Funds are Not Missing

The impression continues to linger that $438,000 hard-earned taxpayers dollars have been misappropriated and that Council allowed it to happen.

It is not so.

Let me re-iterate - the money was paid by the town to the contractor who did corrective work on the new Rec Complex. Responsibility for the expenditure was acknowledged and liability accepted by the architects who designed the facility. The appropriate action has been taken by staff to recover the funds from the party responsible for incurring the cost.

Town staff did nothing except fulfill their responsibility. Council did not evade theirs. The circumstances are not unusual. There is nothing sinister about the process.

It is not surprising that people still believe public funds have gone astray and council was asleep at the switch. A formal statement issued by the town created that impression. The Mayor's comments supported the misinformation. The information was accepted by The Banner and a harsh and accusatory editorial was written. Now even more public funds are being spent in advertising to fend off the backlash.

Staff have been maligned. Reputations ripped to shreds. It's hard to see how that can be put right. Equally devastating is the underlying damage to the town's reputation for competence and integrity.

When an official of the corporation puts out a statement unsupported by the facts, how can the tax-paying public be expected to sort out fact from fiction?

The choice is simple; choose the version they prefer or the one which makes most sense or who has the most winning smile or great skill with baffle gab.

Aurora deserves better.