I will not be shedding any tears at the departure of city manager Mr. Guthrie since I have felt for years that the city suffered from substandard management as well as pedestrian leadership. By the same token I will not permit council to avoid responsibility for Plan A by attempting to blame it all on Mr. Guthrie with that old children’s excuse: “he made me do it”.

While I find the idea of the salary attached to the position of city manager tempting and my education and professional background provide the skills needed to apply for the position I am not sure I would want the headaches that come with it. In fact any management professional taking a realistic look at the future of this city, especially in terms of finance, is not likely to consider the salary worth the headaches and mess they would have to deal with.

Council, Mr. Taylor and Mr. Teichroeb have, with Plan A, saddled the city with unmanageable financial barriers and problems. The first thing any fiscally rational manager is going to want to do is not build the arena in order to provide financial liquidity and flexibility to address more pressing infrastructure needs.

Despite the claim by some that at this point we have to build the arena because we have already spend money on it, the economic reality is that we have to put the arena on hold and eat any costs incurred to date. While this may not be pleasant it is a fact of life the City needs financial liquidity and flexibility.

Council claims we are building Plan A to attract business. The fact is that no development is taking place on land taken from the agricultural land reserve for development purposes because the land is not serviced. To me logic dictates that the first step in attracting businesses is to provide a place for them to build the business, before you worried about amenities or luxuries they might need.

We need to invest tens of millions of dollars in our water treatment facilities and rational behaviour would suggest we also make an investment in the water delivery system, since it really does not matter how much water you can treat if you cannot deliver it.

In discussions with people whose judgment I trust, I have been told that the city needs to invest more than $100 million in infrastructure over the next few years and in fact that $100 million is conservative and a minimum. Council speaks of how we are growing so fast, but does that not mean that the need to invest in infrastructure and that the amount of investment needed is also growing fast?

How were they planning to pay for the $100+ million needed to provided services to our growing city on top of the $102 (ands growing) millions spent and borrowed for Plan A? Was council so wrapped up in its own wants and egos that they were unaware of infrastructure needs or were they just planning to ignore the infrastructure needed for the City’s growth? Why were these other looming financial demands on the City’s coffers ignored in the slick Plan A sales campaign? Or are they simply planning to let local taxes to continue to spiral upwards at double digit rates?

These types of considerations and questions are why those currently running the City would never consider hiring me or someone like-minded to manage the City.
I believe in transparency and an informed citizenry, not in decisions made “in camera” behind closed doors. I believe in taking the best bid, not the cheapest bid. I believe in making the investment in maintenance to avoid pouring money into costly repairs.

I believe that when entire neighbourhoods are against something they deserve to be heard and to receive an explanation of why the proposal was allowed to proceed. Unlike council I do not believe public hearings should be used to cut off and ignore public input on any issued.

I believe that in this day and age city management and council should be blogging to keep citizens informed of what is taking place in city administration, on choices and challenges facing the city and its citizens. I believe that citizens have a right and a need to be informed of the whys and wherefores of decisions.

I do not believe in stonewalling, backroom deals and secrecy.

Reasons why I would never be hired to run the clandestine operations of Abbotsford City Hall.