Wellington North councillor Dan Yake is discouraged by what he calls inaccurate information provided in local Newspapers.
During a March 22 council meeting Yake said “after spending as much time on the budget document as I did, with the various people on council and staff, I look at this document not only as a lot of work, but as a very important document for our community – each and every year.”
He then directed comments at reporters present, concerning coverage of council.
“We spent a lot of time putting these documents together, probably more than what anybody sees. But I have a concern that when these documents are presented to the press, maybe we’re not providing the right information – maybe it’s not easy enough to understand.”
He cited cases that he considered discouraging when sitting as a councillor, “when it does not come out properly in the Newspaper.”
Yake cited an error in a council pay story that listed $5,000 paid to a Southgate councillor who did not sit on a particular board, and an article that indicated the economic development committee budget was going up 100%.
(The latter citation, published in the Advertiser, was about a proposed committee budget increase that had not yet been finalized, and was a comparison between a proposed 2010 budget and the 2009 actual expenditures. That article noted expenditures in 2009 were 30% below budget. While the 2010 budget is only 16% above the 2009 budget, it is still 58% above last year’s real spending).
More recently, Yake had concerns with a typographical error in another local Newspaper regarding local council expenses.
“Your job is to present what you hear here, it is your job and your right to do that,” he said. “But providing inaccurate information and selling it to the public, I don’t think is correct. That is all I have to say.”
