Due Process

Sometimes I contemplate a situation and wonder..... how can that be organised into order and sense.

When it's written and I've turned it over and over again in my mind for loopholes in my logic, I realise the story is not complete.

A duplicate edition of a Master Parks and Recreation Plan presented to Council- in- Committee on Tuesday, is the case in point.

The Consultants completed part of their contract, when they submitted the final draft of the plan. Somehow it was steered into the hands of Councillor MacEachern,Chairman of the Leisure Services Advisory Committee.

Finally, after twelve months, a duplicate edition of the Final Draft has made its debut..

The consultants' work is repeated. Statistics, community input, tables, and all that led to the recommendations in the plan are there. The recommendations are different

On the face of it, council had given authority for a work/study group of LSAC members to study the plan. Names were included.

One of the members had resigned from the Leisure Services Advisory Committee at the time the baseball diamond project was being furiously batted about for maximum political advantage.

I called the town hall to check and asked how a group could meet without giving notice of meetings , posting an agenda, keeping a record of business and without staff. What about a quorum?

I learned a work/study group does just that. It allows for secrecy.

So..... there's no need to give notice of meetings, post agendas, have staff present, note quorum and keep records of the meetings.

How then, does such a group conduct town business and pass a resolution for an alternate Master Parks and Recreation Plan to be prepared, printed, circulated and placed on the agenda of a Council meeting for consideration and approval?

The answer is of course, it can not. No town business can be conducted by a work/study group.

No more than the record of a meeting can be changed, so as not to reflect what happened at the meeting.

Now we know, in the Mormac Regime both are possible.