"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Saturday 31 July 2010

Rogue Clause ...Second Section.

I had this post finished but my computer cut out and I lost the second half.

It's weird but when I have poured my thoughts out and edited them repeatedly, it's like they have been poured from a jug. Having to re-write is means re-calling them in order, put them back into the jug and pour them out again.

I don't have an option. The story is obviously only half told.

So six hours after the start:

I was saying about that clause. It's not only disrespectful of a councillor's authority, it is not in accordance with provincial regulations.

In a proposed amendment to the Procedural Bylaw last term, I moved removal of the offending clause .

In the debate, Councillor Vrancic demurred. He said; "No chairman would dis-allow a Council member the right to speak"

I responded . " It has happened Councillor "

Former Councillor Betty Pedersen was seated at the press desk .

I noted the Councillor had not only been refused the right to speak, she had been ordered to remove herself from a seat at the committee table. I added further, Councillor Vrancic had been the chairman who so ordered.

The debate ended at that point . The amendment was approved to be recommended to Council. But....... it was a divided vote. The Morris clique including Councillor Keane was opposed.

Former Councillor Ron Wallace was not in attendance .

Subsequently the recommendation came before Council, Councillor Wallace's negative vote defeated it.

That was the night of infamy . I laboriously traversed the circle on my cane and ruffled the hair of his head with a particularly thin edition of his own newspaper publication.

Ron Wallace and I are friends of long standing acquaintance. Like forty years.

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