFAIK, MP Bratina represents a riding other than he one in which he Project is located, so I regard it as lazy click bait. I would have liked the Hamiltonian to engage the MP for Hamilton Centre, rather than their domestic MP. Christopherson was a former mayoral candidate who despite placing second, secured more votes in 2003 than Bratina in 2010. (Sweetening the pot for our friends in Stoney Creek, he also ran against Sheila Copps in Hamilton East in 1984.)
DeleteMaggie Elms
does Eisenberger have some sort of petty vendetta against Christopherson as well?
DeleteYou should report on that Maggie, quite a scoop.
Cheezy Gordita
Here- i will mnake it easy
DeleteI do/do not like what Bratina said on this topic because _____________
I do/do not like what Eisenberger said on this topic because _____________
Go for it Maggie.
Just sayin
I like Bratina's championing of US Steel pensions, electoral reform, deamalgamation, harbour fountains, and the militarization of City Hall.
DeleteI like Eisenberger's championing of beards at random, fundraising for large words, his ability to win more than one mayoral term, his fondness for empty buzzwords and his longstanding undermining of the HSR.
I don't think either of them has any great moral standing to beak off about the harbourfront, whether they hope to trade it away to local, Canadian or international developers.
Maggie Elms
well Fred certainly thinks he is worth more,....
DeleteBob earned $169,053 his last year as Mayor.
Fred has increased his salary a whopping 24%....or $221,459.31 per annum, the highest figure "earned" by any Mayor in Canada in 2018
When it comes to morals, it really isn't even a contest.
Those quips cost money
DeleteMoney Bags Taxpayer
we should elect 2 Mayors.
DeleteFred can greet immigrants,do Spectator interviews, make snowmen with schoolchildren (and kibbitz with Larry and Terry nonsensically,.... unfortunately, it's a package deal.)
Bob could run the City (if we allowed him to use a taser at his discretion)
Between the 2 of them, they might accomplish half that of Hazel the magnificent.
Schlimiel and Schlimazel
Nearly forgot. I like Bratina's tendency to improvise policy and invoke censure by council. I like Eisenberger's refusal of corporate/union donations and establishing the office of integrity commissioner.
DeleteI don't like either' fixation on pro sports as anything other than water cooler talk or a billionaire's hobby/tax write-off.
Maggie Elms
we should elect 1 Terry Whitehead for Mayor.
DeleteMountain Man
24% pay raise? Unheard of!
Deletehttps://www.thespec.com/news-story/2226042-mayor-s-chief-of-staff-gets-33-per-cent-pay-hike/
Rimshot
Fred took the money back from his Chief of Staff...and put it in his own pocket.
DeleteFred first.
orangemike
Council's post-2015 pay raise came about as the result of council scrapping the practice of receiving 1/3 of their salary tax-free, a move that was supported by two-thirds of the council of the day. Only the councillors from Wards 11-15 voted against it.
DeleteMayor Eisenberger’s chief of staff, Drina Omazic, made less than $100,000 during her first term, as did Mayor Bratina’s chief of staff before he requested that she be paid $120K annually. Omazic doesn’t appear on the Sunshine List so it’s not unreasonable to assume that she’s working for something like her 2006-2010 salary level. In any case, elected officials aren't alllowed to personally pocket savings from their office budgets.
There are enough real outrages in local politics to obsess over that you shouldn't have to invent fictional ones. Spreading misinformation only promotes ignorance.
Veritas
FYI
Deletehe reduced her pay, and increased his pay.
Ignore at your peril
orangemike
Can you cite al source for Omazic taking a pay cut? When was she docked and by how much? Without evidence your position sounds kind of like baseless rumour.
DeleteGreen Roy
she never took a pay cut, she was hired for considerably less than her predecessor.
DeleteAnd Fred is making considerably more than Bob.
I'll give you a minute to connect those dots
orangemike
No evidence, then.
DeleteSpoiler: Mayors can allocate their office budgets, but those arrangements are impermanent by their nature, set out in finite contracts specific to a given mayoralty. As such, the staffer is worth whatever they agree to. As you point out, she never took a pay cut.
The GIC sets salary and expense scales and indices. Had council agreed to remove the tax-free benefit in 2007, when Eisenberger's first pushed for that, Bratina would have made more as a councillor and as mayor. It is no reflection on his frugality or money sense that he benefitted from taxpayers' tax-free handout. Just a matter of luck.
Green Roy
see you can connect dots, but fail to interpret the significance.
DeleteJust a matter of ethics.
orangemike
Farr has somehow manage to alienate almost his entire constituency on the file.Try and find a real person that is satisfied with his "efforts" here.
ReplyDeleteThe role of the Waterfront Trust has evolved, but mostly through incompetence and profound mismanagement.
What has Fred done?
Why supported it, of course. Repeatedly.
And now the Discovery Center will be sold off to private interests.
Was I consulted? Naw. Just Fred blowing soothing smoke.
Joe Davola
Fred has had to make some peculiar side deals in order to keep support for his ill conceived dream of light rail alive.
DeleteFirst he had to scrap area rating to appease Floyd, thereby setting the stage for $1B Transit investment that does absolutely nothing to improve existing transit deficiencies. Nothing.
