Hamilton Councillor Merulla hails himself as the self imposed deity of the elderly and poor of Hamilton. The truth is Mr. Merulla is a self absorbed "hypocrite" who rarely visits the neighbourhoods he claims to fight for in city council.
Yesterday, Mr. Merulla further added to his reputation of council bully when he verbally attacked the much smaller Councillor Brian McHattie. The verbal barrage started after Mr. McHattie took the chamber floor to address his approval of a 15 cent public transit fee hike.
Like myself any many working poor and economically disadvantaged Hamiltonian's, we may not like the idea of a substantial hit to our wallets, but we also don't like people like Merulla who misrepresent themselves to us as crusaders, when in reality they are mere self indulgent ego strokers.
In a side conversation that interrupted the meeting, Merulla called McHattie, a vocal transit advocate, a "hypocrite" for supporting the fare hike and warned "I'm coming after you."
The Ward 4 politician tried to cover his ass by saying he was referring to the debate, and further embarrassed himself by saying "We're big boys. We're in politics. If you can't handle the heat, stay out of the kitchen." Mr. Merulla, next time you try to bring the heat, don't bring a bick that doesn't flick.
While Mr. Merulla continued to act like a naughty five year old, insisting on yelling taunts at his fellow council members who supported the hike, and even the Mayor, the rest of the "kids" tried to bring some servility back to the voting public who try to make sense out of council meetings.
In the end, it was agreed, abet, with hesitation, that the cost of riding the bus will increase 15 cents this year to $2.25 for cash fares, a 10-cent increase in ticket fares, $6 on monthly passes, $40 for the annual seniors bus pass and 10 cents for DARTS tickets.
The increase will still mean a substantial sting to the wallets of the persons who can least afford it, but Hamilton will still have one of the cheapest transit systems in the Golden Horseshoe. And in a good turn, a proposal to continue increasing fares over the next several years was turned down.
The estimated $1 million in extra revenue will make up some of the Provincial shortchanging and hopefully lead to buying more new buses and pay for better driver training.
The debate lagged on with other councillors joining Merulla in his playpen to the point when Mayor Eisenberger had enough of the bar room heckling and asked for the councillor to leave the chambers. In response, Merulla asked to be thrown out on behalf of the city's "poor, disabled and seniors."
Mr. Merulla, you don't represent me, don't offend me by saying you do. I may be a working stiff, but I'm not a patsy for an egotistical, self-absorbed person like you.
Later,
Kenaz
