A Sarnia City Councillor wants spending in the mayors office examined and cuts made. Cindy Scholten has put forth several notices of motion for council to consider Monday. Among them, she's asking that Mike Bradley's subscriptions to ten local, national and international newspapers be cancelled, his budget for the Mayor's Honours List Reception be capped at $3,000 and she wants know how the $2,000 to $3,000 expenditure on the "Photos/Framing/Hadfield" budget line is spent.
"The fact that we spend around $4,500 every year on those newspapers subscriptions for the mayor, coming in from all over the country and the U.S., to me that's just a huge waste," says Scholten. "If you're going to subscribe to any paper, just do the local ones. I still think in today's day, get online, get your news there and save the taxpayer $4,000." Scholten is asking for an inventory report on how many scrap book cabinets and closets are taking up space in City Hall. Mike Bradley says a well informed mayors office seems to be something some councillors don't want.
"We do get papers online, we do get hard copies," says Bradley. "The fact is, the newspapers are used to find ideas for the city; socially and economically. There are a number of ideas that have come forward that have benefited the city from finding articles of what other people are doing across the country." He says staff have been clipping and saving newspaper articles since the 1980's. "The late (Mayor) Marcel Saddy was always trying to get an archive of city information. We couldn't afford that. But what we did was create, through newspaper clippings and scrapbooks going back to 1988, an archive that we can access and the public can access if they wish too. The books are part of the city's history and we feel an obligation to the mayors office to keep doing it." Mayor Bradley challenges anyone to compare spending in his office to any others in a similar sized city. "They would find we run a very frugal operation. We have one event a year, which is the mayors honour list (reception), no other events that we directly sponsor. We are always cutting costs and trying to be frugal and that's how we've governed over the last number of years." Scholten has also asked that all councillors receive an email from the Mayor's office, advising of all community requests for mayor/council representation at ribbon cuttings, flag raising ceremonies and other significant events. Bradley says targeting the mayors office with these motions is disappointing. "It's councils right to do whatever they want, but, it's micro-managing the mayors office," says Bradley. "This has been a pattern that's been in existance for the last year or so."
- with files from Lee Michaels.