Manager defends plowing Surrey mayor's driveway

CBC B.C.
Plowing and sanding the mayor's driveway with a municipal plow-truck this week was the right thing to do, says Surrey's acting city manager, Murray Dinwoodie.Dinwoodie said he suggested to Mayor Diane Watts that the city clear her driveway, following the massive dump of snow in Greater Vancouver on Sunday. He said the mayor asked if that was OK, and he told her it was. And so her driveway was done. "The mayor should be available to undertake her duties as chief executive officer of the city. And ensuring that she's available to do that is, in my opinion, a reasonable thing to have happened," said Dinwoodie. "I made the decision that I had to make. I made it and life goes on from there," he said, speaking on the mayor's behalf. But that decision was wrong says the mayor of nearby Abbotsford. George Ferguson was snowed in this week for two days.He said his city staff also wanted to send a truck for his driveway. But he refused. "I was taught when first elected 33 years ago that municipal equipment should not be used for elected officials' driveways," Ferguson told CBC News. He also noted that with telephones, computers and fax machines, mayors don't have to be at their city hall offices to be able to do their jobs.