Small Is Good

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Separation of Political and Administrative":

Rules of order I feel are guidelines rather than hard and fast rules when it come to local government.

Was there any harm caused by Sandra's actions?

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The writer is misguided. Rules of order  are legislated by bylaw for the purpose of  completing corporate  business in a timely and  efficient manner.

Nine people are engaged in  decision-making.

It's  not possible  without acceptance of a set of rules all agree to live by.

Rules  should not stifle debate. 

Rules must be fair to all.

Rules should be few, simple, straightforward and easily memorised.

Points of order  to silence a  point of view or  prevent information from being brought forward do not contribute  to good order. They feel like harassment. 

Rules must be combined with even-handed  judgment. 

With  social media  at our finger tips, that which  is not allowed to be said during a debate in council  will   effectively be broadcast  elsewhere.

Without pros and cons, the essence of debate is lost.

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I caught a flash news item day before yesterday. An audit of Toronto's 311 phone service has revealed 21% of phone calls are lost. They get no response.

 311 is apparently the number for  citizen inquiries or communications with the city.

Two years ago, it cost the city $40million to implement and $20million to operate. 

It sound like a Customer Service Gizmo that doesn't work.

You can call me an old-stick-in-the- mud. I have argued against  a "customer service" system being introduced at great expense  and  lost the argument.

Funds have been expended and more will be. It's included in the budget.

 I know of no  problem with customer service that needed attention. People call the town office. If, for any reason, there is no response, they have eight Councillors and a Mayor available. Calls I receive are nothing I can't handle. I imagine most members  would say the same.

We are a small town. We are not, in the foreseeable future,  going to be anything  but a small town

If we  can't  provide  quality customer service to residents without buying  an expensive "system" devised by some outfit  with a crack sales pitch, something is seriously out of kilter and its not.

I don't care if Whitchurch-Stouffville and Newmarket are doing it.

I wonder if  the severely critical audit report to Toronto Council means the system will be deemed to have created  problems that weren't there in the first place?

How much of the taxpayers money will have been wasted?

What will it take to get out of the mess?

We are glad we don't live in Toronto . We  should be able to influence the decisions to be made.