Rogue Clause...Section 3

I am smarter now. If the pesky computer quits again , I can only lose part of the story.

During the last term, we contracted the services of Scott Somerville as Acting CAO due to a seven month failure to replace former CAO Larry Allison.

We sold our Hydro asset during that time. The deal was not done by the end of his contract, so we extended the contract to allow for the deal's completion.

In the interim, we persuaded John Rogers, now a former CAO of Aurora, to leave East Gwillimbury and join the Aurora administration.

Mr. Rogers had not applied for the post when it was advertised. We invited him to look us over and consider the opportunity.

When John Rogers made the fateful decision and joined Aurora, Mr. Somerville moved over and became interim treasurer, a position also vacant for some months. He was also assigned the task of re-writing the Procedural Bylaw. It was acknowledged by consensus of all parties familiar with such Bylaws, as possibly the worst ever written.

You know the joke about an elephant being a horse designed by a committee.

By the time the review was completed , there had been an election and the proposed amended Bylaw was presented to the new Council.

Among other changes, the offending clause was recommended to be removed.

Alas, it was not to be. The Morris clique were successful in the election with enough new members to create a majority. By the time they finished with the reviewed Bylaw it was worse than it was before and I suspect some of them had a hand in the previous one.

Councillor Mac Eachern, as usual, led the relentless arguments.The offending clause was retained. Though it wasn't said, obviously there wasn't much point in having control of committee membership, if you can't control who might be able to participate in the debate.

We added a new wrinkle to the Advisory Committee set-up.

Non- elected members may now preside as chairs of committees. Said Chairs have the right to give direction to staff and present reports to Council.

So...the elected and administrative authority of the town is further dissipated and made subject to the non-elected. Who may well be best friends and under control of the Mayor and Councillor Mac Eachern.

Did I entitle post this Rogue Clause?

Rogue Council might be more appropriate .

It's a sad story. Thanks for sticking it through to the end.