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His name should appear along- side his shameful, irresponsible hehaviour. Or if he has sumolhing to any in his defence, Ivl's hear it. Who is this landlord? We know the student's name. Why nm the landlord's? Names belong to the Ws of mspunsihle journalism. That WI.” student, Curtis Mel- bourne. has to live.with mold or contaminants from the flooding in his apartment-more than once a month-as well as see his belong- ings suffer water damage and have to ask for extensions on his school work and even be compelled to find temporary lodging elsewhere is bad enough. To have his landlord then accuse him of trying to evade the monthly rent when he complains about the flooding adds insult Io injury. tones from landlords regarding Sirresponsible student tenants are not unfamiliar in Waterloo. All too familiar as well are stories of landlords who fail to look after their rental units, take umbrage at complaints, and yet demand the monthly rent from student tenants. Ihiuk how much hem-r off wr would all be ifwc hand the discipline to put aside the saving, every mm- we spent a few dollars. " would add up by the mid of the year. But we won't do that, will we? Nah, it's much more fun In just keep spending, lhe government also says it will pass an Beef up city's bylaws Yrs, they will cut the “SI iry “no prnvnlagt- palm. and wt. will all unlin- that. me reduction will In- swallowed up lry the rm! of our spending. Is there dunking the lull-ml gmw-mnwm will do m llu- next few wot-ks whit h will make you sit up and my, Ihunk gmnlnwss thc grrvPrnment is back in session!" Uh. the texcitement, the drama, the thvatrv. the trageuy.,. who am I kidding? A new Conservative government 0m- ciitlly begins its n'lgn Now. horu'stly. docs, n really matter Ill you? No. the big week of which I speak is the opening of a new session of parlia- Int-m My wife lust shakes her head when she finds pieces of paper spread around the house. with random scribblings of numbers. She just throws, them out, rec- ognizing they are only important in the moment. I like the game. the pace of it, the methodical way it works. And I also like the numbers part of it, where you can tear everything down to a statistic... I think the same reason I enjoy golf. tl, thc Itiggest “wk ol tht, war, No. not the begin- Ining ot gull spawn. ullhuugh that's "no. And I shot 78 on Sunday. Yrs. it With Grand Vallo gnu murw. which I rov- ognLc l?s nu! exactly Augusta National. Hum-um anytime um am pm a wwn at the slitrt “I your scum is good. If you‘re among the people who don't Care, call my wife and children. Hwy didn't care either. And. I'm not talking about the Mart of' baseball season. though that), good um I like the Blue Jays; the} hUt'm to have made same interesting moves. Ihey should he entertain. ing, if nothing elsv. The feds are back in town his is a response to the letter I from Drew Jackson. printed in the March 22, 2006 Chronicle. His letter was obviously written in a mood ol ancient childhood grudge. ignorance and jealousy. as he trotted out the same old tired cliches that abound in all letters that complain about teachers. Hawk: !f,'i',','t,t litter oo Walk a mile in these shoes I "recommend" that council add some teeth to enforcement of bylaws, so that standards are in fact adhered to and students (and oth- ers) will not be at the merry of those to whom they pay their monthly rent. It's called justice. Th? city has them but all that is required is that the property Man. dards department make "recom- mendations" to the landlord-- which the student in fact doesn't see. So much for transparency and enforcement. And then there are the "property slandzuds. " with his name attached sun- you do too, You have to be kind of a selGh. non-wring perk to nol clear on your sidewalk.' or go around figuring r-wryom- el,e should pick up your dog's Honors. " you happen to he one ol those people please take the time to mnvim " me ol u by your actions. or lm k of ttrem. un- rmwnuhlo- I'm \ulling lo listen " course. secretty. I'll hr hoping for a Late spring snowstorm. which mill ban you in piles of frozen dog poop. . Hear more "f Imam tlmughts on life with the ATA JI Morning (m: may unabluy rnwniugfmm h” to 9am, on Warm: radio simian mu kt I! 'l FM. I'll just stautd over here and hold my breath wait, ing tor the big rhangcs. It will get all kinds of attention. but in the end, wall). will it "tfect anything you do day to (In)? Ind they wonder why inn-rest is dropping Ill lod- t'rul and provincial politics. It's nut rocket science. For the nut majority of pcoplc, the workings of government have bvcoroe corrtpletcly irrelevant. If it doesn't cost us any more money. we don't sot-m to cam. Have governments 1terome the domain til the special interest group, just micro-managing a vari. ety of issues which are of importance - tn only a small number "I people? "arcotorttahiliry "rt", laws designed to (-nmn- there will ire ethics in gnu-rmm-m. Good luck with that. I'm up ludi) to gave'iah'kino, of people in m\ "eighbourhooU. as I'm _ lwn things which annoy me as much as anything are people who dorit shovel their sidewalks, and [my ple who dun'l pick up dog poop. All the iigns of spring start to come out: the flowers. the grass, the birds. Am! the dog poop. Is that why many