The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

WATERLOO CHRONICLE 886â€"2830 Fax: B86â€"9383 editorial@waterloochronicle.ca sales@waterloochronicle.ca composing@waterloochronicle.ca The Waterloo Chronicie is published every Wednesday by The Fairway Group, a division of Southern Ontario Community Newspapers Inc., a subsidiary of Osprey Media Group Inc. Group Sales Director Indls_-l-w. Dwayne Weidendort Gerry Mattice The views of our columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent those of the newspaper. Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement Number 40050478 75 King St. South, Suite 201 Waterloo, Ontario N2J 1P2 The Waterioo Chronicle welcomes letters to the Editor. They should be signed with name, address and phone number and will be verified for accuracy. No unsigned letters will be published. Submissions may be edited for length. so please be brief Copyright in letters and other mate rials submitted to the Publisher and accepted for publication remains with the author, but the publisher and its licensees may freety repro duce them in print. electronic or other forms. Our mailing address is 75 King St. S . Suite 201. Waterioo N2] 1P2. our eâ€"mail address is editorial@waterloochronicle ca. and our fax number is 886â€"9383 Manager, Ext. 225 Assistant International Standard Serial Number ISSN 0832â€"3410 Andrea Bailey Sabes, Ext. 23 Sabes, Ext. 222 OSPREY 905â€"523â€"5800, Ext. 239 Ken Bosveld Deboreh Crandall ociate Publisher . Editor, Ext. 215 Deb Duffield _ Jean Van Volkenburg Norma (vea Fabienne Viemmix Letters Policy Lynn Bartol Associate Publisher: Audited circulation: 27,538 Sales, 623â€"06 17 Laurie Ridgway simply cannot believe the comments that are Ibeing made by Coun. Bruce Anderson as reportâ€" ed by the Waterloo Chronicle, nor the article published on May 7 in your comment page by Andrea Bailey with respect to the resignation of ‘Tom Stockie. Let us face facts folks. The man did not do his job. He was the CAO of the City of Waterloo when they were entering into one of their biggest finanâ€" cial expenditures ever. He had a clear responsibility that he did not live up to. Worse it appeared he did not admitted to remorse or responsibility until he resigned. He and those under his leadership failed us the taxpayer badly. It has cost you and I â€" the taxpayer â€" tens of millions of dollars. Had he done the honourable thing he would have resigned. I support Mayor Woolstencroft and admire her foresight in asking for Stockie‘s resignation. She clearly realized that his effectiveness to lead the city had diminished greatly after listening to the testimony at the inquiry into the RIM Park financâ€" ing. She also recognized the outrage of the elecâ€" torate about the bungling. I can only wish him well and good health in his future endeavours. I wonder if Andrea Bailey will feel as sorry for the taxpayer who is retired and has little or no extra money to pay the higher taxes we will all face because of this financial mess. Think of those folks when you feel sorry for a man who should have resigned a long time ago then walked away with nearly $750,000. Had I been in the city the night the taxpayers confronted council when they called for Stockie‘s resignation, I would have been proud to have stood in their midst. Coun. Anderson should remember who elected him, the same people who confronted council that night for their waffling and lack of action on the Stockie issue. Stockie did not live up to his responsibilities It is time for a major change in the membership of city council and the gang who were part of takâ€" ing Waterloo from a healthy and prosperous comâ€" munity to one who the accountants tell us has very little financial manoeuvrability as we move forâ€" ward into the future. ouncillors Bruce Anderson and Dave Roeder ' praise former Waterloo CAO Tom Stockie as a good guy and a visionary. He‘s probably both; however, Waterloo didn‘t pay Stockie to be either one of these two things. We paid him to be a competent steward of our tax dollars. But Stockie‘s lack of supervision and lack of tough questioning concerning the MFP/RIM Park financing have already cost us $35 million more than necessary â€" and counting. He even admitted he hadn‘t read the MFP contract, let alone analyze it in a professional accounting way. What‘s also disturbing is that Roeder and Anderson seem to indicate that city managers should get as much as possible in severance and early retirement pay irregardless of their perforâ€" mance. (Maybe these councillors are setting us up for other bad news to come.) Aren‘t city councillors elected to spend the purse wisely; not blindly agree with excessively expensive employment