Dear Mayor and Council. Thank you for attending Monday’s Town Hall meeting in Bradner.
I wanted to say that if it is the Mayor’s intention to insult a large group of people on a regular basis, it appears by popular consensus that he is succeeding.
It is obvious the Mayor has a certain disdain for me personally (once again–please forgive me for speaking out of turn on Monday) but was it totally necessary to chastise me in such an insulting manner, twice? Perhaps the ‘line up at the microphone’ method would alleviate the problem of the overzealous speaker.
Upon reflection, I can’t help but remember the following:
Bradner/Mt. Lehman was insulted Monday when the Mayor said “Why would you care abbot Arts and Culture? You’re just a bunch of farmers out here.” Conversely he had also insulted us at the first meeting he attended here when he accused us of not being farmers–saying we all lived in 10,000 sq. ft. mansions with swimming pools. While addressing a question about urban sprawl Monday, the Mayor showed disrespect to the group of urban core residents who had earlier voiced dismay at the thought of skyscrapers–going so far as to mock their statements in a whiny voice. (And always those same insensitive references to NIMBY’s.) At that first meeting in Bradner last July he was very rude to a woman (known to be somewhat of an environmental community advocate), dismissing her presence before she had even spoken.
At the AAC meeting in March the Mayor upbraided committee member Brenda Falk for her (what he referred to as) misuse of agricultural land (at Tanglebank Gardens) and humiliated and embarrassed Mark Robbins because he dared to interrupt him.
Clearly the Mayor does not take kindly to folks who do not share his views, or dare to question his motives in any way–jumping ahead of the queue at Town Hall meetings or not.
Never have I witnessed such bullying behaviour in any political forum and contrary to his dismissive rudeness to me on Monday (and on several other occasions) I will continue to be involved in city business where I see fit.
It is plainly evident that the City of Abbotsford is eager to push this proposed industrial development through in Bradner ($$$) but thinks that by thinly going through the motions (and then revisiting the results to suit their own purposes) they are meeting the needs of the community.
Whose community, Mayor Banman? Certainly not mine.
In closing, I think you need to remember that you are an elected official, sir, and that you should treat people respectfully, whether you agree with them or not.
Kerry Proudfoot,
The city is in desperate for DCC monies needed for
road infrastructure, road maintenance, money to repay
monies borrowed to pay for the McCallum Interchanges
and “priority” project brought forward by City Hall and
select members/groups in this city.
Housing starts are about half of what they were 4-5 years
ago, thereby, have dramatically reduced monies collected
in DCC’S and building permit fees.
Council members/developers on the cities Economic Development Commission/City Industry Committee and Abbotsford Chamber Exec., repres.this group, who are very much development oriented and the taxpayer opposed to such growth is an obstacle and therefore, it is the
cities’ Mayor, who is backing this development in the interests
of monies to replenish the city reserve funds.
The city is in desperate for DCC monies needed for
road infrastructure, road maintenance, money to repay
monies borrowed to pay for the McCallum Interchanges
and “priority” project brought forward by City Hall and
select members/groups in this city.
Housing starts are about half of what they were 4-5 years
ago, thereby, have dramatically reduced monies collected
in DCC’S and building permit fees.
Council members/developers on the cities Economic Development Commission/City Industry Committee and Abbotsford Chamber Exec., repres.this group are very much development oriented and the taxpayer opposed to such growth is an obstacle and therefore, it is the
cities’ Mayor, who is backing this development in the interests
of monies to replenish the city reserve funds.
Ms. Proudfoot’s experience is exactly what I referred to when I said that with regard to Abbotsford City of Character virtue of “Respect” Mayor Banman does not walk the talk. I advise him to take a lesson from his predecessor’s demise when it comes to bullying opponents of the 200 acre ALR exclusion; another Economic Development Committee boondoggle, if he does not want to be a one term Mayor too.
Politicians…. Such gems!
Me thinks it is the “Little Man” syndrome that is making Mayor banman a bully. He’s starting to look like a spoiled little brat, stomping his feet and acting immature when things don’t go HIS way. Remember Banman, you can be fired at the next election. You’re heading down the path of being a one term mayor pretty quickly.
I guess the car-allowance leased mustang isn’t doing the trick anymore?
If little man syndrome is indeed the culprit, may I kindly suggest http://www.elevator-insoles.com/
Let’s just collectively hope that Henry Braun runs for mayor next time. Or, better yet, let him dig his one-term grave and fight for term limits on the rest.