Dear Editor,
Terry Farrell is to be commended for his excellent editorial of Jan. 17 Comox fails its citizens. He only overlooked a few facts.
First while pointing out that Comox is the envy of many municipalities, it might be noted that Comox is not just debt free, it has a reserve of about $100 million built from the highest taxation rate of the region.
It has the means to fulfil obligations and act with decency.
So clearly this is in keeping with a pattern of administrative stinginess.
Second, Mayor Arnott seems very prone to forgetfulness. Apart from forgetting the Town’s wealth and forgetting the vulnerable victims of the Town’s burst pipes, as a councillor he also forgot, for four years, the Town’s legal obligations to Hamilton Mack Laing of whose trust he was a trustee, with all legal obligations.
Together with then Mayor Ives, he also forgot that Laing left much more than the purported $45K, until he and council were reminded that the trust had been pilfered, and Comox had to restitute at least $175K. In Comox there seems to be a pattern of exploitation of vulnerable citizens, dead or alive.
This is cause for concern, given that Comox is to be home to “Dementia Village.” This will be an addition of very vulnerable people to whom we will have obligations.
Comox is a very forgetful town. His Worship Mayor Arnott will be not only Mayor of Comox, but also “ex-offfcio” the mayor of Dementia Village. Every village has a mayor.
How we remember mayors depends on how he or she remembers that stinginess and exploitation do not sit well with basic human decency incumbent in “leadership.”
Loys Maingon,
Courtenay