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es Council pay increase So, the 30 members of Durham Region counci voted last week not to give themselves a raise in pay. The recommendation which went down to defeat called for a five per cent hike on the current salary of $13,890. But before ratepayers in Durham jump too high for joy, consider that five per cent is about $690 per councillor or total for the 30 of about $20,800 per year. That's nothing but a pittance when one considers that Durham will collect more than $20 billion this year from property taxes. oo The amount of money involved obviously was not the issue in this debate. What is at stake, however, is the overall issue of "politicians voting increases in pay for themselves which never fails to leave a bad taste in the mouths of tax-payers and some politicians. Itis high time that some kind of reasonable formula is worked out to settle this issue of raises in pay for municipal 'politicians, and those at the provincial and federal levels as well. The problem at the municipal level is corApiicaled by the fact that some councillors are worth every penny of their salary through their contributions and work. Others aren't worth a plug nickel, and do little more than show up at meetings to occupy a chair. . Probably the most reasonable idea to sort out the sticky issue has been that councils set any increase in pay at the last meeting before a municipal election. That way, the voters could decide whether the issue is important enough to be factor on election day. And the new council that takes office would be locked into the agreement established by the old council. But even this kind of a system has its drawbacks. Should the subject of pay hikes be an election issue? Most councillors are so jittery about the subject they might have a hard time voting for any increase, and that really would not solve the problem either. It has also been suggested that pay hikes be tied to the annual rate of inflation, say, half the rate. But there are inherent dangers to the indexing of anything to the annual inflation rate. It is all very well for regional councillors to make the political' decision not to vote themselves an increase in pay. But there are some who have given up jobs, business interests and so on to seek and hold political office, and nobody can argue that they don't genuinely need a pay hike like everyone else just to keep even with rising costs. Gy CE EAE Also disturbing about this issue is that whenever it pops up, the debate is fast, furious and prolonged. It gets high profile coverage by the media (far more than it deserves) and councils "spend a lot of time thrashing it over and over. It would be far better to arrive at a reasonable formula and let councils get on with more important municipal business; the kind of business they are 4] OF COURSE WE'RE TF : iG Ned Ie AWARE OF THE | PENALTY FoR UNDAID mer 'DIST THER PUT OUR elected to do. Nobody wins under the present system; and in fact' the municipal process which rates a low grade from the public at the best of times, takes more of a battering. Maybe next year 7 One swing of the bat in the ninth inning and the Montreal Expos came to the end of their season. 'And with it came the end of a Seat forsporss fans across the country. There is no doubt that followers of sport in Canada are hungry for a winner. With the football league in shambles, after the disappointment of the Canada Cup, and with the bloom off pro hockey in general, a lot of hope was pinned on the Expos; hope that maybe, just aye; they could bring a championship to this. country. Never mind that there is not a single Canadian on the roster. Even though victory was again so close this year, it _is' possible the team Is still missing the ingredient to make it a champion. After all, they had the Dodgers pinned to the wall, and needed only to win one of the final two games in their home park. - One would think that a team of championship calibre could have won one of these two games. But, it was not to be. And even in the last of the ninth with two out and two on base, that elusive big hit which could "have won the game, failed to come. The world of sport and especially the game of baseball is measured in inches, not miles, and in this context the brass ring was no more than the length of a fingernail away. It might as well be a light-year. Canadian sport fans meanwhile can settle back toa winter of hockey, and the silent dream that come October next, the Expos will be there. ACCIDENT PRONE - Teachers have 20 days of sick leave (paid) due to them every year. That's fair enough. At present, I have 316 days, plus 20 for the coming year, built up. Figure it out for yourself. I haven't missed many days on the job and some of those were funerals of relatives and