Mayor Krog Clearly Doesn't Want Public Input
Before the recently defeated Alternate Approval Vote a local taxpayer was asking council to extend the time for the process to be increased from 30 to 90 days.
The argument presented was 30 days was too short to get a legitimate input from Nanaimo taxpayers.
Mayor Krog in his response seems almost indignant at the suggestion Nanaimo taxpayers might not approve of the decision being made by city council. He seems to think that since this council was elected they were given carte blanche with the public purse.
The last election clearly did not give this council a mandate to indebt taxpayers to the tune of $90 million to improve existing works yard facilities. In fact this last election had a meager 24% turnout and Mayor Krog only garnered 12,390 votes representing only 16% of total eligible votes. This total dropped from the 20.040 votes Krog got in the 2018 election.
This last election period could only be described as uninteresting with very little public engagement. There was no meaningful opposition to Krogs bid for reelection and lack of public interest made a mockery of the whole process.
There was no discussion about his council wishing to seek to borrow $90 million and endorse annual tax increases that have exceeded any previous city council.
During this Mayor's reign total taxes have increased 36% rising from $107,140,665.00 in 2018 to a staggering $146,000,437.00 in 2023. During the same period user fees (which are just taxes by another name) rose from $45,329,195.00 in 2018 to $56,123,095.00 in 2023 for a 23% increase.
At the end of the above clip the Mayor's distaste for public input is clearly on display, suggesting that council should be above public scrutiny. He grudingly says that if the AAP fails council will be 'stuck' with a referendum. That pretty much sums up this Mayor's opinion of a public decision.
To suggest that because these nine people occupy seats at city council their judgement is to be trusted in all matters is preposterous.
It is now being reported that since the lawful process hasn't yeilded the results this Mayor wants, they are considering how to do an end run around the whole process.
He seems to never once consider that much of the public questions the wisdom of spending money on bike lanes, Metral Drive, downtown bus depot, ripping up Commercial St. etc. and then having to borrow money for what we are told is such an important project.
If this project is so critical, why has it not been budgeted for and funds diverted from other questionable projects?
The takeaway from listening to this clip is the disdain this Mayor seems to have for the wisdom of Nanaimo taxpayers.
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