Hall Marks with Emma Reilly

Lakeport fallout

There's been an interesting email thread circulating this afternoon about the Lakeport closure. It seems the news prompted another public email battle between Councillors Sam Merulla and Bob Bratina.

It started when Dave Kuruc, the owner of Mixed Media on James St. North, wrote to council urging them to advertise a boycott of Labatt:

Subject: Labatt closing Lakeport - another slap to the face of Hamilton
Dear Mayor and current Council,

I wanted to pass along my feelings of utter sadness and anger that we are losing another large employer in Hamilton. The announcement today that Labatt's is dismantling the Lakeport operation should come as no surprise. Their interest wasn't in Hamilton when they made the purchase a few years ago - we could all see that meant doom for the brewery and it's employees.

I wanted to pass along a poster circulating on Facebook I created calling for a local boycott on Labatt products and other beers they produce. This is getting quite a bit buzz online and I hope as a city we can make an impact on their sales.

I hope to hear from you as what our community can do to soften the blow by these large corporations leaving town.

The time is now,
Dave Kuruc

And here's the poster he included. (Apparently posters are the protest medium of choice for Hamiltonians these days!)

Councillor Bob Bratina responded:
The boycott is premature. We can use Labatt Market share to leverage the retention of the production facilities. Labatt has stated as I feared that the brewing equipment will be dismantled.  This has to be stopped to allow future operation. Please withhold rash actions until a strategy is determined. 
Bob Bratina

Which prompted this from Councillor Sam Merulla:
With all do respect Councillor Bratina I must support Dave Kuruc in this endeavour. We must act sooner rather than later. This is too important of an issue to simply sit on our hands.
Thank You,
Councillor Sam Merulla


Bratina shot back:
This is the guy who said Hilton works would never open again publicly in Council, propbably scaring a lot of workers to take early retirement. Use your head


Back to Merulla:
I'm saddened that Councillor Bratina continues to personalize issues rather than working collectively toward a resolution rather than the dysfunctional dialogue that I refuse to participate in or condone. Furthermore Hilton Works and Nanticoke US steel plants are running at skeleton crew levels.  We must protect all manufacturing factors jobs rather than the pathetic political posturing you are displaying Councillor Bratina. I look forward to working with the Mayor and Council on finding real solutions. You can abandon the meeting as you have in the past but please no projectiles.

He then added in another email:
I'm just trying to help. No need to personalize issues.

And Bratina again:
I hope there are sensible people on this list who realize that the only thing that might be salvaged is the production equipment, which Labatt says will be dismantled.  We now have to confront them with the only bargaining chip we have...beer consumption. 


Merulla responded:
Labbatts  purchased Lakeport to swallow the competition as a direct result of corporate greed. The last thing Labbatts will facilitate is the sale of the Brewery or its equipment for Brewery purposes. Also  you might want to research the significant contributing factors the NAFTA agreement has played a role in the demise of this brewery. Just recently their London Ont location was prevented from providing Labbatt products south of the border which in essence decreased their volume of product produced thereby running their London Ont plant at minimum capacity. The only language these corporate giants understand is a loss in their bottom line and a boycott with full participation of Hamilton residents will go along way in reaching them and gaining their attention. I hope this helps. 

Then a journalist from Sportsnet shot this email:
Must our assignment desk e-mail be subjected to this?

To which Merulla replied:
Yes if you are in the news business.

Lakeport closing

It's another sad day in Hamilton. Lakeport Brewery announced it's closing April 30 and putting 143 people out of work. Read the full story here, and watch for updates throughout the day and in tomorrow's paper.

In a release, owner Labatt said the decision is “the result of the need to improve operating efficiency in a demanding market and the unexpected excess capacity in (our) brewing network”.

It was only a few weeks ago that Siemens announced it was moving south - a move that cost the city 550 jobs. Even with victories like the Canada Bread announcement that will bring 300 new positions to Hamilton, we're still facing a net job loss.

What do you think? Why do businesses keep closing? Can Hamilton recover?

D-Day

It's provincial budget day, folks, and that means we'll soon find out whether Hamilton will get the $14.2 million it needs to keep property taxes to two per cent. Read the full story here.

There's been a lot of speculation over the past few months about whether or not we would get this funding. Back in October, the city was already wringing its hands about whether the cash would come through. At the time, Mayor Fred Eisenberger said he wasn't "getting warm and fuzzy feelings" from the province about this year's grant. All signs were pointing to a 'no.'

However, a few things have changed since then. My colleague Andrew Dreschel argued last week that the recent cabinet appointment of MPP Sophia Aggelonitis will help our chances.

"McGuinty knows he'll be facing a political dust storm anytime he pulls the rug out from under Hamilton's request for the special grant," Dreschel writes. "But it became politically impossible for him to do so after he chose the popular Aggelonitis to replace her mentor, MPP Ted McMeekin, as Hamilton's cabinet minister. ...It would have flattened Aggelonitis before she'd even had a chance to gain her feet."

