Dear editor:
Are some former/unsuccessful council candidates sore losers or just nitpickers?
I agree that all our elected representatives should be accountable for the taxpayer funds they spend on our behalf. However, unless Mayor Ivan Brooker has recently booked a flight to South Africa, or is flying around the province in a government airplane, I am prepared to cut him a little slack during his first year in office.
If the former council candidates are really concerned about spending in Cochrane, where were you when the undernoted items were expensed in recent times by previous town councils?
- Transit initiative – how much was spent on this issue, including consultants, advertising, salaries of the town staff ($100,000, $200,000 or more)?
- Bicycles purchased for maintenance duties around town at $5,000 each?
- CookHouse – equipment valued at over $200,000, where did those funds come from?
- Painted pony and branding initiative – how much did this exercise cost Cochrane taxpayers?
- Kitchen in the Seniors on the Bow facility at the Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Center – how much did this equipment cost Cochrane taxpayers?
I recommend that these former/unsuccessful council candidates (two to date) raise their sights a little and concentrate on expenditure items with a few more digits ( $108.42 and $65.54 – how significant are these figures?).
It appears that you are either cherry picking or jumping on the expense scandal bandwagon of former senators in Ottawa or our recent premier of Alberta.
Keith Boothe
