Civic Affairs

Finance, administration and operations meets today to consider the 2012 remuneration and expenses report. You may remember last year's edition of this annual reporting obligation for the furore it caused over Mayor David Henderson's 13-per-cent pay raise. (It was, to be fair, the result of a routine adjustment the city has put in place, whereby it measures its elected officials' salaries against those of other municipalities on a comparator list.)

The following is my city column, published last Friday:

'Champions' needed for twin-pad arena to be built

He's been refining his pitch for the better part of his political career, so it's no surprise Councillor Jason Baker makes a convincing case for the urgency of a new twin-pad arena in Brockville.

The debate over whether Brockville needs a new twin-pad arena continues. Plenty of ideas flying around, and I'll have more to say about this in the pages of The Recorder and Times later this week.  For now, Councillor Jason Baker's suggestion that we at least form a committee to bring these different people together sounds reasonable. 

Who knows? They may figure out how to find us some money...

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"All knowledge is local," writes Ursula K. LeGuin,  one of my favourite authors. I believe positive change, similarly, begins at the local level, with the knowledge we have about the space we share in common, and the ideas we bring forward for improving it.

This is civic space: the place where these ideas come together, are discussed and debated, and democracy works to move (one hopes) the best of these ideas toward realization.