January 20, 2012

Mayor Fontana and City Council,

It is with great regret that I am writing this letter as I'd much rather be writing a letter to praise the work of London's City Council but have had little to no reasons over the past year to do so.

I have never in the past and will never in the future support a 0% tax increase. I believe this to be an un-realistic and short-sighted goal that not only stunts growth in a city but sets a community up for future failure. As someone who has chosen to make London their home and *hoped* to be here for years to come I can only see how this decision contributes to creating a stagnant community, satisfying the status-quo and does not address the needs of the community and its members beyond the next four years.

Although I cannot support this initiative, as outline above, I can on the other hand respect and support Council's efforts to work towards achieving the goals they set out even if I do not believe they represent what is best for the community or what the majority of London's citizens wanted or need. Perhaps I am wrong in my understanding of the *benefits* of the 0% tax increase and only see the negatives, so I *had* faith that Council would be leaders and take our city in the right direction.

It is because of the respect I have for council that I could support the cutting from this year's budget the request for $80 000 for a staff member to work on engagement. During these times when Council has identified no money for needed services or growth in our community I understand and respect that money needs to be cut, regardless of what it may be used for. So while I was part of the Community Engagement Task Force (CETF) and believe that this role is important to creating and increasing the engagement element that our city so badly needs, I can understand and accept that this item was cut from the budget.

With that said, I cannot respect, support or keep quiet when $50,000 is requested by the Mayor and gains support to add community engagement help in his office in order to handle town meetings, receptions with the community, additional communications support.

While no doubt these things are important on certain levels I think that engagement experts, your more than qualified city staff and members of the public would agree that if there is money to be spent on an engagement piece (regardless of the amount) it would much better be allocated to staff resources so ensure that engagement is part of all processes within the City of London and not simply that of the Mayor's office and City Council.

I had the opportunity to sit in on the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee meeting on January 9, 2012 while the final Community Engagement Policy and Recommendations were presented by Elaine Gamble. I not only heard support from the members of this committee (essentially City Council) but concerns about its implementation. 

Councillor Branscombe brought up the concern that the policy and the efforts made to implement it be more than simply lip service and Councillor Usher was concerned about what resources may be available to support such engagement initiatives, both which are very good points. This is why I am not only concerned but ashamed and in some ways outraged that this week decisions were made and money allocated that pays little respect or consideration to both the support and concerns that Councillors themselves have expressed.

It appears that even in this period where a 0% tax increase made zero sense there are resources to increase the engagement with the city in some capacity, but it also appears that Council is more concerned simply about increasing **its own** engagement rather than being concerned with engagement as a priority for the City of London as an organization on the whole.

While I don't speak for Ms. Gamble, any other CETF members or the citizens of London, I strongly believe that the decisions recently made in regards to this *engagement funding* were short-sighted, inappropriate and do not actually have the best interest of our community, the city of London in mind. In my personal and humble opinion council, as the leader of our city, just took one of the biggest steps in dis-engaging not only myself but City of London staff, volunteers and citizens across our community.

Sincerely,

Kevin Van Lierop

519-871-9052
kevin@kevinvanlierop.com
www.kevinvanlierop