Eye On Temiskaming

Well, I’ve been reading over the 2009 Temiskaming Shores Financial Statements and I must say that I cannot determine what the legal fees in 2009 were.  Actually, I can’t determine what areas were overspent, outrageous or acceptable, because the expenses were grouped in headings with no breakdown or schedule attached.  This is ridiculous… marking something as General government at $2,513,695 without saying what this is comprised of?

The other item lighting a fire under my ass is the contributions to Joint Boards… DTSSAB went up from $2,645,716 to $3,137,916… an increase of $492,200!!!  I haven’t yet had time to review the DTSSAB statement, but considering Temiskaming Shores went up by this much, then the DTSSAB municipal portion must have increase by $1.5-2 million or more!  This is ludicrous!

Another item I’m still at a loss for is the article in the Temiskaming Speaker a while back when Mayor Pace announced reorganizing senior staff.  She listed two positions being elimiated, one of which being city engineer, but also Director of Public Works Hani Asfur.  Director of Public Works was recently temporarily replaced by Dan Harvey (after consultant Brace replaced Asfur, then terminated)… so that position hasn’t been eliminated.

Mayor Pace stated at that time that over $350,000 will be saved annually by that exercise… but I’m disappointed that Speaker reporter Diane Johnston did not have her list where this savings will come from.  No where on the Temiskaming Shores website can I find the press release mentioned so that I can verify the savings.  With all the recent happenings, I think it’s time you at least show us your initial savings on the re-engineering Mayor Pace…

So Mayor Pace was on the radio the other day announcing a press release from the city regarding the employment changes in the city… Laughren and Brace no longer working for the city.

When I had a chance, I went to the city website to check this out… “to my surprise” I couldn’t find anything regarding this press release on their website.  What is the purpose of the website, especially since they paid an outside firm to recreate it?  It only takes a few minutes to put information on the website so that hundreds of people are able to quickly find it.

On a side note, I received a private message from a local reader saying they enjoyed reading my blog and encouraged me to continue.  Thank you very much E, as I am beginning to get some satisfaction from writing this blog because it is getting more people talking about what is happening with our city.  I have averaged 400 hits each day for the past week, so readership is up!

I am a vocal person when it comes to my opinions, but I respect the opinions of others… writing this blog was more about trying to inform all the taxpayers in the city who didn’t understand the ramifications of council decisions.