An update about what’s going on with me and my new projects including more about how I bought the Sarnia Journal.
Sarnia City Council
So now this just happened 20 minutes ago. I was sitting down by the river near my home. Two officers showed up on bicycles and strolled right up to two men sitting about 50 feet from me. They walked directly up to them and started writing them a ticket, it took him about 10 minutes
Maybe another way to describe why I was so agitated last night. This is all government. We have a vast system of resources across our city. And then we have the police by their own admission admit that the problems right now are about mental health and not about actual traditional duties of the police.
I’m still in a bit of shock. On August 14, 2021 I started a category in my note taking app called “mayor run” where I tracked ideas and thoughts about possibly running for mayor of Sarnia, Ontario. I had been sitting on Sarnia City Council now for three years and I had gotten immersed into
There is a lot of information coming out about what is happening in the City of Sarnia right now that I think needs some clarifying. At the risk of revealing things that were meant to stay in closed meetings, I think there are details that need to be shared to give a better overview of
Since March 2020, we’ve been in what has been called a “housing crisis” in Sarnia-Lambton (and the rest of the country). Before the pandemic, Sarnia-Lambton had 60 shelter beds and in the last year and a half we’ve seen that increase to 200 individuals that are “living in our shelter system.” It was just announced
On June 19, around 930pm, my friend and I drove by Reggae’s Caribbean Restaurant a new Jamaican restaurant on Christina St, and they had a full patio. The owner is from out of town and moved to Sarnia to set up this business with his family, and it was exciting to see a new restaurant
Last year in Downtown Sarnia, the Chamber of Commerce made a bold suggestion, that council approved, to shut down Christina St on the weekends during the summer. For the most part it was an excellent success. Restaurants let their patios flow onto the street, people had space to socially distance while they walked and explored
A motion is coming, “the workplace sanctions previously imposed against Mayor Mike Bradley shall be lifted immediately. This includes restoring the Mayors ability to communicate directly with City staff, his ability to freely access City Hall at any time and the removal of the wall.” This is a complicated motion because it mixes rhetoric, rumour
The recent news of three business owners leaving Mitton Village is really heartbreaking that they found themselves unable to sustain their businesses in that area. It really sheds light onto larger set of issues that we face as a city. I’d like to make a few suggestions to guide our discourse about these things that
I have spent most of the last twelve years being the lowest paid staff of any of the businesses I am a co-owner of. I don’t make decisions based on my own financial gain, but in the best interests of the overall vision in which we are striving towards. So speaking of my own salary
Yesterday there was a motion in regards to the Integrity Commissioner to “re-issue the RFP in effort to seek additional proposals and broaden the scope of potential bidders in the interest of the Corporation” in hopes that more local candidates would apply. I voted against this motion (though the motion passed) for the following reasons:
Lower Taxes! This is the mantra of the masses, propagated by politicians. It is a message of fear that attempts to shift the citizen’s focus away from what is actually going on. An honest politician has to catch themselves feeding into the narrative that lowering taxes helps keep more money in your pocket and continually
Coming off the heels of my first budget city council meeting, a motion was made today to increase our contribution to reserves (aka. savings account) of $3.5 million (approx 1.5% increase of taxes) to start the process of tackling our looming $350 million infrastructure deficit. That motion was rejected with some of the stated reasoning
Debt is a trigger word in politics, and when we use it, we end up using it no different than how the average consumer talks about credit card debt. In business however, debt is a tool, among many, for growth. We cannot speak of a multi-million dollar corporation’s debt as if they are “in debt”
I would estimate, that with the recent exodus of our senior staff, that we are going to see costs to the taxpayer in the City of Sarnia upwards of 1 million dollars to properly recruit, train and orient professionals in their new jobs. The costs of staff turnover in any organization is well-researched and documented.
I ran for city council in Sarnia and I won! I’ll post a bit more often on my Facebook page. I’m excited! Here is a transcript of a 5 minute talk I gave at a Kiwanis lunch (it includes some of my thoughts on Mayor Mike Bradley’s sanctions.) Here is an interview I did on