at us maintain most of what happens at the govern‘ ment level just doesn't matter? Worth thinking about. Spring} Nice l0 have a touch of eady spring weather. with warmer tempera- lures and some sunshine. In short. Mr. Jackson, there is a saying; “Do not judge a person until you have walked a mile in his shoes." Wouldn't you jump at a chance to he in front of a class of 35 stu- dents, and be expected lo educate them, answer their questions. and inspire them. as well as please the Ministry. the parents and whatever nulcasc of a principal you've got, all day for l96 days per year? How many of "you in the business world would really enjoy a job like that? The problem is, you are present- ing in front of a captive audience that is comprised of one third inter- ested clients. one third somewhat docile, but non-committal clients, and that final third who are openly hostile and disruptive. For those of you in the business world, think of teaching as giving four or rrve sales presentations. one after another, each day. I taught senior public school for 33 years. I know what I am talking about from first-hand experience. The publicly perceived working conditions have always been quite different from reality. . Shirley Fowley, Waterloo fetserHundh-ed-rtttscschoot lnu‘ae,city and retfoasat councillor. He hon; a public attain show on mmmnmnd-y ”a. 7pm. having a pension. however wager. Pr nnl right lhv whole issue of ' ompc"satiott packages Ps l lauded "ith thy [Duluth iarts' ('unt'rm for publu' pu-rrrpmm Polit" um "ave bought into the myah and are often n-llu [am In trroodc ade quatr ' ompr'resatiotr the msi majnmy of eh, trd ome Ms do IIM' “an simply " the opportunity to seru- the puhlic. A wluu nu w I MV, ior a Wan-rim: (uuncillm is worth "very dime, and In u-n w um.- I Salaries are worth 1 every dime V _ (7,, n -"e -iee Former Kitchener mayor Dominic Cardillo and the late "arulrridtte councillor. Fred Kent, collectively spent approxi- mately 30 years in municipal palm“ but did not receive. "m. dime in pensiun. “inking all any in!) in (mmdum so: My tor L", yum mum." Some councillors in Watertoo region "Neie pension; some don't. Some receive health and dental; home don't. Pt'monally. I believe all councillors should receive health/dental and pen- sion. simply because it is the right thing to do. Often the compensation packages include benefits and pension contributing!» tre no} always. Based on these numbers the new ililéigvlor Waterloo will put the mayor and council right about where they should be, __ close to the middle. - . Mayois make 563.990 in Kitchener. Sti9.l2fi in Guelph $72,376 in Brantford and s59._266 in Cambridge. For example. according to the City of Waterloo citizens' committee, Kitchener councillors earn $35.494, Cambridge councillors earn $23,340. Brantford councillors earn 32mm. and Guelph councillors cam $24 .523. Ihese committees are uppuinled from " pool nl applicants who respond In public advertisements and their "wommouia, tions alien (ml) take plate tiller the ne\l e4ertiou. In Waterloo; (use. all the above noted increases (ml) Inh- effect Den I,200ti. alter the loc 13 Inunii'lpal election. rhis way councillors art' htlly trunspurenl about then (our pensaliun during an elm lion. ll the public is upset with the im reuse. they can Tote the offending councillors/politicians out. I tr so the urgumun goes. me citizens' committees mien council remuneration trom councils of a similar size and usually end up recommending a package that is about equal to the median. cal bodies also use arms-length citi- L pens' committees, appointed In review and make salary rttommendations. Over the hast In years. govern- ments at all levels have put into place processes to minimize the negative consequences of establishing their own salary increases. In between elec- tions, politicians often adjust their salaries with the um of living s0 any catch-ups that needs to take place at the end of a term are decreased. "rliti. Process has improved This seemed noble at first. but more often than not when the atten- tion blows over they Mart to take the extra money anyway. In ihe pas?, some councillors/politicians who received a salary increase that they voted against donated the extra money to charity. --- So what do you dofitemse tiCaiiiirtiiGa, money out of principle? The otheOrobtem of voting against the increase is that most times the i ncrease goes through anyway. The problem is that the individual politician ultimately has to vote for, or against. his own salary increase. If you vote in favour, it seems self serving. After all, how many people in the real world get to vote themselves a raise? If you vote against the raise, it may appear like you are grandstanding. . __ H". ___- ..._ ..._,.,.. The base salary for part-time councillors increases to $24,095 from 52!,168. The full-time mayor's job will increase from 359.979 to 563.409. A third of their salary remains tax free. The mayor also sits on regional council where he picks up and an additional $35,000. Optics are never good when councillors or politicians at any level decide to get a raise. justifiable or not. Walvrlml city council voted to give themselves a raise laxl week. the mayor and council approved an increase ot H per cent fur councillors and six per cent for the mayor. 'I'L._ l.,.r - I " . --