Sudbury Mayoral Candidate Rodney Newton Calls for a Complete Overhaul of City Hall

The municipal election is coming up soon and we have ward candidates and then we have mayoral candidates. Here today we have Rodney Newton. Good to see you. How you doing? So tell me, you're running from mayor? Yes, I am. I decided to run from mayor from(...) a lot of the issues I had myself in the city. Oh yeah. I think that(...) the city needs an internal investigation in a lot of(...) places here because there's a lot of wrongdoings that are happening to a lot of people.

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It ends up being pretty well unfair. Right.

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Have you got an example?

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Well, like. Without getting too far into details, but(...) give us a little bit of a higher level view of an example. One example is, you know, like decisions that are made on people's lives, like(...) family issues, property issues,(...) just living issues itself where help wasn't there, where it should have been. Right. And stuff like that. You know, stuff like that. Where,(...) you know, people not doing their jobs(...) in the city that they have. So does accountability wiggle its way into that in any way? Absolutely. We've got to hold them all accountable for what they(...) do and say and(...) what they run for. Right. If you're going to do a job in the city, make sure you do your job right. Yeah. Well, if you sign up to be a delivery driver for whatever company, you've got to make sure that that(...) whatever it is you're delivering gets to the destination. You're accountable for that. Absolutely. I know I saw one delivery van out today. The door was wide open.(...) I don't know where the guy was. I was assuming, I'm assuming he was inside the van, but the door was wide open and I could see all the boxes I'm rolling by. Like if I was in that position, you want to guard your, guard your treasures because they belong somewhere. Absolutely. You're accountable. So(...) I guess what you're, what you're getting at is there's been some things that fall through the cracks when it comes to accountability here with the, is that just with the council or is that with the city itself? Well, with the city not being responsible, like they bring in people that do work here in the city. Okay. And they do damage to people's property and you know, people's lives. And then they,(...) you know, you try to hold them accountable for it and they don't want to be accountable for the, you know, for these people that come into this town. Right. Like even with our lawyers,(...) instead of representing the people that they, you know, live in the community, they'll represent people that come into our town to do damage to our lives. So where is that, you know, real justice of a lawyer being in, you know, in this town. See the problem with the city of Sudbury is being ran by lawyers and it's being ran by the wrong people that we need investigations on. Like, I mean, internal investigation, Sudbury needs it badly because of people using their authority the wrong way. Okay. You know, and(...) it's been going on in Sudbury for a long time. So out of experience,(...) myself,(...) there's some places that need some full attention. An overhaul? Oh, absolutely. An overhaul, okay. Some jobs eliminated and changed. Yeah.

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Would, so if we're looking to maybe change up the job thing, how would you(...) structure that?

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Well, like,(...) we have a problem with our policing. Okay. You know, we need more police. We need them doing their job on their feet, not sitting at a desk or watching monitors and watching cameras in the city. Yeah. That's not how you run the city. Okay. If you're going to be a police officer, you're going to do your job, get out there on the streets and make them safe for the people, you know, for the taxpayers of the city of Sudbury. Maybe meet the people. Meet the people in the areas. Absolutely. Because they, you know, they, we don't know,(...) we just know that a lot of investigations in Sudbury get bulged because of, you know, they're not doing their job properly. And we need proper,(...) I don't know, proper guidance in that police stations, even in our Tom Davis Square and the data center, all these places, we've got people that need to be replaced if they can't do their job right. Because this is our city and as a taxpayer, you know, I'm trying to reach everyone here that if we don't do something to(...) stand up for our city, the city is going to fall, it's going to fall hard. Well, in private enterprise, if you can't do the job, you're usually showing the door. Absolutely. What that would start showing these wrong people the door and getting new people in there that's going to do their job. So let's imagine that,(...) that, you know, that was the road that was ventured down.

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Would that make the city more efficient to at the very least, if things were getting done by the people who were there in the seat doing the job that doing the work that needs to actually happen? Oh, absolutely. The city would run a lot smoother and it would be more people be able to trust the people that are running, you know, for the people.

