"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

Sunday 17 April 2011

A Point Can Be Made

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Westhill Development Application":

What about all the wasted staff time with the last council? Maybe we don't need all the additional staff now, and therefore we don't need refurbishment of the town hall.
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There is a point to be made.   At the same time, I have been behind the scenes in the treasury department.

Just once; to receive instruction for my blackberry.

My impression is a huge amount of  space is taken up with filing cabinets. People are squeezed in here and there. It is definitely oppressive.

 Staff time was  wasted on the Westhill application.  Council did not accept  planning recommendation for approval in principle with  continued work on outstanding matters in March 2008. They did not accept the Region' s comments. They did not accept advice from the Ministry of Environment or the Toronto and Region Conservations Authority or South Lake Simcoe Conservation authority.

I believe they encouraged neighbours to the property to spend resources on a wild goose chase to win a consolidated board hearing.All the while, causing the developer to spend massive resources on legal fees to defend their application.

Resources spent in three years of  futile legal processes , to defend the indefensible ,was where the  scandalous  waste  of resources both public and private occurred. 

I still maintain the  administrative re-organisation created a questionable need for new staff. I believe  the  purpose was neither efficiency or economy.

 I still contend the  purpose was in accordance with a pattern established from day one of the last term: to denigrate particular staff members; transfer authority from people with  skills to people without;  thereby creating the need for additional staff to fill the gap.

But even without additional staff, there is a need to re-organise the space available. The lease of the hydro building to the DND was  at least one opportunity lost to better utilise available  resources .

I think Council has a monumental task to consider various ramifications of decisions to be made in the near future.Past decisions must be reviewed.

I am hopeful they will not surrender their authority.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I understand that senior managers attended every day of the hearings. That is a significant amount of staff time that was directed to this issue and taken away from others. Did other staff then need to take up the slack? Overtime costs? It really makes you wonder of the REAL cost.
It will be interesting as you uncover those costs, Councillor Buck.