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4 stouflvme suntribune saturday dec 2 2006 attention community organizations are you looking for free materials bowes severance package doesnt reflect status quo imagine retiring volun tarily and in addition to your pension collect ing 204355 in sever ance pay not likely you dont get severance pay if you choose to leave clearly your name is not bill bell or don cousens the two longserving mayors will leave office with severance packages from both their municipality and york region mr bell gets 145854 for his 26 years of service in richmond hill and 58501 for his 18 years on regional council mr cousens gets 103273 from markham and 43458 from the region since both men are over 65 they can also start col lecting retirement benefits from the ontario municipal employees retirement sys tem and while were looking at lifetimes of public service what about a politician who dedicated 29 years to repre senting his community harry bowes was whitchurchstouffvilles public school trustee for 23 years chairperson of the board for several of them and a councillor for six after reluctantly deciding not to run his severance is valued at 9700 had he done his public service a few miles south in markham hed have received about 29000 had he done it a few miles to the west in aurora he would have received nothing and if he was in my job and probably yours hed have received nothing too it doesnt make much sense does it but the other mayor who is stepping down missed the gravy train tom taylor who has served newmarket for 42 years receives only his regional council severance of 43458 he tried to change the policy back in august but his local council voted against him aurora and east gwillimbury also refuse to grant severance pay to politicians i can understand why mayors in the large urban municipalities to the south make considerably more than their northern counter parts but it hardly seems fair that politicians in the south collect handsome sev erance pay from their tax payers while the ones in the north dont payment of severance is a principle and since its based on the individuals salary it affects each town jel itibtaflnk 9 david teetzel the same but if you ask me every municipality in york region has it wrong i think they should all provide severance pay to politicians on the same basis that private companies pro vide severance to employ ees i dont begrudge michael di biase any of the 108180 he is likely to receive from vaughan taxpayers if he leaves office because he is leaving involuntarily now theres an understatement and i think its unfair defeated aurora mayor tim jones wont get a red cent from local taxpayers there companies offer sever ance packages to employees who are laid off or fired and its perfectly fair to give a defeated politician money to help in the transition to new employment provided the politician wanted to contin ue working but a politician who chooses to leave office should not receive this perk this generosity with pub lic funds went to the farthest extreme when vaughan ended up in a legal fight with the family of former mayor lorna jackson over whether or not severance should be paid after she died in office now one can argue these longserving politicians have poured their lives into their community and deserve something but in the real world sev erance pay is not a reward for a job well done often its quite the opposite and in terms of commu nity honours mr cousens certainly received his share the other week he received a set of office furniture and a lifetime golf pass from appreciative local business people and everything from the markham bypass and a wing of markham stouffville hos pital to a meeting room at the markham board of trade will be named in his honour all of these are absolutely appropriate but i question taxpayers being required to chip in leave anonymous tips by phone or online cash rewards for anonymous tips that lead to an arrest 1800222tips or wwwcrimestoppersyrca this message brought to you as a community service of the economistsuntribune