Grist For The Mill

Here's what I know to date. Deputy-Mayor Bob McRoberts and Councillor Alison Collins- Mrakas have not received their copy of the one and only decision.

Bob has e-mailed the Director of Corporate Services inquiring when he might receive it.The Councillor is an extremely courteous, thoughtful and temperate individual.There has been no response.

The Director has resigned. with a month's notice. In not responding to Bob's query she is either, not at the Town Hall , she is refusing to participate in the political melee or they've tied her up and stuffed her into a broom closet

I'll write a Blog about the reality of being a municipal public servant one of these days. In the best of circumstances , it is not like any other job.

Following the trail of the decision; it was forwarded to the office of the Director of Corporate Services . The Director was on vacation. The Deputy-clerk acts in the absence of the clerk. The Statute requires a municipality must appoint a clerk and a Deputy both with certification. Why? things like marriage licences and death certificates have to be issued and Commissioner of Oath services and stuff like that. You know...public records and stuff.

A Town Hall cannot operate without the Town Clerk or a Deputy. You can do without a CAO. You can do without a lawyer in the house.

You can't function without a Town Clerk or a Deputy Clerk.

The Deputy had copied the decision on pink paper, inserted it into plain brown envelopes, marked them confidential , placed one in each councillor's box in the councillors' room and sent e-mails informing councillors, they were there.

Twenty minutes later the e-mail was recalled and the envelopes were gathered back up.

It seems Mr. Cooper, town solicitor, who has no role in the matter, ordered them to be recovered.

He directly informed me later, after extensive consultation with the Mayor,that the Deputy-clerk had not been appointed Acting Clerk by Council. He on the other hand, had been appointed Acting C.A.O. and it was his decision the Deputy Clerk did not have authority in the matter of distributing the Integrity Commissioner's decision.

Therefore ...

So I waited. The Director of Corporate Services (Town Clerk)returned the following Monday. I went to the Town Hall with a CBC reporter and cameraman. After a couple of hours , I received the document it was always my right to receive.

Still neither Deputy Mayor McRoberts nor Councillor Collins Mrakas have received theirs.
Councillor MacEachern sent an e-mail informing ,they were not entitled because hey did not sign the complaint,she said.

Councillor Granger has suddenly come out of his shell, big brave fellow that he is, and started a stream of abusive e-mails to Allison. Knowing the Councillor's peculiar facility with words the authorship is suspect.

I am reminded of the account of how he threatened a little girl on a bicycle cart selling ice cream. in the street around the town park. He reduced her to tears...big brave gladiator that he is.

But back to the plot, the Integrity Commissioner directed the Clerk, the decisions were to be forwarded to eight councillors and moi.

I read verbatim to reporters , the actual decision made by the Commish. The CBC reporter was at my elbow when I opened the envelope, please. What I read was not as stated by the Mayor to the press later, "a selected excerpt"

It seems the complainants quickly became aware there is more to the business of filing a complaint than previously realised. Spending tens of thousands of dollars on a lawyer to ferret out material and write it for them , wasn't enough.

I kept telling them the process cuts both ways. But they wouldn't listen.Oh Dear me.. .No. They had their eye on the ball.

Well whit kin ye dae. ..these young yins...ye canny tell them onything...even fur thir ain benefit

Even before the Commissioner set up the first one,Councillor Alison had advised of the need for training. Councillor MacEachern declared emphatically she had no intention of attending any training. The Code of Conduct had only one purpose in her mind. She repeated her adamant opposition when the Commissioner set up two educational workshops for council.

If they had attended , they might have learned something but there's no guarantee. Three of them didn't attend the first one; the Mayor and Councillors MacEachern and Gallo. The second one was not permitted.

Had they met with the Commish when he requested a meeting to rate damage caused by my comments, which is the informal process to attempt to resolve differences, they might have become more proficient in their effort or understood it wasn't going to fly.

Instead, I believe, when they discovered their triumphant denouement of moi had the potential to backfire,they made hasty plans and announced a special meeting before the decision could be forwarded and distributed.


The decison came through first . So they tried to bury it.

Then the Director of Corporate Services returned from vacation and did what the rules required.

Picture the Adventures of Sylvester the Cat and Tweetie Pie. at this juncture.

Then they had their meeting and stripped the Integrity Commissioner of his "powers" It took almost six hours to figure out how to break the news.

The latest strategy is for the Mayor to declare the matter still in abeyance until a new Director of Integrity is appointed. Councillor Buck is only giving out "selective" parts of the decision. The Councillor was not "exonerated"

That's because their accusations didn't stick. They were held to be "wholly political"

One Councillor said the wrong person was appointed as Commissioner. It should have been a lawyer. I'll bet they have one in mind.

In the meantime, the Director of Corporate Services suddenly exhibited , after providing me with a document it was my right to receive, a preference for retirement.

The Mayor says, it's "outrageous"to suggest anything different.

A Council meeting for August 11th was cancelled without explanation. That would have been the first meeting after receipt of the decision at which the document was required to be made public.

The Mayor has announced it will be made public at the next Meeting in September and it will be accompanied by a "statement"

.Damned if I know what the statement will state. I'm just a Councillor after all.