An Introduction to Pissing In The Park

We pay taxes for a multi-million dollar administration. This year , under the Mormac regime, we paid a consultant many thousands of dollars to carry out a "re-organization study". which resulted in thirty-five new positions recommended.

Then we had a" space planning study " We are now occupied with changing the interior design of the town hall to accommodate the re-organized administration.

Of course, more expense.

In the last post, I presented evidence of e-mail messaging which relays to you better than any words of mine, how this administration is functioning ( or not) under the control of Morris and MacEachern.

We spent $53Ks for a Consultant to update our Master Recreation Plan. We gave him terms of reference. The Draft was presented after consultation with interested parties. The concerns and needs of volunteers providing the various recreation programs formed part of the conclusions.

Of Course.

The Draft was referred by Council, no doubt on a motion by the Councillor, to Councillor MacEachern's Leisure Services Advisory Committee. From whence it went to "a work study group" of three which needed to provide no notice or agenda for meetings.

Membership was Councillor MacEachern, the Mayor's friend Ken Whitehurst, and a newly appointed citizen member.

The Draft prepared by the Consultant did not re-appear for more than a year. When it did, it was accompanied by a duplicate prepared by Councillor MacEachern, Mr. Whitehurst and the novice member which reflected the town's future needs according to their views.

Council did not choose the professionally prepared Draft Plan.They chose the MacEachern-Whitehurst Plan.

Councillor Grainger, a participant in the e-mail series,.is a member of the Leisure Services Advisory Committee. He moved the motion in July 2008 that rejected the staff recommendation to provide portable toilets in the parks.Now he apparently has no memory of the resolution let alone the rationale.

At the end of every Council meeting, a Confirming Bylaw is passed. The process makes a bylaw of every decision made during the meeting.

For a statement in the newly adopted Master Recreation Plan , to take precedence over the Bylaw prohibiting port-a-potties in the park, the bylaw passed on July 25th had to be rescinded and replaced.

It never happened.

Staff are subject to Council authority.

Providing amenities where needed in parks has never been something for Councillors to worry their pretty little heads about. The only reason the recommendation was before Council was for funds to be approved.

You had to be there at the time to know no opportunity was ever missed by Councillor MacEachern and friends to remind the former administration who were the new bosses.

If you are searching for even a smidgen of logic or concern for the needs of park users .......don't....you won't find it.

It was and is all about power,man. About wielding the big stick. And making people's lives miserable.

Unless of course, you happened to be a friend.