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Kent Spencer is right when he defines Ward as an Alberts ally. Unfortunately rookie Cllr. Jordan Bateman appears to this Editor to have become just about the single largest Alberts media/press apologist and spin docter ally as well. Yesterday's Langley Times most quoted Mayor Alberts defender of the throne and its tragic budget was indeed rookie Cllr. Jordan Bateman!
Sadly rookie Cllr. Bateman who was only elected 3 years ago has been the single largest major mover and budget apologist for Mayor Alberts' council of "Good Ole boys Club" three concurrent historic tax increase budgets in a row!
HE now also is the main headliner who also prominently lays the blame of these outrageous Township tax increases and by default the outrageous and historically out of control spending and borrowing addiction of his "Good Ole boys Club" council ruling establishment at the feet of the firefighters. The move to full time firefighters in fact. The fact that he has also become the major apologist for all the Alberts council land deals including the airport fiasco is significant as well!
Curiously this is the same cllr. Bateman who campaigned alongside cllr. Kim Richter for full time firefighters all along saying that if elected he agreed with Richter that these significant tax increases would not be neccesary at the same time to fund full time firefighters! He also agreed vociferously with Richter BEFORE being elected that good financial management and stewardship would not require these outrageous tax increases.
So what happened?
Why does Cllr. Bateman now personally even help the current Mayor put his media packages together (powerpoint presentation of the Alberts year spending spree in review)?
Has he now essentially become the media/press agent of Mayor Alberts "Good Ole boys Club" township council? Why one has to wonder? Why has he sold out to this bureaucratic dominated and out of control ruling establishment of tax, spend & borrow?
So while Mr. Green rails on about the mayor's financial fiascos, keep in mind that he is only one vote and that his media apologist as well as the rest of the "Good Ole boys Club" township council should certainly not be let off the hook in 268 days, D-Day, election day on Nov 15, 2008 when the tidal wave of change will exact it's toll from this Alberts slate that quacks, walks and looks like a duck!
If these Mayor & Council slate guys did not spend and lose all our money on bad construction projects, bad land deals and even worse costly ridiculous vain type of projects we could have all fire halls become full time with no tax increases at all especially with the dramatic growth of Langley's tax payer base.
How come this growth can't pay for our need of more service? Why the heck are these guys then still voting in all this growth if my taxes have to increase +5% each and every year? Kick them all out I say.
Who do I send money to help Rick and Kim beat Kurt and Jordand?
Strange isn't it, Grant Ward ran as a teammate originally with Kim Richter and essentially so did Jordan Bateman at least in policy and platform spirit. How and why did they both end up selling out down the river to Mayor Alberts in the end?
Be thankful that Cllr. Kim Richter stayed true to her convictions and did NOT sell out like the others despite the severe and outright rude ongoing treatment by her male peers.
The concerted groupthink efforts to destroy her have it seems helped her in the end especially when you see people like Rick Green come forward with his platform significantly supporting all of Richter's concerns!
The quiet yet large LLT establishment must be in horror of Councillor Jordan Bateman's continued and blatant support of LLT arch nemesis, Mayor Kurt Alberts, who defeated their LLT prolific mayor that Bateman worked and ran for. Sellout is too nice a description.
Anon, newly recruited good ole boys are soon rewarded with a pat on the back and coaching that cooperation and teamwork is the way to get things done. Add that sweet talk to a few perks like ACTING MAYOR to raise a person's profile, and fanny's your aunt, you've got a convert. It's a sly political trick that's older than all of us, but effective where experience is lacking.
Apparently Bateman has experience in the media and publishing fields, so Alberts might have jumped on the opportunity to create an ally. He will need him to raise his own profile this year, which is presently in the dumpster, so we should expect to see some fancy footwork soon.
After nearly nine years of Alberts, a reasonably rational view of where we are today is much more simple than what voters might think. There are those unimpressed like myself, who see Alberts record as one that persues the lusterous things like the Taj Mahal that now houses the township administration, rather than something that adequatly serves us taxpayers. I hope that others will begin to look more closely now that we are in an election year.
