Bernie Morelli

Friday, January 24, 2014

Friday, January 24, 2014Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday, January 24, 2014

Could former mayor Morrow fill Ward 3 vacancy?

(By Andrew Dreschel) Hamilton councillors are considering appointing former mayor Bob Morrow to replace Ward 3 Councillor Bernie Morelli, who died last week.

Morrow, Hamilton’s longest serving mayor, declined to comment until more time has passed.

“I think I would rather remember Bernie at this time.”

Bob Morrow’s job in 2001

But Councillor Sam Merulla says he’s privately broached the subject with Morrow, who seems open to the idea as long as the decision is undivided and without squabbling.

According to Merulla, he and Councillor Tom Jackson are quietly trying to build unanimous support. Merulla has also raised the prospect with Morelli’s family.

“Based on my preliminary discussions with family members, they’re very happy about the idea and look forward to it coming to fruition.”

Under provincial legislation council must declare Morelli’s office vacant no later than Feb. 12 and then decide within 60 days to appoint a replacement or call a byelection.

In the case of a byelection, city election manager Tony Fallis says a nomination day for candidates to register must be set no more than 60 days after the race is called. Election day would then be 45 days after nomination day.

That means if council were to opt for a byelection at its Feb. 12 meeting, nomination day would be April 14 and election day May 29.

Given that a full municipal election is on Oct. 27, Councillor Terry Whitehead says councillors are leaning to appointing for the sake of candidates and Ward 3’s 40,000 residents.

Whitehead argues it wouldn’t be fair to saddle candidates with the cost of two elections — “which could be $20,000 each” — within five months. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator)

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Thursday December 13, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Thursday December 13, 2012

Toronto sets a good tone on police budget

A confidential report says Congratulations to Toronto’s police board, which had the gumption to nix a 2 per cent budget increase, voting instead to freeze its budget for 2013. Let’s hope that puts some pressure on the Hamilton Police Services Board to rein in the budget here.

There needs to be more than a little wiggle room in Chief Glenn De Caire’s requested 5.25 per cent increase, which is substantially higher than the 3.5 per cent hike the city expected. Meanwhile, all other departments and agencies have been told to build budgets based on no increased spending.

Members of our police board must stiffen their spines — they represent taxpayers as well as the police. While a 0 per cent increase probably isn’t in the cards, police management should at least hit the 3.5 per cent target. Taxpayers’ pockets are not bottomless. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Wednesday August 22, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday August 22, 2012

More rigour needed on ward spending

Back in 2011, Hamilton city council set out to slay the big scary dragon named area rating — the formal name for tax discrepancies in various parts of the city that date back to before amalgamation.

Council succeeded and struck an agreement, and part of that agreement resulted in Wards 1 through 8 in the so-called “old city” receiving equalization payments to offset paying artificially high taxes. Not everyone was happy, but it was a relatively constructive solution.

Fast forward, and we’re seeing how councillors plan to spend those “special capital levy” dollars. There are some surprises, some eyebrow-raisers and many common sense decisions. But there’s also a problem.

Traffic and pedestrian signals, sidewalk replacements, streetscape improvement, park improvements, road resurfacing and pedestrian walkways are all common uses for the money, which, for 2011 and 2012, amounts to approximately $1.26 million per ward.

Then there are the less common uses: Ward 4’s Sam Merulla wants to use the money to buy the notorious City Motor Hotel, with the innovative twist that once the site is redeveloped, some of the tax revenue generated will flow back into ward projects.

Ward 6’s Tom Jackson wants to buy the Barton Secondary School site to allow for more local control when the school becomes surplus. Creative to be sure, but should Ward 6 taxpayers be getting into the landlord business?

Ward 8’s Terry Whitehead has one of the more unusual plans — along with a number of infrastructure projects, he also wants to add $40,000 worth of golf simulation and instruction programming at the rebuilt Westmount Recreation Centre. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Monday April 30, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Monday April 30, 2012

Lower city councillors back federal prostitution-reform backlash

Three lower-city councillors are backing a federal push against legalizing brothels.

Councillors Sam Merulla, Chad Collins and Bernie Morelli say they’re concerned about a recent provincial court decision that struck down the ban on bawdy houses.

Now, Merulla says he’s formally asking his council colleagues to back a federal government appeal announced Wednesday of the reformed prostitution laws.

“If the Ontario Court of Appeal decision is left unchallenged, it could see the introduction of brothels within Hamilton and other communities in Ontario,” they said in a statement.

The trio — who represent the central and eastern areas of the lower city — say legalizing brothels would condone prostitution and hurt their neighbourhoods.

“I think we speak for the vast majority of Hamiltonians, Ontarians and Canadians,” Merulla said Thursday.

But Merulla’s motion is already stirring up some discomfort — for sex workers, and for one of his colleagues.

Angel, who lives in Morelli’s ward, has been a sex worker for 36 years. She’s unsure why her councillor would concern himself with what happens within the privacy of her apartment.

“I think it’s ridiculous. I think he has other things that are more important to worry about in the neighbourhood, like the drug trade and crack houses,” she said.

“I think he should just leave people alone who are just trying to live honestly and not hurt anyone.” (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

November 16, 2006

This week has been pretty easy in terms of finding a subject to cartoon on. Given the municipal elections we had early on this week there’s been plenty of fodder to satirize. Today’s cartoon focuses on Brad Clark, a feisty ex-provincial cabinet minister who might very well turn City Hall upside down in the next 4 years before moving up to the Mayor’s chair. Anyway, we’re bound to read a lot of headlines involving this new addition to City Hall, enough to deem his presence worthy of an editorial cartoon. Gut instinct is a part of what drives a cartoonist to pick his subject matter. Consider that as the foundation of what goes into an editorial cartoon. Here’s what happens after I get an idea for a cartoon:

Forgive the blurriness of the above images, but you get the point. After the cartoon is done it needs to go through a range of format processes. My newspaper requires a colour cartoon formatted as an EPS image at a resolution of 300 dpi in a rectangular shape of 496 X 378 points, the colour mode being CMYK which allows me to separate the blacks from the colours for a crisper image. My website requires a 72 dpi low res JPEG version of what my newspaper gets in the RGB mode. It also gets a small thumbnail image for that related cartoon feature I have beneath each main cartoon. My syndicate wants a 300 dpi JPEG image in RGB at 7.5 inches across (but they won’t get a version of this one because of its local subject matter.) A high resolution version at 600 dpi in a JPEG format goes to my personal archive for possible future use.