contracts? . Stockie wasn‘t hired to be a visionary Peter and Wavy Grainger, VIEWPOINT Bob Beausoleil, It‘s the May 24 holiday again, but, boy, the weather hasn‘t looked it. Only a few days have looked like spring has really sprung. Let‘s see nowâ€"the holiday always sees the first mass arrests at the lake, the first rash of fataliâ€" ties on the roads and the first robin expiring in the first burst of air pollution. And, yes, with a little bit of luck, we‘ll get our first sunburn right over our frostbite. All Together Now: This shouldn‘t be the biggest surprise of the year, but the City of Waterâ€" loo is going to have a rough go for the next 10 years. That was an analyst‘s revelation to one of the closing sessions of the probe into the RIM Park financing fooferaw. What was said has been painfully obvious now for quite some time. That is that the city will not have any spare cash and will have to pinch pennies so it will have some means of coping with emergencies. There is no suggestion yet that all citizens should get together and take the community‘s bottles back to the store. But you can bet, there will be appeals for conâ€" certed action. Maybe it‘ll be one urging you to keep your library books averdue for a couple |g of weeks. If everyone did that, it‘d R amount to a fair penny. Ohd Or if everyone tarmed too long at a parking spot. That‘d put real money into the police coffers. Whoops! That dough goes into the regional pot so it wouldn‘t help. Still, you get the idea. There are lots of spots where we can conâ€" tribute something extra to Waterloo. Some of them are painfully eviâ€" dent. For example, the councilliors could resolve not to stage any more hearings that cost buckets of dough. And also resoive not to sign more sweetheart employee contracts with farewell clauses that cost hundreds Sure, there are simple things that will take the dent out of the bankroll. For instance, a lot of Waterioo gals and guys live together without pledging marriage vows. Now if all of them decided to wed, what they spent on marriage licences would ease Water Such folk can get married earty in the momnâ€" ing, That way if it doesn‘t work out. they haven‘t wasted the whole day. Snake Bitten: Ontario‘s PCs seem to have perfected the habit of shooting themselves in the feet. First, there was the budget delivered in a machine shop, and that stirred a storm. Now, there‘s the $236 billion in estimates detivered as an order in council and allegediy There are few signs that spring has sprung SANDY The Tories have denied there was any hankyâ€" panky in the deal, but it‘s still offâ€"beat enough to leave you with doubt. If they were planning all this as launch ramps to an election, they sure picked devices of dubiâ€" ous help. In an election that would be close, it‘s imperative that you espouse the issues crisply oneâ€"twoâ€"three. You don‘t want to try something new, try something fuzzy, or try something that could be construed as sleazy. Judging by the way the PCs are proceeding, they‘d be wise to put the election off for three or four years. Of course, that can‘t be done so the Tories had better quickly plead guilty to everyâ€" thing they can. Incidentally, the mockingbird can change its tune 87 times in seven minutes. Politicians regard this interesting fact with envy. _ Salary Tonic: Let‘s quit pretending times are that tough, at least in these parts. The folks who sort out the numbers say that Waterloo region has the sixth highest annual income for all Canaâ€" da. That‘s good when you figure how many plush counties there are elsewhere. And now, thanks to the folks who draw the pictures, you can see in income, it‘s likety to cause people to wonder if there is anything else peculiar about you. And nothing makes it harder to live within your income than being paid what you‘re really worth. Fiveâ€"Finger Discount: A couâ€" pie of handsâ€"up blokes are busy at convenience shops, this time in Cambridge. Folks may chalk them DY up as mere nuisances, but they can D be much more than that. Given that they‘re amateurs (a reasonable assumption), they‘re apt to choke up in the commission of the holdup That‘s how come so many of the cowards the court. Then they become poor souls who didn‘t mean to hurt anyone. Any bully, probably masked, who invades a shop waving a knife, gun, hatchet or similar implement, is worthy of a stay in a cell. ‘Even if they don‘t face attacks, store staffers who have to face their threats are often left nerâ€" I suppose some folks think judges are getting tougher on the young thugs because they‘re commit a man‘s crime is old enough to take a 3 We enc ons i I take a different view: Anyone old enough to bourhood rates compared to a few