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What the public didn’t know was that it was the mayors who originally suggested raising property taxes, and that it was they who suggested it to Fassbender. After last year’s disastrous referendum, which saw the mayors’ $7.5-billion, 10-year transit plan rejected by the public in an overwhelming No vote, a select group from the mayors’ council held a series of private meetings with the provincial government in hopes of salvaging something from the wreckage. Their suggestion to raise property taxes, which they had been previously refused to do, was a concession to the province to break the policy impasse. Several mayors I talked to felt Fassbender saw the opportunity to play politics, instead.

“This,” wrote Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore in an email to me, “was a betrayal of the Mayors’ Council.”

Moore, who is in China at the moment, wrote that Fassbender had been well-apprised of the council’s intentions.

“The (council) passed a resolution regarding the funding source at our meeting in April and sent (Fassbender) an official letter with all the details and asking for a response. After which, we had two meetings with (him). Our goal, collectively, was to work together and announce a funding solution together — he knew this at both meetings. We originally planned to have the Mayors’ Council meeting May 10, but (Fassbender) wanted more time to respond, so we adjusted our meeting to May 26. Why (he) decided to negotiate through the media is beyond me. In fact, he has yet to officially respond to our letter even though he asked for more time and agreed to our date of May 26. All we know to date is what we read by his comments in the media.