Re: Article “‘We need tax revenues for things our citizens are demanding’,” which appeared in the Aug. 3 edition of Northern Life.

The latest public mutterings from Mayor (John) Rodriguez regarding the sale of St. Joseph’s Hospital site demonstrates once again his complete misunderstanding of important issues surrounding the sale of this building.

Rodriguez continues to avoid the issue of his total failure to involve council in any of the decision making processes around St. Joseph’s purchase transaction.

The very idea he felt it would be OK to confine discussions and final decisions related to sale only to himself and a select group of staff demonstrates his complete lack of understanding that as mayor, he represents one vote and one vote only.

The decision whether the city should purchase this property, with or without demolition costs included, was not his alone to make.

Now the public spectacle of trying to justify this lone decision based only on the need for generating tax revenues is ludicrous.

The mayor should know by now that municipal spending decisions are made by all of council and are based on thorough debate and the process of council collectively as a group reviewing the totality of required expenditures and revenues.

Because the mayor chose to take upon himself, what amounted to a personal feeling, regarding whether the city should purchase the hospital site or not, he precluded councillors the opportunity to measure and debate the cost of this purchase against other budget decisions such as road repairs, physician recruitment, arena repairs/replacements, homelessness issues, ect..

In closing, the mayor’s total lack of both understanding for process and poor judgment related to this important matter has resulted in unnecessarily undermining the public’s confidence in their local government.

Ted Callaghan
Ward 8 Coun. and
mayoral candidate