Onto Ward 1, watch as Mayor Fred sits on his hands while Councilor Johnson manipulates the participatory budget.The busiest arterial in the area...consider it a dry run...imagine years on end of meaningless construction. Whoopee.
Ward 3 has witnessed the evolution of a missionary without a mandate, a crusader without a clue.Fred smiles approvingly at the petty immaturity, looks the other way when this little media maven makes a mockery of the Code of Conduct they have sworn to uphold. A free pass.
Merulla negotiated nothing for his constituents."Bat #%&* crazy?" You bethcha.
And Jason got the Waterfront Trust and the Discovery Center to do as he pleased. His moment in the sun. After the fiasco with the Connolly Farr needed something to play with, and Fred knows how to soothe his soldiers.
Check out Joey Coleman's video of last nights community meeting to discuss the issue at the Public Record.
Anyone see Fred in attendance? Anyone see a Councilor who appears to have any interest in public input?
HH Jellybelly
The disastrous management or mismanagement of the HWT was exposed long ago right here on The Hamiltonian. Other media were late to the party , MSM especially. But thats Hamilton.
ReplyDeleteTrue Hamiltonian
jim graham said:
ReplyDelete"well Fred certainly thinks he is worth more,....
Bob earned $169,053 his last year as Mayor.
Fred has increased his salary a whopping 24%....or $221,459.31 per annum, the highest figure "earned" by any Mayor in Canada in 2018
When it comes to morals, it really isn't even a contest."
But, this is very misleading. Mayor Fred's base Mayoral salary was $181,042 and expenses of $14,498. An extra from sitting on the Alectra board was , $40,416 bringing it in at just under $236K. This is in line with Mississauga, a city of about the same size and population. Source: https://www.thespec.com/news-story/8365012-alectra-board-pay-pumped-up-hamilton-s-mayor-s-salary-to-more-than-221-000/
- Truth in commenting matters
it does matter.
DeleteMississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie earned a salary of $139,374 in 2017, she actually froze her salary in 2015 for the balance of her 4 year term...unlike Fred who promised to raise his "at every available opportunity"
So Fred thinks he is worth a little over 23% more than a Mayor managing a population that is hundreds of thousands of residents larger.
Nothing misleading about any of that.
The courage of one's conviction demonstrates character.
To be more exact: Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie pocketed over $200K in 2017: around $194K for her municipal duties ($139,374 in mayor’s salary in 2017 but also $54,315 from the Region of Peel... Mississauga being a two-tier municipality). On top of that, she bagged $13,455 from her service on the Police Services Board... and of course the generous pay and benefits from her service on the Alectra board. Courageous.
DeleteVeritas
To be more precise, Fred has pocketed lucrative marijuana money which has repeatedly placed him in a conflict of interest when Council has anything to discuss on the matter.
DeleteMs. Crombie apparently has missed the bus in this respect, choosing to place her civic duties ahead of her own financial gain.
And Fred has absolutely no intention of changing anything with that arrangement.
Fred first.
Shameful really, but not much of a surprise.
Crombie sits on 2 Council's?
DeleteSo Eisenberger is making considerably more....whilst doing considerably less.
Nothing misleading about any of that.Unless of course you are easily mislead.
Demi
I had no idea that Mayor Crombie had no investment portfolio! Maybe her better half has her covered.
Deletehttp://crombiecapitalpartners.com/about/
https://www.mississauga.com/news-story/3144698-former-biovail-cfo-to-pay-300-000-fine/
Rimshot
Another fact-check: Council as a whole increased their salaries when the tax-free benefit was discarded. The policy took effect January 1, 2015.
ReplyDelete"The general issues committee voted on Monday to scrap the tax exemption and boost their salaries by roughly one-third. That means councillors will earn $90,385 per year, up from $72,640.80, but will pay full taxes. The mayor will earn $171,441, up from $127,284.86."
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.3186325
"Coun. Sam Merulla called the "confusing" tax-free system a relic of a bygone era when politicians were part-time and didn't have various job-related costs like mileage covered. He suggested the current system "understates" the value of councillor salaries.
Mayor Fred Eisenberger, who voted in favour of the change Monday, first lobbied to end the tax-free salary perk as part of his election campaign in 2006. A past council voted down the proposal in 2007."
https://www.thespec.com/news-story/5792129-hamilton-council-votes-to-end-tax-free-salary-status/
Veritas
Another fact check: Mississauga has hundreds of thousands more residents, packed into a geographical area that is less than half the size of Hamilton.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, they are identical (except for remuneration, of course.)
Veritas
In Hamilton the Mayor’s office budget for 2018 is $1,119,780. Mayor Bonnie Crombie’s office budget is $962,000, up $388,000 since Hazel McCallion left. I had copied Hazel’s approach which was four staffers, and spending at just over $1 dollar per population. Mayor Crombie apparently added two more staffers to bring it up to six. Brampton Mayor Linda Jeffrey had been criticized for her $846,000 office budget, which included the same number of staffers as Crombie's.
ReplyDeleteIn all, over four years I saved over $1 million dollars on my budget, and achieved a new stadium and GO Train station with no increase for those projects to the residential tax base. The mayor's office could easily be run effectively in Hamilton for much less than a million dollars a year.
Thought "MP" stood for "Municipal Politician".
DeleteRimshot