Raise the Hammer

Smart move. If someone's got dirt on you, better to go public yourself than get caught trying to cover it up.

cya-->Smart move. If someone's got dirt on you, better to go public yourself than get caught trying to cover it up.

Even if it is a year late and you only fessed up when you knew the story was out in the community! That isn't a smart move, that is a desperate attempt to change the channel.

Where is the indignation at Fred's hypocrisy? RTH condemns those it disagrees with and writes this 'pap'. What do you mean "Mayor May Have Contravened..."? Fred himself said he DID contravene. And yet you soft peddle this. Why?

Seems that RTH gives it's political partners an easy ride. Had this been DiIanni, they would be calling for a public execution.

Doesn't really matter, he'll be done this term anyways, he's totally ineffective regardless as is his team of office staff. Just a flash in the pan.

I wouldn't say that Balance. By the time his first term is up, we could very well see construction taking place on Hamilton LRT lines. That alone is a bigger accomplishment than the previous 20 years of mayors combined. Toss in hundreds of millions in downtown development that is taking place, the new Braley medical centre downtown, tons of new hotel proposals and possibly Canada's tallest condo tower...or hopefully, at least a renovated Connaught. Toss in an integrity commissioner and more waterfront development and you're looking at a darn good term.

Not to mention, someone who's up front like this about their mistakes. It's pointless to wonder about how RTH would have covered this with previous mayors becuase they wouldn't have come forward on their own in the first place.

Jason, you are so full of crap...as if any of the things you list are Fred's doing...even the integrity commissioner took him two years to do; and the first one caught in an integrity issue is, you guessed it, Fred!

And if you think that in the next two years LRT is going to be more than talked about, you are not only full of it, but are also a dreamer.

Wake up and smell the coffee..as the Spec asked with a picutre of sad sack Fred, "Is this the look of leadership?" The answer is NO!

oh brother....as if I care about what some fashion stiff from Toronto thinks of the outfit he wore for his news conference. The Spec should be ashamed of themselves for even printing that crap. Let the 'fashion' expert go back to their plastic surgery doctor for another touch-up and leave the leadership critique for those who actually have some substance to their ideas as opposed to mere vanity.

oh, and by the way, I'm not sure where you get off saying I'm full of crap. I'm merely repeating SOME of a decent list of projects that are underway or getting off the ground under the current leadership of Mayor Fred. Doesn't mean he's perfect, or that I'll vote for him again. I have no clue. We'll decide that in a couple years, but you can't call someone 'crap' for simply stating the obvious.

Jason, you do state the obvious! The obvious spin that is.

As I said, wake up and smell the coffee. We have a leadership vacuum at city hall and it isn't just Fred, he's the most obvious.

Look at the spoiler role Bratina and Mchattie played on the Lister.

Brad Clark for next mayor.....

This so-called 'integrity commissioner' reminds of the Ministry of Secrecy in the USSR. The coverups, backrooms and media is bad enough in this city, the ONLY thing we have is whistle-blowers, shutting them up with put a bigger cloud of secrecy over everything.

I'm all for REAL whistle-blowers, who go to the press with their information (even if they hide their own anonymity). But that's not what Clark did. He passed it around to a few people that he thought would be happy to make Fred look bad. That's not accountability, he was trying to do a smear job. The "whistle blower" thing was just an excuse after he got caught.

I agree with Fox40.
Clark wasn't whisteblowing at all. He was simply continuing with this well-established campaign to disagree with Fred on every issue and try to make him look bad at every chance.

As if Fred needs help looking bad. Did you read the letter to the editor of the Spectator saying that all Fred is good for is a 'laugh'! I would laugh if he wasn't so pathetically inept!
Clark did the right thing. He just did it the wrong way!

Jason,

Everything you mention was set in motion well before Mayor Fred. If LRT happens it won't be because of him. The man can't muster any support on way or the other. There is no focus on council because there is no leadership. His idea of concensus is simply to take half steps in any decision. We need a strong leader and hopefully we get that next election.

"Look at the spoiler role Bratina and Mchattie played on the Lister."

I'm GLAD Bratina and McHattie voted the way they did. The Lister deal was dumb, dumb, dumb, too much money for something (office space) we already have a lot of in a building that office space doesn't make much sense. As a taxpayer I'm tired of helping line the pockets of our Developer Friends (TM). Protect the building from getting demolished and let LIUNA figure out how to make money off of it - they're all grownups last time I checked.

I'm confused. McHattie voted for the city's deal, Bratina voted against it. Just how exactly were they the 'spoilers'?

Oops, my bad.

no need to apolgize zach. If you read the Spectator you can't help but automatically assume that McHattie and Bratina are somehow responsible for everything that goes wrong.

Baystreeter's attitude is the problem with Hamilton. Eager to shoot down other people working to make a difference using words they either don't understand or through around so generally they mean nothing.

People need to put up or shut-up. If Baystreeter thinks he can do a better job, then he should stop hiding behind a fake name and put his real name out there and then run for election. It's easy to complain and then sit back in one's arm chair and do nothing. Make a difference in the community is not a spectator sport - leadership is not about always getting your way.

this comment has been updated at the request of the commenter

Lost in all this is the fact that the petty theft to which the Mayor ascribed happened well over a year ago at the abandoned city hall on Main Street.

How on earth does Mayor Fred expect the police to solve a "cold-case" file (TapeGate) that happened a year ago despite the statute of limitations that has already expired?

The odds of success are zero.

On top of that, the political employee who is being "accused" of making the tape with the Mayors consent and leaking it to the press and other councillors, including Brad Clark, is suing the Mayors office for wrongful dismisal.

[two paragraphs removed at the request of the commenter]

That's Hamilton, get used to it.

Hi Jason, I'm sure you have heard from Nicole.

MAW, I’m disappointed in your comments on Raise the Hammer. I did not publish the content of the off the record conversation. In fact, the Spectator will not publish the transcript because it would violate Dreschel’s agreement with the mayor. Other media have published the content. Please retract your incorrect statement.

Nicole

In her story she actually quoted the Mayor.

At the time of the post I didn't know about this:

http://www.hamiltonmountainnews.com/news...

Therefore I would like you to correct the record and kidly ask you to remove the portion of my post mentioning Nicole and the sentence after it mentioning the "pot and the kettle black" please.

The rest is fair comment.