The Week That Was

Continued to be turbulent. The Mayor circulated an e-mail a copy of a section of rules of order that deals with disorder at a Council meeting .

The spectre of expulsion from council was raised. As supporting documentation, a copy of a memorandum of the occasion which the Mayor loves to recall ,when I myself was expelled from Council.

The Mayor's recollection and understanding of the matter are substantially different from my own. Perhaps not surprisingly.

I had no Blog at that time.

I do now.

It occurred early in the last term. First we had the pure and righteous argument the Town should not be spending taxpayers money to go off site for a crash course orientation for new Councillors The public should be able to attend they argued.

I was not eager to go. But not for the same reason. The last orientation I attended, John West dragged us hundreds of miles deep into the boonies in the middle of winter to get the cheapest accommodation possible. .

I wasn't doing that again. There's careful management of town resources and there's just being plain tight-fisted and disrespectful. I am all for careful management and getting the most for the least but there's a limit. Either there's a legitimate reason for using town resources or there isn't. If there is, then it costs what it costs.

After the first divide between the pure and righteous and the rest of us, came the motion to turn the Town Hall driveway into a municipal address.

By 2004, John West had been elected consistently since the late seventies. He had held the office of Councillor, Mayor, School Board Trustee and two more terms as Councillor. He never lost an election. He defeated Dick Illingworth and others for the Office of Mayor.

Fourteen years earlier when the Town Hall was built, Council of the day honoured him by naming the road John West Parkway.

If there was public opposition to that decision, it was never reflected in the several elections that followed. He was still seated at the Council table.

The motion was moved and seconded. No reason was offered to support it. Ms Morris was the seconder. There were five votes in favour. It was clear the supporters were confident a majority was in hand..

I made the statement supporters of the motion were complicit in their objective.

There was an objection to the word "complicit". I was directed by the Mayor to retract it. I refused.

With the support of the Clerk, the Mayor ruled I would either have to retract or leave the Council table.

I chose to leave.

I said it, I meant it and I believed it .

The exchange was quiet and deliberate; no shouts of rage, or violent behaviour; no disorder or disruption of any kind.

A Councillor was exercising authority to articulate how she perceived an event unfolding.

A firmly held conviction expressed in language which accused no-one of criminal or immoral behaviour. A simple contention certain members of council had agreed beforehand on a question they put forward ... for which they offered no logic. Nor could they dispute that fact.

They didn't have to provide an argumenet. They knew they had the votes

A strategy was employed and they were clearly complicit.

By their action, against human decency and the rules of order, they collectively and publicly humiliated and denigrated a Council colleague .

I chose to name it the way I saw it. It was political discourse within the realm of rights and privilege.

Choosing to leave the Council table that night, is a decision I regret.

Damn the torpedoes, I should have stayed.

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