Dear Editor,

Terry Farrell is to be commended for his excellent editorial of Jan. 17 Comox fails its citizens. He only overlooked a few facts.

First while pointing out that Comox is the envy of many municipalities, it might be noted that Comox is not just debt free, it has a reserve of about $100 million built from the highest taxation rate of the region.

It has the means to fulfil obligations and act with decency.

So clearly this is in keeping with a pattern of administrative stinginess.

Second, Mayor Arnott seems very prone to forgetfulness. Apart from forgetting the Town鈥檚 wealth and forgetting the vulnerable victims of the Town鈥檚 burst pipes, as a councillor he also forgot, for four years, the Town鈥檚 legal obligations to Hamilton Mack Laing of whose trust he was a trustee, with all legal obligations.

Together with then Mayor Ives, he also forgot that Laing left much more than the purported $45K, until he and council were reminded that the trust had been pilfered, and Comox had to restitute at least $175K. In Comox there seems to be a pattern of exploitation of vulnerable citizens, dead or alive.

This is cause for concern, given that Comox is to be home to 鈥淒ementia Village.鈥� This will be an addition of very vulnerable people to whom we will have obligations.

Comox is a very forgetful town. His Worship Mayor Arnott will be not only Mayor of Comox, but also 鈥渆x-offfcio鈥� the mayor of Dementia Village. Every village has a mayor.

How we remember mayors depends on how he or she remembers that stinginess and exploitation do not sit well with basic human decency incumbent in 鈥渓eadership.鈥�

Loys Maingon,

Courtenay