I missed the first minutes of the Ethics commissioner's presentation last night but I 'll get the DVD and talk about it later..
For now, let me tell you what they did to Alison last night. It was much the same as they did to Former Councillor Grace Marsh, only this time it was more carefully orchestrated and graphically apparent..
In the 2007 budget Grace ,whose expertise is municipal finance, successfully persuaded council to accept the treasurer's advice and make a sufficient contribution to reserves. As the weeks went by though, we saw steady hacking away at it by the MorMac twins. Eventually it was cut. The slick and sly and singularly focused determination contributed to Grace's despair about the possibility of being allowed to contribute and at least partly led to her resignation.
Part of Alison's election platform was a commitment to work for a solution for the growing problem of graffiti vandalism. She was successful in obtaining council permission for an ad hoc committee and worked for months with fellow citizens and the Regional Police. The work culminated in successful promotion of Graffiti Clean Up day.
It didn't mean graffiti was saved for a year to be cleaned up. Nor that the problem disappeared.
What it did was increase public awareness and involve the community in helping to solve the problem. Materials were donated, people turned out to participate in the scrub-down.. With the objective successfully realised , the Committee was dissolved.
Last night, on invitation from the mayor a representative from the Police Department appeared as a delegate and expressed appreciation for town support, reported on successful apprehension of numerous miscreants and announced May 29th as Graffiti Clean up date for 2009
First commendations to the police were repeated around the table. Then the systematic attack began. One after another made a contribution to denigrating the merits of the program.
What did it cost? How many man hours were involved.? Aren't staff cleaning up graffiti on an on-going basis ? Exactly what was the bill? Why did this happen and that not?
At that point Mr. Garbe , Chief Administrative Officer intervened to defend the police and assign responsibility for a particular failure to a junior staff member.
Each one of the cast had lines to read. The play ended with a comment from the Mayor denigrating the efforts of a particular individual who was not named although when challenged , reference to Councillor Collins-Mrakas was denied.
The final scene had the Mayor leaving the table to escort the police officer from the Town Hall, no doubt reassuring him all the way of council support for police efforts.
I fervently wished Mr.Fitkin, the Ethics Commissioner could have stayed for the performance. He had made an observation during the workshop on ethics indicating presumption of collegiality in the working relationship of a council.
Huh ! In a pig's ear.
I feel for Alison, but she is tough and has great support in the community. That, of course, makes her an even bigger target for the Mayor.
ReplyDeleteI'm now going to make a point of assisting this project.
http://www.yorkregion.com/News/Aurora/article/90326
It sounds like because this wasn't her initiative - and she can't take credit - the mayor has made yet another desperate attempt to crush it or beat it down...
ReplyDeleteOnce again, the mayor is an embarrassment to herself and our Town.
Her agenda is obvious and rather pathetic. She is fooling no one with this nonesense
On a side note, I hope someone apologizes to the police.
Please tell me this wasn't on tv...
It is indeed unfortunate that the current Mayor, and her cabal, have no concept of how to pull together for the common good.
ReplyDeleteI would think that an anti-graffiti program would be welcome.
But, as this has not come from her office, she will do or say anything to discredit it.
If I recall correctly, after last year's graffiti cleanup day Councillor Collins-Mrakas had a letter in the Auroran, thanking one and all for their participation. The Mayor, in one of her typical desperate moves for recognition, then wrote essentially the same letter, making sure her name was first and foremost. The fact that she had nothing to do with it is secondary.
The more I see and hear and read of this Mayor, the more convinced I am of her psychopathic behaviour. And, by that I mean what is known as a “Corporate Psychopath”, as defined by Paul Babiak, PhD and Robert D Hare, PhD, in their book: “Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work” From that book comes a quiz, called Business Scan 360. If you can answer yes to at least 6 of these questions, then there is a good chance that shoe fits:
1: Does the person in question come across smooth, polished and charming?
2: Do they turn most conversations around to a discussion about them?
3: Do they discredit or put others down in order to build up their own image and reputation?
4: Can they lie with a straight face?
5: Do they consider people they have outsmarted or manipulated to be stupid?
6: Are they opportunistic, ruthless, hating to lose and playing to win?
7: Do they come across as cold and calculating?
8: Do they sometimes act in an unethical or dishonest manner?
9: Have they created a powerful network in the organization, then used it for personal gain?
10: Do they show no regret for making decisions that negatively affect the organization, shareholders or employees?
Thank you Junius! What an astute observation. Talk about an accurate description of her worship, you've nailed it. Now we have to work to put an administration in this Town that can get the job done.
ReplyDeleteLooks like our Mayor scores 10 out of 10 on this list.
ReplyDeleteThe Mayor is so obviously troubled - she thinks she is too clever by half, but more and more residents are twigging to her which just seems to be putting her in hyper-drive.
Let's hope we have a viable alternative on the ballot for the next election.
Junius' quiz certainly nails what our Mayor is all about. But am still puzzled as to why this is an issue now.
ReplyDeleteHer actions as a councillor certainly served as a prelude to what we are getting now.
For example:
1) The Mark Neeb affair and the crap that led to his leaving the town. Initiated by guess who?
2) The off site councillor orientation fiasco. Again a Morris orchestrated boondoggle. Interestingly, as a newly minted Regional Councillor she quietly went to their OFF SITE orientation with nary a concern.
3) During the last term it was amazing to see Ms Morris always vote against whatever Tim Jones voted for. Even on routine items Ms Morris seemed to be on the "partly cloudy" side of the proverbial "partly sunny" vote. Obviously a ruse to be seen as standing up to the incumbant mayor.
4) Staff turnover seemed to increase once Ms Morris and her vaunted HR Experience appeared. Not only were town staff screwed over I'm told Regional Staff experienced first hand Morris' shenanigans all in an effort to make herself look good.
So again I ask, why the hue and cry now? The warning signs were always there.
There needs to be a continual "hue and cry" where this mayor is concerned.
ReplyDeleteTo just sit back and continue to accept her behavior without comment would be folly.