Municipal Election Day, October 25, 2010

It has been a fascinating 10 weeks and I wish to thank the wonderful electors of Ward 1 for their support and for their participation in this election process.

And best wishes and good luck to all Ajax candidates who chose to enter the local political arena.

Polling Stations open today at 10 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

In Ward 1, they are located at:

• Vimy Ridge Public School at 40 Telford Street
• Alexander Graham Bell Public School at 25 Hawkins Drive
• Lincoln Alexander Public School at 95 Church Street

A polling station has also been created at the Winbourne Park Long-term Care Centre and will be open from 10 a.m. to noon.

If you are a senior or disabled and need transportation to and from a Polling Station, call me at 905-686-6180.

Think Pink – Vote Katie!

Shifting the Residential Tax Burden with Common Sense

It comes down to the policies, vision, character, community and life experience, credibility and ethics – and how convincingly an individual candidate introduces his or her platform to electors.

Are common sense ideas, a vision and a mission to do a good job in representing Ward 1 enough to prevail on Polling Day on Monday?

Does a progressive, family-protective, business-oriented and green argument fit with the needs and sentiments of Ward 1 constituents?

My platform has been clearly laid out – and, with some modest sense of flattery, can say emulated by others in terms of policies put forward.

With great respect to my opponents, what differentiates my campaign from theirs is my stated position to challenge decisions by Town Council I feel are financially and socially detrimental to Ward 1 residents.

And for the record, I am advocating reasonable ideas where savings can be made from operations – for example, an examination of the Town’s spending of a million dollars annually in legal fees – toward improving the Town’s balance sheet.

The prevailing notion on Town Council that residential taxpayers continue to shoulder 88% of the Town’s and the Region’s operating costs is a disservice to its citizens.

How about a 75% and 25% target for a start? - the latter portion coming from a gradual shift to new business settlement in Ajax.

Despite the federal government’s claim the recession is over, I’m not seeing ANY sign of improvements in the overall quality of life in our communities. Are you?

Perhaps the first step towards moving forward would be for Ward 1 to point Town Council in a new direction through its Councillor.

A Different Vision

The lack of a strong, credible mayoral candidate with a different vision for Ajax has left the door open to four more years of a social-economic imbalance electors are pointing to for immediate action.

While our mayor deserves much credit for his vision since assuming office, times have changed. And so have the challenges of meeting our communities’ needs.

The lack of a strong opposition – in Ajax’s case, a strong alternate voice on Town Council – leaves residents with few options for moving towards a different vision that meets today’s needs e.g.:

-         policies that lead to sustainable, local job development

-         a complete re-think (in cooperation with three levels of government) for de-bottlenecking rush-hour traffic

-         fast-tracking the environmentally-sound provincial programs for smart growth – building up instead of out

-         creating safer communities affordably where neighbours are encouraged to look out for each other, instead of looking the other way, and ultimately;

-         lessening the tax burden on homeowners by moving towards well-defined and aggressive policies that encourage more businesses to establish in Ajax.

In the absence of a credible, alternate vision, it falls on Town Councillors to introduce options and policies that introduce those changes that residents are demanding.

When only 23% of Ajacians turned out to vote in the 2006 municipal election, it signalled something was desperately wrong in the relationship between electors and their local government.

The virtual acclamation next Monday of our mayor should give voters pause to think about the consequences of this accession by default.

People I’ve spoken to in Ward 1 these past nine weeks tell me they’re looking for someone capable of representing their ambitions on Town Council. I promise to do just that.

Accessibility and Accountability

As someone who lives less than 10 minutes from my business office, I was overwhelmed early this morning by the sheer volume of Ward 1 residents making their way to the GO station or to the 401 to get to work.

It takes an hour from the Ajax GO station to downtown, and that commute is even longer for residents working in Brampton, Mississauga or destinations not serviced by GO train.

Two things came to mind:

Eighty percent of Ajacians commute to work. There is an immediate need for high-paying jobs in our community. We need to attract new business and industry here. And we can do that if our Town Council stops paying lip service to this issue and votes to make it happen, using tax holidays as incentives. It is a simple cost of doing business and the long-term dividends to Ajax would be worth it.

Secondly, if elected, I was wondering how I could manage a full-time job and a part-time job as a Town Councillor – a job that has full-time responsibilities – if my day job was a two-hour commute to and from Ajax.

Because my commute is only 10 minutes from home, I shall be available and accountable to Ward 1 electors on a full-time basis.

Greater representation needed at the Region

There is a question on this year’s ballot regarding the election of a Regional Council Chair or the selection of the Chair by Regional Councillors.

