Councillor Troy Symonds resigns from corporation

The “political climate has made it impossible”.

That’s how Troy Symonds explains his decision to resign as a city councillor.

He has left after officials voted to pay themselves for attending meetings.

Councillors and aldermen voted five-to-four to pay themselves $375 for monthly corporation meetings.

The elected officials will also receive $175 for each committee meeting they attend.

But Mr Symonds said his morale had dipped in recent months and the pay issue provided the final impetus.

He told us yesterday: “I’ve been considering it [resignation] for some time as it’s become increasingly difficult to provide solutions to the problems that are presented.

“None of these problems are new to the city — improving the infrastructure, making the city more vibrant, providing uplift for North Hamilton, and attracting visitors. But it has become more difficult to focus on these issues and bring about change.

Agendas

“The political climate has made it impossible. There are a number of agendas going on and the corporation hasn’t made all the right decisions to address them.

He explained: “The Government wants more control and insight, while our staff want improved packages, so there are a number of different agendas colliding.” 

Mr Symonds was elected as a councillor to the City of Hamilton in May 2012.

The businessman said his first election to public office was motivated by “passion for making change”.

Seeing the economic pressures fellow Bermudians were under, he “hoped to make our city more attractive and  competitive”.

This included making North Hamilton a more attractive place to live.

“But I started to realize that because of the polarization of most of our political entities in this economy, it’s really difficult to hold hands,” he said.

“The corporations of Hamilton and St George’s, and Government, need to work together for our common benefit, but to bring that about is taking too much.

“The people involved got too distracted with other issues, maybe egos and maybe other agendas.

“We haven’t been able to sit down and have reasonable discussions with Government and other entities on the issues — unions included — although there have been attempts.

“So if there’s a disappointment from my perspective, that is it.”

He said his decision to resign was triggered by feeling disillusioned with City of Hamilton: “It was the realization we are just going to spend a lot more time fighting with outside entities,” he said.

“It’s really sad because I have a lot of respect for everyone who signed up as councillors.”

“It’s a huge time commitment to be a city councillor, and when I measured this against my return — what difference I was making — it was very difficult to continue on.”

Commenting on the vote to pay themselves for attending meetings, he said: “One of the other councillors expressed it with great passion when she didn’t think it should go forward, and how aggrieved the taxpayer would be when receiving it.

“Whilst I agree with it [payment for elected officials], if you are compensating yourself for any role, you really can’t make the decision yourself.

Bad timing

“Not only are we awarding this $375, we are awarding it to ourselves. I feel it just can’t be allowed by us and accepted by us.

“Although this figure is not egregious — we are talking about each member getting $700 a month — I just didn’t find the corporate governance was being addressed.

“Also, because of the way the corporation is consistently tainted in the news, it was also a ridiculous time to do that.

“The press has reported erroneous figures to the public and they probably only have a 30 per cent picture of what is going on.

“[They] said $100,000 was spent on a trip to Colombia, but the real amount was something like $13,000.

“[They] also reported we had a slush fund of $850,000. These fabrications just make everyone frustrated.”

He said the trip to Colombia had been important in securing an international mayoral conference for Bermuda in October 2014.

“Bermuda’s representation there also brought three international businesses to the island. Everyone worked really hard to represent Bermuda.”

Mr Symonds also cited the example of a trip to New York taken by the mayor and his deputy — which came in for criticism with regard to cost — but which resulted in 148 people later coming to Bermuda and staying at Coral Beach. 

Mr Symonds informed city mayor Graeme Outerbridge and the secretary of his resignation on Wednesday.

“The mayor said he understood me and we would talk more.

“But it was a definite decision to resign.”

Commenting on the ratification of the Municipalities Act 2013 by the Senate this week, he said: “I do think some separation is key and the corporation [City] maintaining its own assets is key.

“The corporation certainly feels it [the Act] is the wrong thing to do. It has received a number of opinions from a number of different lawyers that suggest [the provisions of the Act] are unconstitutional. 

“So they have every right to fight it and they will probably be prepared to challenge it in court.”