The following article appeared in the June 29 edition of the Guelph Tribune:
One of the strong Kate Quarrie backers defeated in the 2006 civic election has filed nomination papers to run for a Ward 2 seat this fall.
Ray Ferraro is challenging the two new councillors who were elected in Ward 2 in 2006, Vicki Beard and Ian Findlay, who are both seeking reelection.
Ferraro was among the rookie councillors elected in the 2003 election that brought Quarrie to power as mayor. He lost his Ward 2 seat in 2006, finishing fourth in a field of seven candidates. Quarrie was beaten in 2006 by Mayor Karen Farbridge in a rematch between the first two women ever elected mayor in Guelph.
Asked why he’s decided to run again, the semi-retired real estate developer said he enjoyed sitting on council and thinks his real estate experience could be useful for council once again.
“I’ve been watching council and I think there is a lot of room for improvement,” especially when it comes to real estate matters, Ferraro said in an interview late last week.
“It just makes me ill when I see some of these big-ticket items that are happening without a lot of debate,” he added.
The main such item is the new composting plant that the city has decided to build, Ferraro said. He also cited two properties on Wyndham Street North that the city has bought as part of a future new main library site, questioning the price the city paid for them.
As well, he cited council’s financial assistance for redevelopment of the fire-ravaged Gummer building site on Douglas Street and for construction of an affordable housing development at 35 Mountford Dr. The “business cases” for the city’s financial help for such projects “aren’t properly debated,” he charged.
Ferraro was also critical of the city’s firing of the general contractor in charge of the new city hall project in September 2008, which sparked ongoing lawsuits.
He said he anticipates he is going to defend the previous council’s controversial decisions not to buy the post office building for a new main library and to allow the demolition of the Mitchell farmhouse.
Asked whether he thinks any of the other Quarrie backers defeated in 2006 will join him in seeking council seats this fall, Ferraro said he didn’t know. “Well, I think it’s early yet . . . I’m not sure,” he replied.
The other Quarrie supporters defeated in 2006 include Rocco Furfaro, Peter Hamtak, Dan Moziar and Dan Schnurr.
Ferraro said he doesn’t include David Birtwistle, who lost his Ward 4 seat in 2006 and is now challenging Mayor Karen Farbridge for the mayor’s job, as being among the “faction” of seven councillors who usually backed Quarrie. Along with this faction of seven, “we had the Cathy Downer faction, which was the four desperate housewives, as we called them,” Ferraro said with a chuckle.
(Downer, a frequent opponent of Quarrie, didn’t seek re-election in Ward 5 in 2006.)
“And then there was David,” Ferraro said, again chuckling. “If there was a black-and-white issue, he’d vote grey.” Birtwistle “was the only one who wasn’t part of a faction,” he said.
Ferraro said he thinks the main election issue this fall will be “mismanagement and control that is going on” at city hall.
Senior staff at city hall generally present issues to the current council “as a finished product,” Ferraro charged. Too often, he said, this council is “rubber-stamping decisions, and that is not good.”
Aside from a proposed Guelph Hydro merger with a Hamilton-based utility, which council rejected on an 8-5 vote in the fall of 2008, “there isn’t much meaningful debate. Pretty much everything has gone through,” he said.
Ferraro said he’s been hearing that a lot of city residents aren’t happy with the status quo, but it remains to be seen how many people will show up at the polls on Oct. 25.
“I think the 64-dollar question is: are people mad enough or disappointed enough to come to come out and vote this time. That will be the telling factor.”