Water Audit Report

Item 3 If the August 14th Council Agenda was a water audit report, twenty- six pages long.

Staff recommendation was:

"Council receive the report for information and the town be an actiove participant in the York Region/Municipality Water audit.

That the town continue to investigate and implement best practices for water management"

"The purpose of the report is to follow up on the commitment during the 2011  budget discussions that introduces the application of a methodology for auditing water usage within a municipal water supply system to aid in a full accounting of the water inventory.The report also includes an assessment of internal water uses that have been previously unaccounted  regarding certain parks operations as recently identified during council discussions."

There are twenty six more pages. It was on the agenda for discussion on Tuesday night. We didn't deal with that and several other matters demanding our attention.

 For one thing. we had a twenty-one page dissertation from a delegate permitted to attend  for the third time  to hammer away on the issue of  the hazardous nature of  a single piece of playground apparatus.

He went to the five minute  limit of his time. The Mayor advised he had reached his limit.  He  continued as he saw fit.The Mayor allowed that too.

Councillor Gaertner had a question of the delegate which allowed him to take up again  the thread of his argument  even after he had more than exhausted his time.

Councillor Gaertner had a second question which provided further opportunity.

Rules of procedure permit  questions of a delegate They do not permit back and forth exchange with a delegate.  It's a ruse regularly employed  by a  Councillor who wishes to appear sympathetic, to assure a delegate of heart- felt  support despite what the dastardly council might do.

I raised  a point of order. The Mayor dismissed my point and allowed  the time-wasting charade to continue.

Councillor Gaertner argues it is her job  to ask questions to elicit information  for the public.

The Councillor is correct.

The job of   a Councillor  is many faceted. One is  to exercise judgment and be mindful, there  are twenty-six items of town business to be dealt with  and already an hour of  time scheduled  has  been taken up, la-di-da ,by matters which  are not  corporate business.

They are matters  brought before  Council by delegates with their own agenda  and no responsibility whatsoever for  town  business being completed  in  the  publicly scheduled time. 

In fact, two hours  passed on Tuesday, with council similarly occupied.   By the hour of midnight, one and a half hours after the scheduled time of adjournment, much of the agenda  had not been considered had actually  been  deferred until the next meeting, when the entire charade will no doubt be repeated,  the only change being faces at the podium.

 Councillor Gaertner brought up still  another  item  under  "new business " after  presumably a third motion  was passed to extend the hour of adjournment to complete a specific item on the table.
The last part I heard about.  I departed at midnight.

When the clock strikes  twelve, I turn into a pulpy pumpkin ready to explode and splatter everywhere, if I hear one more idiotic, nonsensical, irrelevant, irrational, inane, asinine insufferably stupid  comment which  all are, after listening non-stop for four hours and thirty minutes with the work at hand nowhere near completion.

Shades of the past:

When the main activity of the council , during prime time,  was devoted to delegations,  presentations and opportunities  for the Mayor and sundry others to cavort before the cameras.

After which  the sundries went home happy and content and the mundane business of the corporation received short shrift from  Councillors, who are  paid  for the single purpose of taking care of  business .

And all the while highly paid directors clock up  time off in lieu of all the hours spent as a captive audience  for  showcase  shenanigans carried out  under  the delusion  a Mayor and Council are elected for nothing more than dress-up  to grace the stage and perform for cameras. 

Once again, I  hear references to how much time the best members  spend  engaged in  activities around the town. Showing support for the groups who contribute meaningfully to the life of the community

While at the same time, giving short  shrift to  business only they have authority to decide.