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Letter to the editor: Coun. Sushil Thapar is not the problem

I am deeply upset over city council’s censuring of Coun. Sushil Thapar.

Editor:

I am deeply upset over city council’s censuring of Coun. Sushil Thapar. What I see is a man of utmost integrity and when dealing with a continually resistant mayor whose answers never give the answer, then the man’s only resort is to use his tenacity and his passion to try and safeguard the citizens of Quesnel’s taxpaying dollars from flying out the door of city hall.

Coun. Thapar is always only concerned with the people of Quesnel and their financial security in this town.

He is not so much combative or disruptive as he is the one councillor truly involved in his job, discussing, debating and challenging the decisions made. He is so in line with the going-ons of the outflow of money from city hall.

He excels in representing the people of Quesnel and their money completely. He is also the one councillor who truly questions the mayor. How upstanding of him! He is not upstaging the mayor when he works at getting to the bottom of the matter.

Coun. Thapar questions Mayor Sjostrom to get the answers and when she avoids him and resists his questions, it is she herself who is creating a councillor’s reaction she dislikes.

Her avoidance has created this entire hullabaloo in the first place.

My advice to the mayor is to quit ignoring this very important councillor and stop using the so-called privacy issues as your place to hide when you know very well the money matters of the city are the citizen’s right to know and you are at the liberty to disclose and discuss.

At city council meeting, July 16, the mayor looked directly into the Shaw Television camera and said “there is no cover up,” if so Mayor Sjostrom, then prove it in true honesty.

Instead, it seems the mayor will probably continue to be resistant, take legal defense if necessary and cost the citizens of Quesnel more and more money, adding to the debt load.

For those of  us who follow city politics, we do understand that most of the councillors are new and highly inexperienced and will need to follow the mayor’s instruction, training guidelines and guidance, but discontentment can come from your own hearts and minds and not from following her directorship blindly. At the meeting, a councillor said we are all individuals.

Then I say, be individuals, instead of how it appears – puppets in Mary’s show.

I am just saying it appears that way and I know appearance could be deceiving.

As an observer, it seems council members are binding together like scared little children where Mayor Mary is the hirer and firer and life and death to their jobs.

Are you all, as newbies, more concerned with having a job and pay cheque than doing the job at hand and the day’s bidding?

Mary may not have voted for Sushil Thapar, but the public did.

We can trust Thapar and look to him to look after our well-being over any of the others to this point.

It’s my opinion the mayor acts like a big city mayor, mayor Sjostrom is a small town mayor with a small town’s budget.

This is an exceptional little town and those of us who call it home love it here and we, like the outlying areas, rely on Quesnel to be fiscally strong.

We must live within our means. We are told over and over that forestry is going to continually downturn, so it seems wise to me that fiscal responsibility is fiscal prudence and this includes expenses, payouts, salaries and benefits.

Tax revenue to the city will continue to drop.

At the council’s meeting on July 16, there were various groups requesting money from the city and the Director of Finance, Keri Bolton said “there is no money.”

Bravo to Ms. Bolton for telling the truth and telling it like it is.

Now then, did everybody hear that!

Have we all been so spoiled that we don’t even know how spoiled we’ve been? The problem is not Coun. Thapar, it’s the money and how we handle it and manage the money we have at hand without more and more borrowing.

Deeper in debt and what do we get, Coun. Thapar is the bad guy? It doesn’t make any “cents”.

It’s all too ludicrous. We could all benefit from taking a moment and consider the implications of debt. A day of reckoning will come and even though you may not have experienced it in your lifetime, it doesn’t mean it will never happen.

That banks will always love to lend money to your city because that’s how they make more of your money year over year in interest payments. The more money we lose in interest payments, the less money there is to give to special interest groups, non-profits and the like. Quesnel’s city council appears to be headed in this direction.

It seems the mayor doesn’t answer to anyone she doesn’t want to. Your money she seems to handle as if it was her own private account and personal business. Your city is your money and your business and the mayor is only an overseer of such funds and needs to do the right thing and explain her expenditures and be accountable to you.

Wake up town that I love. .

Without Coun. Thapar check-mating the mayor, would we be worse off? I think so.

I give a big thank you and my debt of gratitude to Coun. Thapar for doing his job so well as he does.

Perhaps the mayor could emulate him and realize how fortunate she is to have him on our council.

Only one opinion.

Robert Wayne

Quesnel