I’m wondering why a second question couldn’t have been added to give force to Ajax’s dire need for a third councillor on Regional Council.

If we’re to be taxed without equal representation, clearly, we should be making a lot more noise given that 57% of our municipal tax levy flows into Regional coffers.

Policing, transportation, recycling, social and infrastructural services are as important to Ajax as they are to residents of Pickering, Whitby and Uxbridge.

Its not a matter of where numbers warrant – we’ve got the numbers – it’s a matter of politics at the senior decision-making level of Regional Council.

Its time for those key decision-makers on Regional Council to grow up, put aside personal and grudges if necessary –and give Ajax residents the representation they’ve earned!.  We need to put an end to the divisive and petty nonsense that diminishes the stature and credibility of an otherwise fine institution.

Ward 1 Electors are looking for change!!!!

There are five candidates vying to represent Ward 1. Therefore, a selection of which candidate is best qualified to argue the case for Ward 1 residents on Town Council must come down to trust, financial leadership and the ability to represent the best interests of constituents. 

I have been listening to you for the last two months and I’ve been making my platform known to you.

To those Ward 1 residents I haven’t had the opportunity to meet yet, you might want to know that I am fiercely independent – if not strident, when it comes to the protection of our families, and that I am entirely independent of any "alliances or camps" which may or may not exist on Town Council.

During the next four years, if I am elected, I can promise this:

I shall not remain silent on your behalf if proposals are introduced to both Town Council and Regional Council if they appear to be detrimental to your family and to your financial interests.

Looking ahead, and looking at the state of the world around us, it makes no sense that our municipal government appears to be intent on perpetuating its fiscal policies that increase taxes each year instead of looking for economies from within.

Our Mayor, dismisses these kinds of overtures as part of an "anti-incumbent movement", but he offers no options, is a ‘late-comer’ to the notion of downtown re-development and has missed the boat entirely in terms of attracting job-creating, tax revenue-producing, clean industry that people of Ajax so desperately want from their local government. You need to find local jobs rather than drive to far side of Toronto to support your families!

Don’t get me wrong. Our Mayor has done an outstanding job in creating a wonderful place to live.

But the Mayor’s vision doesn’t reflect the vision that residents of Ward 1 have for Ajax!

With few exceptions, Ward 1 electors are looking for change – to bring some immediate balance that shifts some of the tax burden from the shoulders of residential taxpayers through a policy of rapid business expansion – even if that means closing deals with businesses via tax holidays as a means of attracting new, high-paying jobs to Ajax.

The social and financial benefits created by those jobs will have spinoff effects throughout our community – better transportation, higher residential housing prices and other consumer-driven investment.

Ultimately, it comes down to trust, financial leadership and the ability to represent the best interest of residents and their families in Ward 1.

WHO AM I?

Ten days from voting day and residents of Ward 1 appear to be more focused in their scrutiny of Town Council candidates.

A number of undecided electors have sent me their own questionnaires, some asking for specifics on my financial management, budgeting and business management background.

For the record, my professional background is in purchasing and financial management with a speciality in public sector purchasing & tendering for products, services and construction, including all related insurance and risk requirements. Recently, in the private sector, my speciality includes urban forest and construction project management on behalf of numerous municipal and private sector clients.

I have written public purchasing policy and procedures for three of Ontario’s largest school boards, a hospital and a town and have taught courses in the recovery of excise tax overpayments  – drawing them back into the public treasury.

Budgeting is one of my core financial strengths and I have an intimate understanding of budgetary structures – from inception to hierarchical spending, reporting requirements and audit.

I have written reports to Boards and Councils with recommendations for acceptance or rejection of tendered bids, based on price, references and overall value. I am also no stranger to recommending a project be postponed because of unacceptable costs, prevailing economic conditions and other contributing factors.

It was my job to ensure that adequate insurances (rather than over-insurance) requirements were attached to projects so that the costs related to a specific project would not include excessively high premiums built into the contract price.  It was my responsibility to ensure that certain matters of ‘due diligence’ was exercised prior to the award of ANY tendered bid.

Ultimately, I was the designated “gate keeper” to the formal contracting and purchasing functions for the spending of millions of taxpayer dollars. So, looking for “fat” in our Town’s operating budget is a priority in representing Ajax

One of my priorities will be to review our Town’s budget for 2011 and identify items of duplication or redundancy so that we do not continue to budget for things we simply can’t afford.  Opportunities exist to review ‘single source’ vendors, spending thresholds at departmental levels, certain existing costly bureaucratic Town-wide initiatives and programs and simply, other ‘routine expenditures’ that need to be meticulously reviewed.