With the upcoming municipal elections comes an opportunity to make much needed change.

I am joining what appears to be a growing number of Owen Sound taxpayers who are really concerned with our present Council ... especially with the lack of leadership by the Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

Decisions made during the present term of Council clearly showed that some felt money was growing on local trees.

My personal experience dealing with today’s Council clearly demonstrated some members, at times, lacked “responsibility”, “accountability”, “transparency” and “fairness”.

My best example of a serious concern was the unanimous vote of approval (in less than four minutes without any questions) to spend $2.1 million for a new fire department aerial. If Mr. Boddy and Mr. O’Leary had given proper direction/leadership to utilize the "Corporate Services Committee" instead of a flawed in-house committee (without any opportunity for public input) I contend that the savings to taxpayers would have been a minimum $350,000!

There has been no explanation given for not using the city’s Committee structure to ensure public input to facilitate proper research and discussions to develop a recommendation for Council that would have been defensible. The result would have been the acquisition of an apparatus that met the needs of the fire department while being mindful of the impact on taxpayers.

Go figure! ... Council went to in-camera “committee” to discuss matters like the raising of the garbage tag costs by twenty five cents and the no cost discussion of the demolition of the St. Mary’s rectory.

Mr. O’ Leary even wanted to go to “committee” to discuss the naming of the new 10 Street bridge! This makes no sense at all.

I base my comments as a concerned taxpayer with nearly four decades of fire services experience ... mostly as an “Advisor” for the Office of the Fire Marshal. If any reader of this letter wishes, I would forward materials giving rationale about my contentions on the purchase of the new aerial so they could make their own judgment. My contact information is: kenstel@wightman.ca or 519-376-8475.

Now regarding changes to Council. I was in attendance at the recent “all candidates meeting”. I must say if you are considering changes to Council there hasn’t been a better time. Owen Sounders are blessed with excellent new candidates. I felt these candidates showed a real passion to be good stewards of our money while utilizing a wealth of education and experiences to make good decisions for taxpayers during some concerning and challenging times.

I am hopeful that newcomers like Suneet Kukrega, Jon Farmer, Melanie Middlebro', and others will receive serious consideration and attract many votes.

With a hope for change ... I wish present Councillors Richard Thomas and Scott Greig success in their endeavours to provide the much needed leadership of Council.

MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT!!

Ken Jones, Owen Sound