Councillor Bob Foster was absolutely correct when he stated in an article last week that he attended the two budget meetings held in late February and early March with Centre Wellington council.
The minutes of those meetings on Feb. 28 and March 2 show Foster was present at both.
Foster said in an interview on Monday night, “I always try to tell the truth – I attended every minute of every budget meeting.” He called the charges of missed meetings “damaging.”
Foster added Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj’s contention that the Sportsplex debt is the only one the township is dealing with is “patently false.” He said the actual debt is for nine outstanding projects, and it totals $14.1-million.
Actually, as reported in the article, the mayor correctly stated that no money had been borrowed to date in the current council term, although there are plans to borrow cash for the Fergus sewage treatment plant of $1.26-million this year.
However, the article also stated the only debt was $6.1-million, and that is incorrect. The actual debt on the Sportsplex as of Jan. 1 was $9.28-million.
Foster said the Fergus Grand Theatre has been troubling him because for the time he has been on council, expenses have exceeded revenues by about $50,000 per year and he would like to find a way to reverse that.
He referred to his letter to the editor in this Newspaper the week council passed its budget in March and said, “Everything I referred to in that letter I raised at the budget meetings.”
Foster added that councillor Walt Visser’s statement that Foster’s only solution for cutting costs is to fire people is “mudslinging.”
But Visser said in an interview on Tuesday no retraction is necessary from his statement that Foster missed budget meetings.
“As you know, we don’t start planning the budget in the new year,” Visser said of ongoing budget planning.
Visser said of Foster, “He was at the last two, but we do budget all year, and the strategic plan is directly budget where we tell staff where we’re going to spend the money.
“Those meetings were two whole days,” he said.
Township minutes confirmed that Foster did miss those two meetings.
Ross-Zuj was out of town all week but responded to an email. She said, “The important meeting for council to debate and discuss is the committee of the whole. Councillor Foster was absent for the C0W meeting March 15” which was held five days before the budget came to council.
She concluded, “Be at the table to contribute.”
