Haldimand "Judy Laszlo and David Crombie"

Wednesday night’s Public meeting with David Crombie was well attended by residents that came from across the County, it was good to see. Don Boyle CAO of Haldimand County also did a presentation on the County’s Recovery Package that was submitted to upper levels of Government in December of 2007.

The entire meeting is available to view at http://www.numberswatchdog.com/a-cal%20Crombie%20videos.htm

A special thanks to Numberswatchdog!

I would like to focus on a few people today, Judy Laszlo, a resident of Caledonia, and David Crombie.

I met Judy back in the fall of 2007 and have written about her website, Have Your Say Caledonia. If you haven’t checked this website out yet please go to; http://haveyoursaycaledonia.com/forum

Judy has attended every "public meeting", every "not so public" meeting, has met personally with David Crombie, has met on a number of occasions with Mr. Maclean from the OPP, has met with the Mayor and Council members, she has stood on street corners with signs, organized an excellent protest on Domtar Hill, etc…… Judy is passionate and caring, and is truly an amazing woman. I can only say that this County needs more people like Judy!

Wednesday night Judy asked Haldimand County CAO Don Boyle about a comment in the County Recovery Package regarding residents acting inappropriately; the following is (verbatim) from the County’s report;

Context:

As compared to development activity that occurred between 2001 and 2005 the on-going land claims issues are having a significant economic and social impact on Haldimand County as evidenced by lost know development proposals, impacts on existing assessment and impacts to the image of the county in terms of future investment.

Indicators of these impacts include;

*A significant reduction of construction value from pre-land claims activity.*Significant direct loss of permit revenues.
*Loss of Development Charge revenue.
*Lost annual taxation revenue from reduced assessment.
*On-going social tensions in the County that is causing significant stress for the local population and inappropriate behaviour on the part of some residents.
*Loss of "brand image" for the County as a place for private investment.

Judy was never given a direct answer, basically Don Boyle’s statement was I don’t believe that the report says that. Judy made it very clear to Haldimand County Council and CAO Don Boyle that it is time that this County supports and backs up its residents.

All members of Haldimand County Council were at this meeting as well, and not one of them spoke up on this question. Actually not one member of Council spoke at all. I do believe that most of us would agree with the concerns that Judy has regarding this statement. This was uncalled for!

I personally met and spoke with Mr. Crombie after the first public meeting back in the fall of 2007. My first impression of Mr. Crombie was that he was rather "harsh", and he was certainly "brutally honest". I do believe that some of the residents at the public meeting thought that he was rude and confrontational. But by the end of the first meeting I realized that he is a very sincere hard working individual.

One of the things that came to me on Wednesday night at the second public meeting was that Mr. Crombie is the "only person" that has had the "balls" to stand in front of the "residents" of Haldimand County.

Mr. Crombie is not the "decision maker" he cannot personally solve our problems, he can only take our concerns and direct them to the proper authorities, and in return, inform the public.

I think that one of the problems that some have with Mr. Crombie is that he is very honest, and although residents have asked for honest and open relations, we are not quite used to getting what we ask for.

So to you Mr. Crombie, from me personally, Thanks for your honesty, your passion and your involvement, keep pushing for answers on our behalf! P.S. next meeting you really need to try and bring a representative from the OPP, if they do not want to attend, be honest and let us know!

I believe that the main problem is a lack of "communication". We have members of Council that are at a side table and we never seem to hear anything from them. Our own Council has never had a public meeting, in fact according to them some residents are acting inappropriately.

As Judy said on Wednesday night, when is this County going to back up the residents. We should all be demanding this from our elected officials!