Mulmur Township has prepared its draft budget and again we get to see how our hard-earned money is being spent. The Township collects for its own purposes just over three and a half million dollars a year from us, the taxpayer. The Township pays over a half a million of that to the administration staff to administer the remaining three million (Not roads staff).

Wow, that is a large proportion, and something you would never see in a private corporation, let alone in other municipalities.

The CAO of Mulmur, Terry Horner, earns over one hundred thousand of that half a million. Now that wouldn’t be so unusual if he wrote reports or offered some professional and relative expertise, but he hires other staff to do that.

A recent staff report (not from CAO) reveals that there are increases in the number of sick and bereavement days to which staff is entitled. These policies clearly entitle CAO Horner and Councillor Janet Horner bereavement allowances for each other and their relatives. Now doesn’t that look like a conflict of interest?

Stay tuned; what is our Council doing about the Niagara Escarpment Commission’s huge land grab of two-thirds of Mulmur, giving it away like they do with the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation?
Merry Christmas, Ho Ho Ho.

Jim Pendleton (Old Silver Pen)
Murmur Township