Minor jabs exchanged at Beaconsfield seniors' meet

The tone remained polite at a Beaconsfield mayoral candidates' meeting organized exclusively for seniors at the city's lawn bowling annex on Wednesday, even as the three hopefuls snuck in subtle digs at each other while representatives of the town's blue-collar workers' union whistled and chanted outside, reminding attendees that they have been on strike for over a month.

Early on, Hela Labene and David Pollock tried to build on a theme in their separate comments, each stating the incumbent Bob Benedetti has run an administration over the last four years that has been lacking in respect for residents.

"We got back our city three years ago but we never truly got back out city," said Pollock, who was first elected to council in 2005.

He said many council meetings in Beaconsfield are marked by the presence of unhappy citizens who feel as if the sitting mayor does not listen to their concerns, noting the example of Claire Sargent. The Pointe Claire resident was fined approximately $2,000 three years ago for cutting down some vine overgrowth on the wall of the lawn bowling annex and then asked for a reimbursement as she noticed the vine growing back on its own, even though the city had claimed a large part of the fees she had paid were to replace them.

"Even she agreed she should have gotten the ticket," Pollock said. "But she came to council meetings for two years saying she paid her $2,000 ticket, and it never got replaced."

The mayor only responded to her once the situation made some headlines this summer, he said.

Meanwhile, Labene, a political neophyte, brought up an overzealous public security apparatus and their strong-armed enforcement of the city's parking bylaws.

"All these public security officers, all they do is collect tickets," she said. She threw around the figures of $50,000 collected in 2007 and $7,000 this year, without specifying where she took them. "That's half a million dollars," she said of the combined figures together, perhaps underscoring her difficulty in communicating fluently in English.

"The administration has taken over, few people are doing all the jobs. They don't respect us," she added.

Labene also attempted to score some points when an audience member brought up the ongoing blue collars' strike. "I believe this whole thing is part of the (respect) problem," she said.

Pollock and Benedetti both explained the union went on strike based on the fact the city did not want to hire 10 more permanent employees over the 23 it has now. Pollock, however, also brought up the salary increase council gave itself in 2007—which he had been the only one to vote against—as well as a tax increase in 2006 as possible impediments to negotiation.

"It's hard to tell people that money is an issue in Beaconsfield when you've had a 30 per cent tax increase and council a year later voted themselves—a majority voted themselves a 20 per cent salary increase," Pollock added.

"I find it interesting the salary (increase) crept into there," said Benedetti. In 2007, the raise gave his mayor's salary a $10,000 boost to $30,000, and councillors began to earn $10,000, roughly $2,000 more than they used to. Though Pollock voted against the increase, he earned it too, since the vote was otherwise unanimously for it.

Benedetti said he met with the blue-collar union's president, Michel Parent over lunch in May, and the latter made it clear the council's salary increase was no issue. "He said 'I don't think my guys want to work for less than minimum wage and be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Benedetti said.

Still, after the city's penultimate council meeting in September, Benedetti and Beaconsfield's director-general Patrice Boileau had conceded there was one possible scenario where some among the blue-collar workers stood to lose $5 an hour of their salaries, although both said they were trying their best to avoid the scenario. "We're trying not to play hardball," the incumbent had said.

Pollock also criticized Benedetti over the latter's several projects for the city.

"[I'm not] in favour of building a brand-new library and then using the existing library for administrative and cultural space," Pollock said.

He added the library project, an indoor-outdoor skating rink, and two synthetic field turf soccer fields are too much of a burden for taxpayers. "That's too many projects. I think in this community, we should have a discussion, a consultation," he said, and to only move ahead with those ideas that people can agree on.

After the debate, Benedetti defended his 'wishlist' of projects. "It's things that Beaconsfield needs to keep our recreation, leisure and culture department competitive," he said.

He added the real-estate market for the city are young families with children approaching high school age. "They want to move to the West Island," he said. "Beaconsfield is a very attractive place to them, and we have to offer competitive service." He said he has largely been trying to seek grants from the province for most of the projects, to keep the city's own expenditures at a minimum.

The artificial skating rink project is one of those included in the city's three-year capital expenditures program presented at the end of 2008. It was marked as a $350,000 expenditure from the city, with an additional $50,000 paid for by a Hydro Quebec program for municipalities.

The debate was hosted by the Beaconsfield Beaurepaire Seniors Group, and only those 60 and over were admitted. It will likely be the last opportunity for the three mayoral rivals to debate in public, after arrangements for a previous debate with a wider audience fell through.