Let's hear your predictions. Will the province come through like they have before? Or will this be the year that Hamilton is left high and dry?

Marathon meetings

I consider myself pretty lucky to cover City Hall for the Spec. I've been on the beat for about six months now, and I've found it to be some the most interesting and challenging reporting I've ever done. One of the most frequent comments I get from people when I tell them about my job is "Isn't it boring to sit through those meetings?" But the thing is, there's so much going on at City Hall that most days just fly by.

Most days, that is, except every second Tuesday.

That's when I attend the city's Economic Development and Planning committee meetings. They start at 9:30 a.m., and we're often not out of here until 5 or 6 p.m. (To put it in perspective, most other meetings last a few hours tops). The agendas for these meetings are so thick that I have a file cabinet in my desk that's already packed to the brim with pages and pages of Ec Dev and Planning reports. 

Today, for example, there are several huge items coming before committee, including:
-The contentious St. Joseph's Villa condo decision
-A rundown of the Hamilton's urban and rural official plans
-A discussion of the Eramosa Karst
-A vote on a new pilot program to crack down on shabby rental properties
-An in-camera session about land acquisition in Glanbrook

Not only can these marathon meetings be exhausting, but I find their length really affects the decisions made by the committee. The councillors get really punchy after a long day. Decorum starts to crumble, tempers flare, and decisions can be rushed or defferred just to make sure everyone gets out of there before 8 p.m.

There's been some talk about breaking up the two departments and having seperate Planning and Ec Dev committees. I, for one, think that's a great idea.

What do you think? Do you have any suggestions about surviving eight-hour committee meetings?

A poster is worth a thousand words

Hi folks - I'm back from my blog-cation with an interesting topic for you today. I first noticed these posters at art crawl Friday night and immediately knew I wanted to do a story about them. Graham Crawford, the founder of History and Heritage Gallery, has created a series of posters criticizing the city hall renovations. They all feature the tagline "Lloyd Ferguson - the plastic pink flamingo on the front lawn of heritage."

City Hall renovations chair Lloyd Ferguson said he understands that public figures have to face criticism from time to time, but to him, the posters border on libel. Read the full story here.

So, what do you think? Are the posters fair game? Or are they a little too personal?

Another one bites the dust

It's official: Councillor Tom Jackson won't run for mayor.
Andrew Dreschel's wrote about this in his column today. Here's a little snippet for those of you who haven't read it.
 
Hamilton's mayoral race is turning into a belly crawl.

Councillor Tom Jackson is the latest potential contender who has decided not to pursue the top job in the October election.

Jackson's announcement comes short weeks after businesswoman Teresa Cascioli also ruled out running against Mayor Fred Eisenberger.

That leaves Ancaster Councillor Lloyd Ferguson as the only publicized high-profile candidate still contemplating taking on Eisenberger.

Ferguson, who is clearly agonizing over the decision, is expected to say yea or nay sometime in the spring.

If it's nay, Eisenberger may end up squaring off solely against Church of the Universe pot advocate Michael Baldasaro, a perennial mayoral candidate and the only person so far to have formally registered.

The deadline for signing up isn't until Sept. 10. But to mount a serious city-wide campaign, a candidate will need to get cracking no later than late spring.

And with Jackson now out of the picture, there's not even a whisper of any other credible contender, aside from Ferguson, who's thinking of taking the plunge.

Thoughts?

PS - Folks, the last time we talked about the mayoral race, things got a little nasty. I want to remind you to keep your comments professional.

Is this thing on?

Councillor Lloyd Ferguson is ashamed of the city's microphones.

During yesterday's marathon discussion of the St. Joseph's Villa condo, the mics were crackly, spotty, or very quiet. Several petered out midway through presentations from community members. I would estimate the city went through about five or six separate mics throughout the course of the public delegations.

"I am tired of being embarrassed by this public microphone," said a clearly frustrated Ferguson yesterday. "I'm going to take it to the city manager to get him to take ownership of this thing."

Ferguson then moved to ask the city manager's office to fix the mic by the next meeting. I hope they hear him loud and clear.

Snow woes

When Hamilton was hit with the first big snowstorm of the year last week, was your street plowed?

At yesterday's public works meeting, several councillors weighed in on the snow plowing efforts in their wards. Russ Powers told the committee that he was "not a happy camper" because several streets in Dundas were left untouched. Tom Jackson, Lloyd Ferguson, and several other councillors also mentioned they had problems with snow clearing in their wards.

However, other councillors said the snow clearing in their wards went like clockwork. Sam Merulla said he didn't have any plowing problems at all, and none of the other councillors at the public works meeting yesterday piped up about uncleared streets. It seems like some areas of the city got plowed and others were left hanging.

What was your snow-clearing experience like last week? How would you rate Hamilton's snow-clearing overall?