Abbotsford’s City Manager George Murray has apologized for actions by City staff which lead to chicken manure being spread across land inside City limits being used by homeless people as a camp.
The story, originally reported on Abbotsford Today Wednesday morning, [Abbotsford Spreads Chicken Manure In City To Rid Itself Of The Homeless] reported that, after moving Abbotsford’s homeless around the City every day City staff had spread chicken manure on their latest encampment.
As City Manager, I take this situation very seriously and retain full responsibility for the manner in which we dealt with this incident. I am deeply sorry for our actions.
The City will be removing the manure from the site and working closely with our community partners and the people impacted over the next few days to collectively resolve this issue.
George Murray, City Manager
City of Abbotsford
Councillor Henry Braun
“Apparently, someone (I don’t know who or even which department), did spread chicken manure under/or around a tree somewhere along Gladys Avenue. Needless to say, this is not something I condone or support. That is all I know at the moment. Very sad.”
Good! Now, make it better 🙂
Henry Braun for Mayor!
I second that!
A man of commonsense and reasoning.
It was just a few years ago, when ADBA, President Bob Bos
and other property investors eager to push revitalization/development
in the area had a private meeting to tell a local church not to feed
the homeless.
It created a berage of media coverage and it appears that incident
did not phase certain members at City Hall, at all, based on this
latest brass attempt to rid the area of the homeless, in the interests
of development, once again.
I can appreciate the developers concerns about the appearance
of the homeless camp in the area, but, these people are homeless,
many with mental health/addiction problems.
Surely, there are more humane ways to treat our fellow human beings, who are down and out in our community!
I would say, this action reflects a group of people, who will do anything
to achieve their objective of so-called “cleaning up the area.”
The problem is, many homeless, who were once in Jubilee Park are now in the area near the mall and Mill Lake Park area.
If the City of Abbotsford didn’t have to pay out $14.5 million in
3 1/2 yrs for arena/hockey, they, may have been able to afford to
build a homeless shelter.
The saddest part in all of this…I am almost certain that the very people,
who were up to their eyes in the manure plan, also, are members of the church
community in the city.
Decieit in Drugs: It really is appalling that broken humans subsist in filthy, unsanitary, cold, wet, dangerous conditions. All that misery while governments at all three levels lavish is high wages, rich benefits and secrecy about their expenses.
But stop blaming the Christians. They are at the forefront of trying to give some help to the helpless. And despite having successfully swayed many of the Christians to vote for him, Bruce Banman assured a fellow candidate in the local election that he wanted her to know he was “not religious”.
That is plain to see from his time in office. Banman is a mile wide and an inch deep. Don’t blame Christianity for what this showman does, or does not do, while high on power.
This is not about blame on Christianity.
It is about pointing out that a “certain group of people” in the
community, who claim to be Christians, but, their actions do not
reflect their so-called beliefs.
I question, how certain people linked to the church community
in our city can treat citizen’s in this community with such disrespect,
while others bend over backwards to help people in our city.
It’s all about the money and if it requires stepping on or over the
downtrodden, so be it!
George Murray is now apologizing for “actions by city staff”. Let’s get things out in the open here. Who authorized this despicable act? Who carried it out? What are the consequences? No reason to protect the guilty. There should be at least one head roll here (the authorizing manager) and maybe more. If it’s George Murray blow him out the door. That’s not management, that’s ignorance shown by a person incapable of managing others.
George Murray is a piece of work. His apology is not worth the paper its written on. He ordered this attack on the homeless and less fortunate of our society because the only person he values is himself. He bullies his employees and now he is bullying the citizens of Abbotsford. He needs to be fired or do the right thing for once in his life and resign. People are sick of his dictatorship values … go find Hitler if you want a buddy to hang with looking for employment.
I totally agree with Ironseller. Who carried out this despicable act?
There are definitely problems, when it comes to “who gives orders’
at City Hall ,if the Mayor is telling the truth that he did not know about
the chicken manure used to rid Gladys Ave. of the homeless camp.
Who has connections with City hall staff and/or councillors, whereby certain members of the public were able to request removal of the homeless without, the Mayor knowing about this incident, which has disgraced our city?
Someone in the community initiated a concern and someone at
City Hall obliged to the point, it would have been referred to By-Law Dept., who would have forwarded it to the Public Works Dept.
When did the players, who strategized the removal of the homeless
on Gladys Ave. occur?
Who was the brainchild, who decided they should use Manure?
It is so unfortunate that the homeless in Abbotsford are caught up
in back room dealing between city staff, councillors and/or
business in the community.
The Abbotsford Social Advisory Committee mandate is to “build
the legacy of a community that cares for all it’s citizen’s including
the most vulnerable and marginalized citizens.
The use of chicken manure to rid the homeless from the roadside
on Gladys Ave., clearly goes against ASDAC mandate.
I wonder what vice-chair Bill MCGregor and Councillor Smith, who,
both serve on this committee think of this disrespectful act against
the homeless in our city?
The Mayor and city Manager need to explain how this all happened
under their watch.
action…no more hiding behind closed doors.