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They have a hard time even listening to this election thing that's going on because of who has a hard time. The taxpayers and the people that are, you know, because they just hear the same old thing, everybody's making promises, not going through it. Well, even I, I always ask, are you going to go and vote? And there's quite a few people, whether they're younger or even older, that,(...) especially the older ones, they say, why bother? Nothing's going to change anyways. So I try to encourage them, just get out and vote. You know, they've basically had the biscuit. So I can see where you're coming from in that(...) regard. Mostly there you go. See, that's what I mean. Some people, they're hardly convinced, but if you want to be heard and go out and vote,

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you know, make a difference because this is what the city needs. You know, like even with the last election, 16%(...) a win, that's not a very big voting.(...) You know, no, that's really, really small. That's low. We need to basically get off our butts there and get out there and vote and make a difference. So(...) children for our elderly, even,(...) you know, because this place is getting a little scary for the elderly to be able to walk even the streets. Well,(...) you know what? We were at a debate there the other day, and I think Sudbury was within the top five most dangerous cities in Canada. And is that real?(...) Believe me, it is real. When you got a city that can't even solve a murder, you know, that makes people talk, you know, like 30 years later, right? You know, just by an accident. Yeah. Like, come on, really? No, we need somebody to start doing their jobs. If you got to, if you running a police force, then get them what they're doing their job to investigate properly to get harder on the criminals. Okay, not just bring them to court and let them out the back door and they go do it again. Well, we have a new police chief, isn't the police chief doing what needs to be done in order to make sure that the.

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I think if the police chief is doing their job, okay, there would be less crosses. Less crosses? Oh, the white crosses at the intersection? Yes, that's another thing that has to be taken care of itself too. You know, like, I mean, out of respect, you know, for the people we lost, I believe a monument would be a lot.

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Symbolized, can clean things up. For sure. And stop using military crosses(...) there. Is that what they are? Well, that's what,(...) you know, like what I see, right? I go to the cemetery, the military has all these white crosses and that's what it looks like. Yeah. You know, it's just a wrong,(...) I don't know, it's just a wrong.

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Wrong thing to have there. Yeah, for sure. You know, we have to(...) do it for, have respect for the people that we lost. Right. You know, and show them that we do care. Cleaning up that area. Before they end up in the middle of the(...) road.(...) Yeah, there was a guy, I think he was wrapped up in a blanket.

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In a compact little package and he was leaning up against the post and his head was over and I thought as I was going by, you know, I hope he's going to stay still, at least I get through there because(...) that's the last thing anybody wants is to, you know, run over someone like that. Especially if the guy or the girl doesn't even know where,(...) what planet they're on. Yeah, well, that's, you know, Sudbury has a lot of money and they have a lot of real estate and I still didn't get to see half of what they have but there is places we can refurbish and reopen up, you know, for the people that are on the streets and I clean it up because I'll tell you something, cleaner streets, it would be a lot cheaper.(...) Okay, then half of the problems we're having right now because there's people that have businesses down there, they can't even leave the place without being held up, knife point and this and that, it's crazy.(...) And then in the morning when they do go to work,(...) they've got to clean up the entrance because there could be human waste. Absolutely.(...) That's going on down there, I've been walking around there and if we had more police down there, I'm not talking about in four years, 30 more police, like 30 police, come on, seriously one shift?(...) We need at least 100 to 150 more police in the city of Sudbury. What would that do with the taxes? Well, you know something, there's, like I said, maybe... Or at least the budget. Yeah, well, they're, like I said, Sudbury, if they can sell off a lot of stuff for this event center, I'm sure we can sell off some property to do the right thing for the people that need it. So the magic number seems to be almost 600 pieces of property that the city has to maintain that they may not even need? If they're maintaining that property and not making anything on it, it's a waste anyway. So who's accountable to that? Well, probably the city of Sudbury, you know, like if there's something that we can do to help the homeless, like I mean, that encampment behind the breweries, behind that pod shop is not a good place for anyone to be.

