I had to laugh, to avoid crying as I walked into ARC through the new addition for the first time Friday.

With an all-candidates meeting on Friday night I had to swim early, before Yale high school was out, and found myself parking beneath the new extension.

After walking up the fire escape stairs because the elevator was out-of-service due to malfunction, I turned to head down the ramp to head into the old building and the pool and found myself walking around the bucket set out to catch the water leaking into our new recreation facility through its brand new roof.

I also had to step carefully so as not to slip in the two rivulets of water that ran down the ramp.

It was very lucky for our current council that their rushed pre-election grand opening was on a dry non-rainy day. The public would probably have been considerably less impressed if it had been raining and they had to walk around or carefully to avoid the leaks in their expensive new roof.

The longest sitting current council member speaks of people saying to him they want:

1) Keep my city safe

2) Spend my money wisely

3) Keep taxes as low as possible

4) Keep things transparent.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm?

Property crime is rampant, people are gunned down, gangs operate in the city … doesn’t sound as if this city has been kept safe.

According to Rob Isaac, manager of wastewater, $21.5 million of needed infrastructure had to be deferred until after 2010 because of lack of funds. Council built an unneeded arena and deferred needed sewer infrastructure. That is not spending money wisely.

Plan A, the friendship garden complete with six foot fence – doesn’t sound to friendly, the Centennial Pool tank fiasco, etc. Council spends money as if taxpayers have bottomless pockets with the result that Abbotsford not only ranks #1 in the lower mainland for the highest taxes, but is the highest by several percentage points. This is not keeping taxes as low as possible.

Novembers Abbotsford Today speaks of the costs of Plan A having risen over $120 million, quite different than councils claims. Abbotsford Today could not be more specific since the city refuses to say how much they have spent to date or the bills still outstanding. A Freedom of Information request was needed to find out the monies spent promoting Plan A. This is not transparency.

– did not keep the city safe
– did not spend wisely
– did not keep taxes as low as possible
– did not provide transparency, but did work to keep information from the public.

At 0 – 4 after decades on council one must admire his gall, but not the disrespect, in running again after failing term after term to deliver on a single point people have stated are important.