The new township hall was a newly constructed building purchased at a distress price. It was big enough for long term growth and considered a real bargain by those who prompted the mayor to go after it. After much renovating we ended up spending a sum that was very close to the estimate for a comepletely new building! Did we have our eyes closed, or was it just a simple(?) cost overrun again? While this edifice might be marvelous for showing off by our proud mayor to his peers, the question is really what did it do for the benefit of the people that paid for it? Remember, that's us folks! There are other very good looking privately owned business structures in the area that were built and furnished to be servicable, not something for the neighbors to tour and marvel at because of their granduer. Well what the heck, I suppose it was a wonderful project for the staff engineering department.
Meanwhile the residents of Aldergrove for example, would have really appreciated an upgrade to their sewage facilities. As well, all of us might have benefited if the township had started work on a water supply piped in from the mountain watersheds. That would have gradually relieved the stress on our well water sources. The more this project is delayed, the greater will be the load on our tax dollars in the coming years. Meanwhile other infrastructure requirements cry out for attention.
I could name other projects that have more glamour than substance that only increase the glare when the light is shined on Alberts' performance. Cost overruns have made bad situations even worse! It should not be hard for residents to see why the mayor has forcasted more heavy tax increases well into the future. It should be even easier to bounce Alberts into retirement mode, and stop his marching band before the township's finacial situation worsens.
Now comes a very basic question: What on earth is there to lose if we elect a new mayor this year? Then step it up beyond basic, and ask ourselves how much better our future would be if we had a more competent mayor.
I hope Mr. Green succeeds for all of our sakes. If for no other reason, it will surely give our wallets some relief.
LFP Editor - going back to your comment, Green stole Richter's platform right out from under her. That must make you mad as once again she will have to step down from her ultimate motive of being mayor for Langley. Maybe when amalgamtion happens she will have enough friends in the City to top the polls!
PS Folks like Ed Monteith jumped shift from Richter's campaign to Greens how does that speak fro Richter support, he was a mainstay in past campaigns.
I read that the pundits are saying that Rick Green is announcing his run for mayor too soon. Then I read that Peter Ladner has announced that he will run for mayor in Vancouver. Another political axpert then says that Rick's early announcement will give him a chncwe to be better known. So much for the experts. It's the voters that will eventually decide after all.
Why all the concern about Richter, Wink? She's doing just fine and although in your distorted world you may think she hasn't got a following, I can tell you she is just as popular as Muriel Arnason, and we all know that she won re-election for 25 years. Muriel didn't pick all the popular issues, just as Kim doesn't, and yet both of them (Kim is/Muriel was)are very popular and well respected for their credibility and decision making in their community.
Wink,(are you a councillor??) why don't you spend your time on more positive issues instead of bad mouthing everyone that works hard to fix all the screw-ups that have incurred under Alberts and his good ol' boys?
I can hardly wait till Nov for a possible end to the slate that cares only about themselves and what they're going to get out of it. Kudo's to Frank Bucholtz for announcing Rick Green's run at mayor in big headlines on one side of the front page, and on the other side of the front page "Taxes jump almost 6%". Great stratagem Frank!
Edited By Siteowner
Be careful at calling it 'cost overruns' mt, I noticed in the newpaper the editor had to apologize because they had quoted Alberts as saying cost overruns and he said it was not a cost overrun, but construction increases in cost??? I guess when you're desperate, you'll grab at anything.
Call it whatever they want, it still ends up on the taxpayers backs....screwed again!
Gee construction cost increases vs cost overrun! No difference in my mind . Just another attempt to rewrite history by the Mayor and his blind faithfull "Good Ole boys Club" on council. Fixed price contracts should have no cost overuns!
My wish is that the whole file concerning the Dickson Pit sale be opened for full examination. There are too many coincidences involved in this bungle (or whatever), and a the taxpayers of the township have every right to look into all of the details of this transaction. The good ole boys teaming up to defend this action is simply not good enough. It's even rediculous given the nature of the event. The whole transaction needs to be looked at from a legal point of view as far as I am concerned. Does anyone, or any group, have the ability to initiate this, or is the fear of charges of libel too great? Frankly I am disgusted with the whole process, and something has to be done.
I have to agree with tinkle. What happened with this sale of township property looks to be too well orchestrated to be overlooked any longer. I was completely surprised that the case was swept away from view so quickly. The local newspapers seemed to just yawn after a few individuals voiced a short burst of outrage over this.
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