such. oil But how can a man show up for work as a ley one bag ihn my left hand contained he toilet tissue and the Kleenex I'went-into the rock pile like a badly ballasted ship htting a reef. I could have been killed. My nose saved me. It took the initial impact before I skidded onto my cheek-bone and forehead. : Bloody; but unbowed, I gathered the ~ groceries (not an egg busted, not a quart of member of the "walking wounded" abrasions on forehead, black right eye and scraped cheekbone, nose looking as though the rats had been at it, and right leg almost completely crippled, though nothing broken. Well, he can't. And yesterday was the first time in my teaching career when I wasn't ill but stayed home. I went back today with a few flesh-colored pieces of tape, and a bad limp, arousing the curiosity of staff and students alike. Strangely enough, 1 had been telling a bright Grade 11 class just the other day about the gullibility of students. You may | remember, I'd had a very minor lesion on my big nose removed. The nurse said, 'This is a big bandage," I retorted, '"This is a big nose," It was all done at the hospital before 9 a.m. and I was on the job. A lad in one of my classes asked, with concern, 'What happ to your nose, sir?" I told.him with a very straight facé that a hyena had escaped from a nearby zoo, poked in one of 'my cellar windows, and, sneaking up to the bedroom, had bitten off my nose. And that's why I'd been to hospital, to have an artificial nose implanted. © "Oh, that's too bad, sir, "' he'd said, in all sincerity. Well, in all ne I wish the story had been true. For about the eighth time in my career, my nose looks like a transplant from a guy who has narrowly escaped his life, after being shot through the nose, instead of "the brain But this Grade 11 class the other day didn't say a word, though their looks were eloquent. They didn't want to be gullible, and have me tell them that my wife did it, or I had a fight with the town cop, or I crashed while glider-flying. I wish I'd been 'born with a snub nose. These people, even though they are always sticking their snubs into other peoples' business, never seem to get them hurt. I mind my own business, and keep getting my hose broken or badly cut, or a candidate for Ones again, the damage resulted from Once One time I came in with two bags of groceries, slipped off my shoes at the door, went into the freshly waxed kitchen took a kick at the cat, slipped and fell, . nose-on, against the kitchen counter. No eggs broken, just the nose. : This time, I went off with a reasonable "trunk door of the car." milk spilled) staggered into the kitchen, scattering blood and groceries everywhere. Lots of people would have been rushed to ~ emergency and sewed and cauterized and otherwise tortured. I never do that. I use my { mother's old remedies. Staunch the blood with a cloth or something, make sure you haven't lost an eye, and then sock the ice-water to it. J 'Unfortunately, my cunning neglected the . In my mother's day, hot and cold water fact that I was wearing my new arch were the painkillers and the blood stoppers. f support, total cost $85, and that it was We didn't have ice-cubes then, but"we had a 1 hurting me like a brand new set of false . chunk of ice in the ice-box. And we needed it. il teeth. I was limping heavily on the right. I was alway coming home with a cut foot I arrived at the pile of rocks just outside that should have had six stitches; or a cut our back door. Sometimes we call it therock head where a kid had hit me with a stone, or garden, at other times the rock patio. Every a sprained ankle from football: | year we plan to turn it into one or the other, | must admit that I add a little modern . or something exotic. But it's still just a pile" extra, I put the ice-cubeés in a towel until the : of rocks, each and everyone with sharp bleeding stops or is. merely oozing. Then I | edges. Many a chunk I've taken off my shin take them out, wash off any superfluous i blood, put them in a class, and pour some by veering a little to the right. : To make a long story short, I caught my medicine over then, just in case of shock. If | -my mother could see me doing this last right, limping foot on a heave in the sidewalk, and tumbled straight into the rock ancoure, sh she'd have gone into shock. She was a TT. pile. Loyal to the end, I ¢lung to the : groceries. In my right hand were two bags, And that's how I got my banged-up face. But my nose saved though worse. obviously loaded with canned goods. The shopping list, but got into the impulse buying game, 'and arrived home with five of those white plastic shopping bags, loaded to - the gunnels (the bags). Cunningly, I thought, "Well, I can handle three on one trip and go back for. the other two and still have one hand free to slam the