You Say Stolz Should Leave Finance and Audit Committee
Prince George, B.C.- It has been just over a week since Councillor Cameron Stolz stepped down from his post as Chair of the City’s Finance and Audit Committee.
He made the move following a report on 250News that he had been delinquent in paying his property taxes and his property had been listed as available for “tax sale” for non payment of his 2011 taxes. In addition, 250News reported he was also delinquent for his 2010 taxes as his property was on the same list a year ago.
The Finance and Audit committee is responsible for presenting recommendations to Council on matters of tax rates, tax burdens and spending priorities.
While Councilor Stolz has stepped down as Chair of that committee, he remains a member of it, and still has a vote on those same issues.
We posed the question: “With news Councillor Cameron Stolz was delinquent in property taxes, should he resign from the Finance and Audit Committee?”
We received more than a thousand responses to the question.
84.3% (963) said yes, he should resign from that committee,
While 15.7% (179) said no he should not resign.
Comments
There were fewer people voting on one of the local printed paper’s sites.
They had a few other options.
Almost 60% voted that he should step down from Council. Over 15% voted he should step down from the Finance and Audit committee.
Not a popular guy, is he??
The good people of Prince George are generally a forgiving lot. Problem is, Stolz has continually trodden on the citizens here in favour of big business back door deals and the pet projects of Ms. Green. You reap what you sow Mr Stolz.
I was at one time a big supporter of Mr. Stolz. Now I am not so sure.
I think his tax situation and the story that’s come out of that has been blown out of proportion, and given people who already don’t like Stolz another reason.
Also, hasn’t it been proven that the online voting on this site can be manipulated? I’m not sure if I believe anything that comes out of an online poll.
You know what, let the poll decide when its election time.
he paid up, he paid the delinquent taxes. Who has not been down on his luck. but when things got a bit better, he still did the right thing.
I rather have him in there, than a socialist who rather hand out our tax dollars away for no return investments.
Rumour has it that Cameron Stolz believes in anthropogenic global warming, so just for that he should be removed from the committee, right JB? ;-)
As for He Spoke’s comment, well what can we say?… Guess you won’t be voting Conservative in the next Federal Election, they gave away, without no return in investment, CAD $5.67 BILLION in foreign aid last year.
http://cidpnsi.ca/blog/portfolio/canadas-foreign-aid/
Read the map which lists the specific countries, and amounts, we handed our tax dollars away to, with no return on our investment!
Well, I will likely vote Conservative.
The alternative will be to vote NDP, a ship looking for a captain. Or Trudeau, and we all know what will happen if we get him in, the west will get shafted. He will sell us out and get only Ontario thriving, he talks a big talk, but he is still Son of Pierre.
Giving away, 5.67 billion in foreign aid is a lot of money. I think it is about 2% of the taxes collected. and five times the amount we spend on our military.
We probably could wean the hand outs a bit, but this money we handout, allow us to feel safer when our kids travel around the world. I would rather say I am a Canadian in Africa, than say I am a American.
It truly is a balancing act.
“he paid up”
If 250News had not broke the story would have he paid what he owed in full?
By his own admission his business has been struggling for a number of years, he does not have the money to pay at least the arrears before his home goes on the auction list but suddenly comes up with over $15,000 right after the story broke???? September must be a big month for Dungeons and Dragons or whatever he sells(never been in his store)!!!
To have someone who makes such poor financial decisions in their private life on the F&A committee flies in the face of common sense. Kind of brings his statement that if the River Road AAP was one signature short the city would proceed with a 10 million dollar project into perspective….not gee the threshold to stop an AAP is fairly high perhaps we should have another look but more damn the torpedoes full speed ahead.
As long as he is a member of the committee any decision that comes out of it will lack credibility, he should step aside from all committee work for the remainder of his term. If he chooses to run again and wins a seat he will then have a mandate from the voters.
Will Stoltz do the right thing? I doubt it.
Watching right wing Lib-Cons turn and attack one of their own is fascinating stuff. The reason for their attack? “Because he made poor financial decisions” Yet in previous stories the reason why his businesses performed so poorly was because of the economic recession.
I am just glad business conditions were not even worse for you Cameron Stolz, he could have ended up bankrupt and homeless, then the elitist of the Lib-Con’s would have shunned you and tsk tsked you completely!
