Lockdown

It's what comes to mind when I contemplate the town hall these days.

Councillors have been provided with names and titles of every employee in the administration. It was intended for ease of access to whatever information a Councillor might require to fulfill the role of judicious oversight.

The resource is no longer available to us.. Staff have apparently been instructed not to answer queries directly. Inquiries must be referred to department heads. Presumably for the purpose of control.

I had a question to-day. I sent an e-mail. An hour passed without response. I do not expect department heads to be stationed at computers, awaiting requests for information from Councillors. It would not be best practice. Yet it 's the new protocol in the Mormac regime.

I needed an answer. I called a secretary's number, then another and another and another and. finally I spoke with a voice and received the answer.

A run on copies of reports to Council is thirty-five .

We have received a report of eighty-four pages. Printed on both sides it is one hundred and sixty eight pages of print. Copied thirty-five times adds up to 5,880 pages.. That's a Magnum Opus

Content? A record of recorded votes during the current term of office.

A recorded vote allows a councillor's opposition to a decision to be a matter of record. Or conversely, to record names of those in support. It is the means available to a Councillor who wishes their opposition to be on record. That's its purpose.

It is not unusual for a member of this council , usually the Mayor, to request a recorded vote when there is no opposition. It's an exercise in futility.

It's like children playing officialdom and officialdee
.
My critics accuse me of being disruptive and not being a team player becasue I am frequently opposed to motions presented. I've never understood why a person should be expected to surrender the right to think and vote accordingly, by virtue of having been elected to office.From my perspective, it is the point of being elected.

Early in the term, Councillor MacEachern's friend, Walter Mestrinaro was encouraged to return to council time and time again to challenge the competence, authority and integrity of the CAO, Chief Building Official and Town Planning Director. His arguments were exhausted and in a final flourish of defiance, after weeks of virtual harassment, Councillor Mac Eachern moved to direct staff to submit a report giving a definition of the word "storage"

The report was prepared by the Chief Building Official. It had three separate dictionary references to the word. It was copied thirty-five times , submitted and received without comment.

Whether or not the vote was recorded to direct staff to undertake such a purposeless exercise I do not recall. I was most certainly adamantly opposed.

Neither did I support a current motion to compile a report using 5.880 pages of print, showing recorded votes cast during this term, so that someone with a Warrior pseudonym like Robert the Bruce can meekly and dutifully echo Team Mormac's complaints that I am"confrontational", not a "team player" and only need "enough rope to hang" myself.

Anyone undertaking the tedium of reading the report will no doubt form an opinion on how well town resources are being utilised and where the bones are buried.

Erratum: total pages of print in the report were eighty-four. It was still humongous.