At the final meeting to nail down Hamilton’s 2023 budget, a motion to increase councillors’ budgets by $40,000 per year was defeated on a tie vote. Now the matter is before Hamilton Council again with a motion by Waterdown Councillor Ted McMeekin who wants to donate Waterdown’s share of OLG proceeds from Flamborough Racetrack to a fund to supplement Council office budgets. He is proposing that $260,000 from the Flamborough Capital Reserve Fund be divvied up between the 15 wards—which would work out to approximately $17,000 per ward, if the councillor is interested in accepting the funds.
His motion is seconded by Councillor Cameron Kroetsch, who initially sponsored a motion to increase the ward budgets by $75,000, then dropped it to the $40,000 that was voted down last month. The motion says councillors’ budgets have “been inadequate to meet the growing demands for ongoing discussion, communication, research, consultation, engagement, citizen empowerment and community building; (and) “the workload of Councillors and their staff has expanded in ways that can limit their ability to serve Hamiltonians effectively.”
The motion also calls on Hamilton’s City Manager and Executive Director of Human Resources “to undertake a comprehensive review of the appropriate ongoing financing and staffing levels related to Ward Office Budgets and report back to General Issues Committee prior to its consideration of the 2024 operating budget.”
“He is proposing that $260,000 from the Flamborough Capital Reserve Fund be divvied up between the 15 wards”. That revenue from OLG was already taken into account when they approved the 2023 budget. Using it for something it wasn’t intended for is foolish and an experienced politician should know better.