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york co defers hodgson judicial review may be called to look into land deal tracykibble staff reporter york region officials may ask an ontario judge to investigate the docu ments on a land deal acquisition that has left engineering commissioner bob hodgson under suspension hodgson was suspended april 2 after refusing to resign over allega tions he recommended council spend nearly 800000 for land in richmond hill in exchange for approval of an affordable housing subdivision offi cials say they could have obtained the land from developer alfredo degasperisfor2 york wants the land to complete a 10 million railway overpass although a formal hearing was to take place in newmarket thursday at 2 pm officials decided after one hour of private session that they would not deal with the matter instead council voted 163 in favor of holding a special council meeting next week in hopes ontario attorney general howard hampton will assign a judge to the case without delaying the matter hodgsons lawyer ronald r bohm of the richmond hill firm stong blackburn machon was furious his client would not be heard and accused council of treating hodgson unlaw fully i was told this matter would be dealt with today now you want to put off what everyone has been waiting to hear your suggestion that this should be put to a judicial hearing is not nec essary there are facts before you that clear this man bbhni told council bohm added hodgson has dealt fair ly with council since the suspension and has avoided revealing his com ments until the hearing he has refrained from making piecemeal statements to the press because his loyalty is to you bohm added why spend tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars because we all know judicial hearings drag on is it in the interest of council to drag this on and have this in the press for months lets put this matter behind us and get on with the business at york region bohm concluded some councillors wanted assurances the matter wouldnt drag on before supporting a resolution to take the matter tothe province perhaps were acting hastily on this all of us feel extremely uncom fortable that this may drag on said vaughan mayor lorna jackson king mayor margaret britnell whitchurchstouffville mayor fran sainsbury and richmond hill coun cillor frank endean were the only councillors to vote against deferring the matter officials will discuss the matter april 18 during a special meeting when council will decide whether a judge should be appointed to the case want to tell story hodgson anxious to tell his side of the story york regions engineering commis sioner bob hodgson is very disap pointed council deferred a hearing v thursday until next week hodgson has been suspended until april 18 when york region council will decide whether they will turn the matter over to an ontario judge 7 but hodgson and his lawyer ronald p bohm of richmond hill are angry council has put the matter off i just want to tell my story thats what i came here for hodgson told the weekender hodgson who has been yorks com missioner since 1973 was supported by his mother wife and three sons at the hearing his family sat with the rest of the public and press for more than one hour while council deliberat ed twice in private before announcing they would not hold the hearing when the weekender asked if he was nervous hodgson admitted it wasnt the happiest day of his life but said he just wanted the suspension lifted and a chance to tell his side of the story bohm called the suspension unlaw ful and requested an immediate reinstatement of his client i have put information in from of council that says he has done nothing wrong but they would rather have someone else deal with it bohm said he added he was denied access to certain information from regional offices because he was told the matter would be dealt with april 2 these meetings behind closed doors its cruel to delay this matter when bob hodgson should have the opportunity to have his story told stouffville residents face 49 tax hike tracy kibble staff reporter whitchurchstouffville council unanimously approved at 49 per cent tax hike this week a three per cent decrease from last year council in 1990 settled for a 7 j per cent mill rate and officials expressed satisfaction in this years modest budget increase a 49 per cent hike would mean a 2161 increase on an average 21000 assessment or an annual tax exclud ing sewers of 46240 town staff deserves credit for bringing this budget down to 49 per cent this is excellent considering were in a recession said ward 4 councillor wayne emmerson who chaired the monday night budget meeting with department heads we wont be able to do all things but well definitely be able to do some now we can get on with summer pro jects emmerson said distribution of 1 of property tax based on 190 rates and mayor fran sainsbury said whitchurchstoufivilles budget is real istic and noted the 49 per cent figure was lower than markhams 55 per cent and york regions 64 per cent increases ward 6 councillor jim sanders added the budget was well put together and noted the gst added 265000 to the budget a significant amount staff whittled away so much even cut into reserve accounts this budget is cutting close to the line noted ward 5 councillor doug alles this budget is lower than inflation which is at about five per cent alles added it takes into consideration the trou bles bur citizens are experiencing and i sincerely hope we dont have to paytor it in future budgets alles said for each tax dollar 66 cents pays for education 22 cents for municipal ser vices and 12 cents for regional costs including fire and police see chart whitchurchstouffville taxpayers are faced with the 49 per cent hike for local services 2161 and a 64 per cent hike for regional services 24 regional wtombnt ax cents 0 boards altlloltltii s cents bohm said outside council chambers bohm told reporters hodgson has had this matter hanging over him like a sword and had many assurances he would be heard he added the judicial hearing is a copout of councirresponsibility its a shame to spend thousands of taxpayers dollars but its always better to have someone else to make the decisions for you richmond hill councillor frank endean who voted not to defer the matter told reporters it was markharh mayor tony roman who initiated the last minute idea to call for a judicial hearing we should have gone ahead today to allow the man to speak hes been under a cloud and has every right to have his day endean said when asked if the land council paid 783000 for was worth 2 as alledged by officials bohm said do you know anybody that would give you 1 million for free if so introduce me before leaving the building hodg son told reporters that after this exten sion of his suspension he would not secondguess anything council did cr tracy kibble mcnmhelps local hungry looking to help the community mcneil pharmaceutical has donated 1000 to the whitchurchstouffville foodbank wsf along with the donation mcneil is setting up an internal food drive so employees may contribute goods to the foodbank its a sensational idea said cricket forfar public relations director for wsf id love to see any large corporation doing internal food drives said forfar the donated money will be used for restocking the wsf shelves with staple foods including powdered milk and baby formula the money will also help to stock the shelves with items that cannot be donat- ed such as meats and fresh vegetables index comment page 4 letters page 5 crossword page 12 motion page 1924 sports page 25 26 entertainment page 27 28 classifieds page 3542 l rtmtmiwa yyv 7 rc r 1