I make this comment intentionally Cameron Stolz, so that your fellow Lib-Con friends and comrades can attack me, as I hate to see a person like you being picked on when you are “down”. Just call me a bleeding heart lefty ;-)
most people spend their entire working life wondering what it would be like to own their own business, and risk it all.
Some people risk all that they own in what they believe in.
I have more respect for a person who has risked it all and failed, than a person who never took a chance in his life.
“he paid up, he paid the delinquent taxes. Who has not been down on his luck. but when things got a bit better, he still did the right thing.”
He paid the delinquent amount only when it became public. He wasn’t plugging away at it, paying bits and pieces when he could, as things got “a bit better”. If he was struggling, but trying, I could have some sympathy for that.
Instead, he sits on a committee deciding where/how our taxes will be spent, when he is not paying his. At this point, he needs to step down. He has lost his credibility.
Wasn’t that Stolz standing beside a new Lexus that I saw earlier this year. Was it just a test run, or did he buy it. They are after all expensive cars. When business is faltering do you go out and buy a new car or was it just a photo op.
http://www.ag.gov.bc.ca/public/DisclosureFactsheetWEB-MUNICIPAL.pdf
I’m pretty sure that Stolz was owing property taxes when he was last elected. I’m also pretty sure he was required to disclose this when he was nominated.
Why didn’t he disclose? He knew he owed the money–he’s not claiming that he simply forgot to pay… If the public had known this during the election would they have voted for him?
Under section 9(2) of the Financial Disclosure Act of BC, is Stolz now liable for up to a $10,000 fine for failing to disclose?
http://www.bclaws.ca/EPLibraries/bclaws_new/document/ID/freeside/00_96139_01
I don’t think the media played any role in his decison to pay (or not). If someone has any information otherwise, I’d like to see it.
Like the rest of us, who own houses and personal property, did Cameron Stolz, the person, pay his residential property taxes and city utility bills, which makes up the majority of the city’s tax revenue? It may well be that Cameron Stolz, the person, paid his fair share of personal taxes due in full and on time.
His business is a separate issue. Does he have a registered business that owns property in the city for which “it” the “business” is delinquent on taxes? If those property taxes are delinquent, and were not paid, would the city be taking the business to court, or Cameron Stolz the person. Who would be liable here?
Hmm.. perhaps a greater separation of business interests, and the City officials who own them, is required at city hall? Perhaps City Officials should be required to put their business assets into “blind trusts” for the full term they are in office. If this was a requirement, perhaps Mr. Stolz would not be in the position he is in now?
Fine, I see your points. They are valid points made.
Gulp, I accept that I was wrong in my position. He should step back from the Finance and Audit committee.
If there is so many people are passionate about municipal politics, why do we keep electing bad councillors.
Should we be setting up, City watch dog group to keep an eye on the poor decisions made by the city and have this exposed to the public. The end result would be that, the councillors will be less cavalier about themselves.
“If there is so many people are passionate about municipal politics, why do we keep electing bad councillors.”
Just for fun, I off handedly mentioned Stolz taxes to several people at work throughout the day and it kind of answers your question. One person out of 8 said “I heard something about that”. The rest had no idea. So I asked my parents who say they follow the news and guess what? Nuthin… I suspect the “so many people passionate about municipal politics” are the same ones on here passionate about everything and actually represent a pretty tiny percentage of the voting population.
*this poll is in no way scientific and is only endorsed by ME ;)
So many sheeple, so few of us!!!
interceptor, it must be true, that is why encumbants has an advantage. Because we could never admit we elected the village idiot.
I am deeply sadden that the bloggers of this site is the only ones that will take their time to comment on important issues facing the city, province and the system.
Only high light is that Ben has a better site than the Citizen.
He should resign from the committee and from Council. He has proven himself to be anything but up front and honest with the taxpayers of PG and the public in general. He is obviously a devious person who should never hold any type of public office ever again!
When Stoltz first decided to run for office, I met with him, asked him some questions and was reasonably satisfied with what he said he intended to do.
If there ever was a person who said one thing and did another, it would be Mr. Stoltz.
P.S. He was for fiscal responsibility by prioritizing needs (especially our roads) over wants.
Comments for this article are closed.