After screwing up a deal with the Calgary Flames to get a new arena, mayor Jyoti Gondek, along with her leftist councillors, refused even to consider a pay freeze on their vastly overvalued salaries.
Indeed, despite ruining a deal that was practically set in stone, Gondek apparently believes she deserves a raise for her poor performance.
The proposal was initially brought forward on Sunday by Councilor Dan McLean and a coalition of other Conservative councillors but was quickly slapped down by Gondek and her fellow socialists, not even making it to the agenda for Monday’s meeting.
“Wow, strong opposition by some on City Council to my Motion to freeze councils pay,” Councilor Dan McLean wrote in a Tweet. “The Mayor didn’t even let it come to the Council floor!”
“I challenged The Mayor’s ruling, however Council voted 9-6 in favour to block my Motion. New raises come in to effect next month.”
Previously, the second-place candidate in the last mayoral election, Jeromy Farkas, led the charge for a pay freeze, arguing that lowering government spending, including his own salary, would free up funds to spend on Calgarians’ quality of life.
“Council is due for an estimated 2.3 per cent pay increase in 2019,” Farkas wrote in 2018. “I proposed a 5 per cent reduction, which failed because no Council member seconded it. The pay freeze was also rejected.”
Farkas was then kicked out of a council meeting by then-mayor Naheed Nenshi. God forbid a councillor tries to alert the public to the greed of their representatives.
Gondek, of course, doesn’t believe in pay freezes and instead enjoys the age-old practice of taxing her constituents to death and exploiting the charity of her city’s hockey team.