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You know, like I mean, we got to clean that up.(...) And I'm sure that there's some real estate we have to be able to get it functioning. And even if we're making a little bit of each person that(...) lives in these places, at least you're making some. Right. You're sitting there doing nothing. Yeah. You know, because Sudbury seems to waste a lot of(...) good land and a good, you know, even with their decisions on who they bring into the city. For certain positions? Oh, absolutely. I mean, we let people in this city to start buying up a lot of real estate that it's empty. It's not even rented. You know, we got to start thinking about, you know, who we have in this city and who's really the problem. But it is free enterprise, is it not?(...) Well,(...) you know, when it's when you've got places that are like a lot of buildings that are empty and a lot of homelessness and that, then there is a serious issue. And these rents like in Sudbury are outrageous. They are high. Somebody come in here and put a cap on these because it is ridiculous. I don't know if you can really put a cap on that because that's that's the free market that's running that. But again, the city does have its(...) everything is totally intertwined in the sense that let's say you have a let's say you have a duplex duplex now or is you know, at one point it used to be 80,000 a door. I'd look at 80,000 a door. Now it's(...) oh, it could be 200 to 250 a door just to get just to buy it. So that but anyways, with that, you have to have the rent to reflect that, let alone the property tax. And that's not even getting into the maintenance end of things.(...) So(...) when it comes to the property, yeah, the property taxes itself and(...) why is property tax anyways,(...) there's just so many things that move the the rental market.

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But the city could do its part in other areas such as the if the city was more efficient,

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that would reduce the budget. Absolutely.

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Is that even possible? Sure, it is. How? Well, you know, like, I mean, they seem to(...) have a lot of money when they're when they're in addition out(...) money for things that(...) doesn't make any sense to us right now. We want to fix up the city. Okay. Here, take the band eggs off everything around the event center. Yeah. And I promise you that event center will be a lot more(...) accepted.(...) Okay, because when you've got roads that you have to, I mean, grow up it(...) to get to the event center, I think you got to fix all this stuff up before you even start thinking about getting in like 500 to 600, $700 million into an event center that we really don't need right now. Okay.(...) If we can put a stop to it, that'd be even better. And then start concentrate on taking all the band eggs off the broken stuff in the city, get that cleaned up, and this city will run a lot smoother, lot safer.(...) So it sounds like you're, you're,(...) it sounds like things needed a big overhaul. Oh, absolutely. There's been a lot of mistakes in a lot of(...) people's broken promises,(...) you know, and we don't need no more broken promises. We need somebody that's going to stand up and go do something for the people, the taxpayers. And this way they'll probably feel a lot better. Well, how do taxpayers actually know that they're getting value for their money?(...) Well,(...) just vote for the right people in and watch. Well, what, what would happen if, so if, if you become there, would you restore the house of the auditor general? Absolutely.

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What would make you go to what person back? Absolutely.

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Okay. There's, there's a lot of issues that,(...) you know, like, even with(...) shutting down the WSI B office, that was another big mistake. Okay. You bring that back. Yeah, but how is the municipal level going to bring that back? Well, you know, like it put it this way, it's part of the corruption of Sudbury.(...) Because there's a lot of people that,(...) you know, that are having a lot of problems. Yeah. And, you know, with the WSI B and having them so far away, it's not helping anyone. They don't even want to even talk to anybody anymore. But they're from Timbuktu and they're in Sudbury.(...) What does this person know?(...) A lot of people, a lot of people down south don't think there's life beyond Wonderland.

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Well,(...) and that's Wonderland in the sober sense. Yeah.

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Well, you know,(...) like I say, I've been here a long time in this city and if we don't do something(...) soon, I'd hate to see what this place is going to be like in another four years with the wrong people in charge.

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We don't need no more mistakes.

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Even with being ready for the weather.(...) Right. The emergency preparedness. Oh, listen, we got to get a handle on that because when people lose their lives on account of a bad decision,(...) then you shouldn't be in that office. Because you got to think ahead before anything happens. When you know something's coming, you'll be ready. You'll be sure that those blades are on that cement ready to go when something like this happens. Right. Okay, because we lost a lot of people that, you know, that that winter day, I'll tell you, whenever you shut down, there was a lot of areas that were shut down in the city for weeks. Yeah, they're just very inaccessible by the normal roads. How many people you lost? How many people did we lose? Do you have any idea? I know about nine. Okay. And one is one too many. Yeah. Okay. And that should never happen when somebody's taken on,(...) you know, power in office. In an office where people are expecting them to make the right decisions. They'll not wake up in the morning and you're snoting. You can't even open your door.

