City of Hamilton Culture moving to Economic Development, merging with Tourism
The City of Hamilton’s Culture is moving from the Community Services umbrella to Planning and Economic Development where it will merge with the existing Tourism division under EcDev. The move is effective February 6, 2012 and reflects an increasing point-of-view at City Hall of the arts as an…
The Chaser: Politics with Cats
My favourite Australian comedy group The Chaser is at it again. They have a show called The Hamster Wheel One of the segments of the show is ‘Politics with Cats’ which explains “a difficult issue to you in a language much better suited to the modern attention span”…
Quick updates to the CSS and learning shortcodes
To be honest, I really haven’t done much in the way of design on my webblog (blogsite in Hamilton political speak) since 2007. This is the umpteenth post saying I will dive into design again and hopefully it won’t be followed by the same pattern as the previous…
[Guinea Pig pics] My own Joey
A slight change of pace for my blog this morning. Here’s a picture of one of my guinea pigs last night after he found the pocket of my hoodie to be what seemed like a good hiding place. ![](http://blog.joeycoleman.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Pouch_Guinea_Pig_1-300×509.jpg "My Guinea Pig "The Sil" found a comfortable new…
I’ll never cheer a hockey fight again
I love hockey for its fast pace, complex strategy, nationalistic overtones, and the fights. Well, I used to love it for the fights. *The New York Times *changed my point-of-view about hockey fights with an excellent series about the life and early death of hockey enforcer Derek Boogaard.…
To be the last soldier to die in a conflict
*The Washington Post *offers an obituary/news story about the last United States soldier to die in Iraq before the official declaration of an end to the war this week. The article is an amazing read solely for the opportunity to learn a little bit about a person who…
The Mayor's Chief of Staff Pay Raise Scandal: where we stand now
Hamilton City Council is done with their deliberations regarding Mayor Bob Bratina’s actions and “misstatements” about the Mayor’s decision to raise the salary of his Chief of Staff by $30,000. The outcome of City Council’s deliberations? Nothing. Council made no joint statement, released no finding about the timeline…
Full Statement from Ward 4 Councillor Sam Merulla about Mayor's Chief of Staff pay raise scandal
That council is disappointed in and disagrees of the Mayors failure to adhere to the City’s salary administration policy in setting salary rates for staff in his office. That the Mayor use his best efforts to negotiate a voluntary amendment to any administration policy and report back to…
Council must meet in open while debating Mayor's contradictory statements
When Hamilton City Council meets on Tuesday to consider sanctions against the Mayor Bob Bratina for his behaviour, they must meet in open session. To meet behind closed doors is to show a disdain for transparency which will taint whatever decision they make in response to the Mayor’s…
Mayor's CoS raise adds to frustration of public transit drivers who are without contract
An interesting sub-text to the ongoing saga of the Mayor increasing the salary of his Chief of Staff position by 33% is the ongoing stalled negotiations between the City and its public transit drivers. The HSR operators have been without a contract since the new year when their…