A Question of Protocol.

The "Protocol"cited by the town solicitor as a reason to withhold information was conjured up recently by the Mayor.

During a meeting I asked the Director of Public Works about the "windrow clearing" program provided to thirty-one residents. The Mayor stated a notice of motion was required and further, a resolution had to be approved by council to direct the Director to answer the question. Publicity for the program was clearly not welcome.

Consistency is not a priority with the Mayor.Hours of council time are monopolised by particular councillors with questions to staff. One member is admonished for failing to obtain answers prior to the council meeting while others continue ad infinitum with questions that never lead anywhere.

The Mayor will interrupt a councillor and drag staff into the debate to refute a point of argument. While another is encouraged to flagrantly flout the rules to press home a point of questionable logic. The practice directly contravenes the rules but so long as the majority support the Mayor's unique concept of leadership, inconsistency will be rule rather than the exception.

Last term, our former Mayor was regularly flailed with accusations of bias. Ironically if councillors were sufficiently conversant with the rules and observed them, ample time would be available for each to make their arguments with civility and pesky points of order would seldom be heard.

Incidentally, the report promised by staff on the "windrow clearing" project has not yet seen the light of day. At year-end, Public Works was said to have over-spent their budget by almost half a million. No explanation was provided.

The Legal Services Reserve Account was depleted last year as well. So that budget was also overspent. The account was replenished with $200k from 2008 supplementary revenues. Another nice chunk of change which would have helped reduce the tax bite further.