Corporation is good

January 31, 2010

Dear Sir,

I am a voter in the Corporation of Hamilton. I own land in the City and run a business.

I believe that every person who lives in the City of Hamilton should be able to vote in the City elections. I also believe that if you own a business in Hamilton, you should also have a say in who gets elected, just like any other City in the world.

I like the fact that the Corporation collects my trash twice a day and when I turn on the faucet, water runs out and when the toilets are flushed, the waste is treated and goes somewhere. I enjoy clean sidewalks and streets and effective lighting and good policing through the use of CCTV surveillance and the introduction of City Rangers.

I appreciate the fact that City Hall is opened for the arts and all of us and that there are controls in place for parking. I learned that the Corporation has a "say" in what future buildings throughout the City should look like even though it appears that the Government Planning board ignores their comments (example: the SDO for the John Swan ten-storey building). I also appreciate how the Corporation respects the Cathedral height and wants to maintain the façade of Front Street. I am thrilled to hear that the Waterfront Development will be mainly open space for all of us to enjoy; I do not want casinos or for it to look like Atlantic City or Miami Beach.

I simply do not trust this Government anymore. I do not want them to spend $800,000 on US Attorneys to "review" how the Corporation works. If the Government wants to know how well the Corporation works, all they have to do is read the Corporations' financial statements and that will tell the tale.

The Financial statements can be seen on line at www.cityhall.bm

A CITY OF HAMILTON VOTER

Stand up for City

February 17, 2010

Dear Sir,

I am tired of all of the ugly stuff going on in Bermuda.

This is no longer the land I grew up in. I am also tired of the fact that most of us are just sitting back and watching it all happen in the hope that someone else will stand up and fight for what's right.

The gangs, crime, theft, corruption, lies, and sheer lack of values, lack of parenting, and lack of responsibility is painful to watch.

The latest being the attempt by this Government to take over the Corporation of Hamilton and the Premier and Mr. Roban spending $800,000 of our hard earned money on American lawyers makes me sick.

Using a Washington D.C. -based law firm (McKenna, Long & Aldridge) first of all is a slap in the face against every Bermudian British-trained lawyer on this Island and the Bermuda Bar Association should be screaming from the rooftops! Have they been issued with work permits? On what grounds?

Minister Roban and the Premier are trying to confuse all of us by interchanging two very different words Reform and Repeal.

Reform means "change" and Repeal means "abolish". If Mr. Roban is now changing his tune to "reform", then why did he hire the local firm of Attride-Sterling who are insolvency practitioners?

I want to know how much our Cabinet Ministers know of this deal. Are they asking the right questions of their leader or is this just another "we had to mislead you" deal just like the Uighur-Guantanamo debacle. I want to hear from you Minister Cox. If you are to be Bermuda's next leader, where do you stand on this? I have a right to know as a voter in your constituency.

Our tiny island is in horrific debt, close to $1 billion. How are we going to pay off this debt? I think that if you make the decision to take over the Corporation of Hamilton which is debt free and has been fiscally responsible with taxpayers' money for years, that the value of all of their assets and land that the Corporation owns will suddenly make the Government's balance sheet look good!

My sense of values tells me that this is cheating, irresponsible, constitutionally wrong and immoral. For the good of this island, I urge the Ministers of this Cabinet to unite and stand up for what's right for this City.

YES TO REFORM, NO TO REPEAL

City of Hamilton