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They were ready for this. They knew about this. It should never have happened. Someone should be held accountable.(...) You know, and that's the problem with this city. Nobody's held accountable for anything that's done wrong to the people.

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And those people deserve,(...) you know, to, they deserve justice to what happened to their family members, you know, their mother, father, brother, sister.

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Changing to a different course here. What can the city do and council by invoking policies, what can they do to help foster and(...) attract more new business? Because if you have new, if you have more businesses employing more people, there's more jobs. And then of course,(...) if they're decent jobs, that leads to more homeownership, which leads to more taxes. And then the city has access to more monies, hopefully on a wider, bigger population base. So(...) how can we attract more business? We can probably attract more businesses by cleaning up the mess we have.

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Okay, because a lot of people say, well, I wouldn't mind starting something. But not now. Not the way things are going. Yeah. Like, let's(...) really,(...) we got to step up, clean up,(...) and I'm sure that this place will start to grow and it'll start to do very well. So it sounds like you're a cleanup king. Well, I can only,(...) I've watched a lot of mess, you know, a lot of bad decisions in this city. I've been here for 65 years and, you know, two lanes, in and out of this city. And I watch it grow. And I see a lot of corruption, a lot of(...) stuff that shouldn't have happened. Speaking of two lanes,(...) I know that's not even, I don't think it's a municipal thing, but would having four lanes all the way(...) from, you know, the north to the south help with(...) attracting new businesses and,(...) you know, travel,(...) safety, just, there's a lot of different things. Like, I mean, Highway 69 was, you know, that(...) brought a lot of death to a lot of people.

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It's a nasty highway. It needs a lot of attention.

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Yeah, I do believe that it should be actually four lane, right, clean through.

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It would be a lot safer. And(...) that's about...

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The library that's going into Tom Davies Square,

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they're renovating, they're putting a library in there. I haven't been there myself. I don't know exactly what is going on in there. Is that a project that,(...) you know, it's not a cleanup project, maybe it is, but what's your view on that thing?(...) Well, I think a lot of things that the city does, it should be brought to the taxpayers. It should be, you know, it shouldn't just be...(...) Just done? Yeah, not done like this. It should be brought to the taxpayers to see what they say about this. Right. Because a lot of things get done in the suburb,(...) everybody's shaking their heads. Well, there is, so yesterday there was a debate in one of the wards,(...) and one of the residents spoke up and said, you know, whatever the topic was, he didn't... He was never given a voice. So residents, you know, and this guy was... Well, he had gray hair,(...) but he was very disappointed that he had...

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He feels he wasn't given a voice. If you're the mayor, how would you give a voice to the people of Greater Sudbury? Well, for one, if I was the mayor, I would be taking the issue that we're talking about to the people and see their view on it. And that's the way it should be. You know, this is why we elect somebody to, you know, stand up for us and then bring us what we want to hear. You know, not just go out and do things and cost everybody a lot of money and, you know, accomplish nothing.

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Another thing from that debate that was actually yesterday,(...) there was a woman in the background that really liked the format because everyone got to ask a question. If they wanted to ask a question, they could ask a question. From what I gather, there's been some

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debates or gatherings where there's people in the audience, and they have to write their question down and then it'll be up to whoever's on the other side of the table(...) to field that question. Yeah, there were a lot of people upset about that. They wanted to be heard and they didn't seem to be(...) heard like they wanted to be. They wanted to ask the questions instead of having to write it down. And(...) that's just the way that(...) the city does things. Okay. Would you continue down that path or would you change it up? I would definitely change it up.(...) We're about the taxpayers, the people, and that's what it's all about.

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Okay. Rodney, in closing up, anything, any last words you want to(...) let the people know? Because the election's coming in about a week and a half. Early voting starts in a couple of days. So it's going to be on everyone's(...) mind. Well, 30% of people, because not many people get out and vote. But(...) if we can get that number up, that would be great because that's what people need to have their say instead of feeling hopeless. Yeah, exactly. Well, you know, like all I can say is that we do have to vote if we want to be heard. This is our city. Let's take it back. Okay. Because I think we gave it to the wrong hands and we need to step up and do the right thing. And I think by going to vote and vote,(...) make sure you really look at everybody and vote. I(...) hope the right person gets in. I guess this is what we need. That's what we needed right now. That's what we need right now. Rodney