Municipal Elections: A Thread
Recently I've seen calls for people to start getting involved in their local (municipal) elections. If anyone is up for an example of why we need more people doing so, look no further than here, in Burlington, ON. /1
/2 Burlington has been building up over the years. It's been very noticeable the past decade. I could go on about our ex-mayor's role in this, but I'll focus on the here & now. After our municipal election documents were made public, I did some digging on my ward councillor.
/3 I took his 16 campaign contributors (no businesses listed anymore, just names) & on a hunch I started searching. What I found shocked me a bit. Out of the 16 contributors, 11 were developers or tied to development. For those in Burlington, here's the list:
/4 -Angelo and Michael Paletta (Penta Properties)
-the 2 developers who created that monstrosity at the bottom of Elizabeth St -Jeff Paikin and Joseph Giacomodonato (New Horizon Development)
-Dr. Michael Shih (Emshih)
-Steve Stipsits (Branthaven Homes)
/5 -Domenic Fuda (President of TriAxis Construction - one of three parties involved with the Mariott on Burloak)
-Jack Moreira (owner of Burlington Convention Centre, president of Burlington Hotels & the Burloak Hospitality Management Ltd - also involved w/ Marriott on Burloak)
/6 -Robert Molinaro (Molinaro Group)
-Kartik Ganatra (rep for Sealink Properties)
-Liaquat Mian (LJM Developments).
These were just the developers.
/7 Noteworthy mentions being: Pranav Pandya (CFO at Fendgate Asset Management - infrastructure and real estate financing) and Frank Vismeg (Managing Director and third party involved with Mariott on Burloak).
/8 Out of his entire list of contributors, only 5 could not be tied to development in some way (as far as I could glean). Mike Swartz is a Board Director for Habitat for Humanity as well as Board Director for several National Health Charities (such as Diabetes Canada).
/9 Ed Liptay is the General Manager of Millcroft Golf Club. Ken Szekely is the president & CEO of Mercedes-Benz Burlington. David Medhurst was the CEO of Earth Energy Utility Corp (now defunct & can't find information for anything more).
10/ Last is Philip Papadpoulis who owns California Hair Works in Burlington & ran for mayor in '14.
That is a tragically small list of non-developers - or associates - in comparison.
I've always felt that developers being able to contribute was wrong, but I do know it's legal.
/11 This was bad, but then I searched further. Not only is this his 3rd term as Ward 5 Councillor but he's also the Chair on Burlington's Planning and Development board** & the Council representitive for the Burlington Sustainable Development Advisory Committee!
/12 He fought for a major bus route to be removed because the bus stop was bringing down his house value & I stood in front of him while he said the new mall development in our ward would increase property values for the people who mattered (the owners, not the renters).
/13 People! This is what we get when we aren't involved on a local level. After 3 terms, what has our councillor done that has made our city better? Guaranteed, the majority of people would say Burlington is worse now. So why do we keep voting for it?
/14 For those worried, I don't think he'll be running again. He's been open about his Ontario PC goals. Hopefully this serves as a record to prevent that as well.
For those in Burlington reading this, we deserve better. Someone has to step forward that can offer that.
/15 Receipts! I always bring them:)
burlington.ca/en/your-city/c…
burlington.ca/en/your-city/b…
burlingtongazette.ca/ward-5-council…
(Mostly proving his PC goals, but comments lend credence to the Spruce Line bus stop removal, etc).
(Cont.)
/16 **Our Planning & Development Committee was changed & he is no longer the Chair of the new committee, but was up until the change. Will include the pics that support this. Also including screenshots of his campaign contributors.
/17 Here's the unroll:
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1304894…
#onpoli #Burlington #localgov #HaltonON
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