First Comment To The Last Post

Councillors are entitled to receive   information  they  request. Everything  at the town hall is  public business except  employees are entitled to the same privacy as all others.

The last Council was a complete aberration from the norm. By the end nothing was functioning  as it should

Normally. the political and administrative are separate authorities.  Professional staff provide expertise. The elected body makes decisions that provide  direction for staff to follow. Not the other way about.When an elected official is intent on exercising all authority, that's not hard to set up with a majority block of votes and compliant staff.

The current Mayor only knows how it was left. I daresay it looks like something he can handle.  He has yet to discover how wrong that  is. 

Church Street School is a town facility like any other. The building has always been shared, The museum  was managed  by a curator .Members of the Historical Society gave countless hours of their time. Like Theatre Aurora, having their own space meant everything to them.

General care and management of the facility was  under  the Leisure Services Department.It worked well  until a noisy member of the Historical Society decided  since they were raising  funds for the renovation,  they should be in  full charge of the building. The Director of  Leisure Services should butt out.

That's where the cookie started to crumble. They got what they wanted. Then the  haughty one disappeared from sight and sound. No-one of equal independence and determination  took her place. It can and does happen in a volunteer organisation. Sort of like Wind in the Willows.Not a good path for an elected body to follow.

What had been a good working relationship for twenty-five years, broke like Humpty-Dumpty into a million pieces and all the Queen's Horses and All the Queen's men  have had no inclination to put Humpty together again.

The Director was further marginalised in the consultant led  staff  re-organisation. His responsibilities were reduced by half and transferred to another without  expertise. And if anyone thinks that was the consultant's idea ,they are out of their tree. It gave the elected C.E.O. power unknown before. Same thing happened with the Director of Corporate and Customer Services.

So, along with other problems created, we find ourselves with a loosy-goosy agreement capable of being interpreted  every which way but up and a new council determined there must be logic where there isn't. What I have to relate is not credible. You have to have been there to know the truth of it.

It has taken time to arrive at this point. When we are past it, I am certain the pace will quicken.

Council asked for a staff review of the agreement. What they got was an audit of agreement compliance. It's not what was requested. They don't have to look far to understand why.

We are still dealing with residuals.


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