"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

Wednesday 29 February 2012

When Is An Amendment Not An Amendment ?

Resident has left a new comment on your post "What!! What!!!":

What the heck happened? Isn't this outcome very similar to the motion to defer that was defeated earlier on in the evening.

You've gotta love politics. A well written motion is put on the table, it's hotly debated. Somebody suggests an amendment that cuts the legs out from under it and the original movers all vote against it - yet it passes

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An Amendment is not an amendment when it changes the intent of the original motion.

The normal process  if you can't vote for a motion is you vote against it.But that would be too too simple. 

What happened last night was a non amendment , moved by Councillor Humphryes,seconded by Councillor Thompson and supported by Mayor Dawe, in alliance  with Gaertner, Gallo and Ballard, to remove a clause from the motion ,which, as noted above "cut the legs right out from under it"

The castrated motion passed. It puts your elected Council, in the position of going cap in hand to a hitherto recalcitrant board now in charge of  negotiations.

It happened three hours after debate started. The town's business agenda was set side to accommodate  the crowd.

Only one  other item of substance was on the agenda.Three people  from an architect firm were in the Council Chamber to support a  presentation of the Director of  Parks and Recreationon  for a Teen Centre.

They left around eleven  A  fee  of course will be charged  for services not rendered. And maybe an add-on   for being forced to watch an indiginity performed on  an honorable institution of government .

Legal  fee for attending council for a consultation is $5000.

Twenty minutes are  allowed on a public agenda for public forum.The Mayor said, contrary to the Procedure Bylaw,  he would extend the time to thirty-five minutes. He did not request a vote to allow the bylaw to be waived.An hour later we were still listening to grossly exaggerated  statements in support of  an untenable and pigs trough scandalous  version of an agreement.

Councillors Abel and Pirri, mover and seconder of the motion , each told of  separate  futile attempts  over  many weeks to resolve the issue without the termination clause being cited. 

The Mayor, in a lengthy statement told of  earnest attempts  over the last year and a half  to win a modicum of collaberation from the  board and being  blunty told  it was not going to happen.

Susan Walmer was there working the crowd, handing out leaflets,
collecting names and addresses.  Catherine Marshall putting in her two cents and a host of others repeating the same fallacies over and over.

Hard, contrived  humourless  laughter  and  repeated applause for favoured speakers was permitted by the chair .

Finally, when all had been said and done and past time for the matter to be disposed, out of the blue,up comes a proposed  amendment which wasn't.

The vote was taken and lickety- split, we were a  mile  behind where we started .

 A self-appointed  board in possession of a valuable town asset leased to them for one dollar a year , utilities and maintenance paid   as well handing over a hulking sum  annually this year increased to  $356,000.

$325,000 is a full point in the tax rate.

This year,the town is imposing 4.77% increase  in taxes over last.
And presenting it as efficient fiscal management.

Three hundred and forty e-mails were received by  Councillors, all
displaying an astounding degree of ignorance and misinformation,
most likely  the responsibility of   Councillor  Ballard  and a board staff member   and probably two thirds from people who do not live in our town and pay no share of our taxes.

So  completely neutered was the motion, the  mover and seconder could no longer support it.

It was the first real test of the term. An issue pending for fifteen months.  The clock  ticks on.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now I can empathize better with Richard's determination not ever to get involved in Municipal politics again. Just when you think you have a tiny understand of the swirls and eddies, a blast from nowhere sends you wildly off into space. I would dearly love to have Mayor Dawe go on TV and explain how anything that happened at that meeting served the town. If he is allowed to move about town without his faithful staff sidekick who has shoved his way into the lead spot. .Don't know which is the master but the tilting with windmills seems accurate.

Anonymous said...

Last night's performance was a complete travesty.

Mormac is gone, yet they live on.

I am completely deflated.

Anonymous said...

LAST NIGHT MAKES THE MICKEY MOUSE CLUB LOOK LIKE ADULT ENTERTAINMENT!

Anonymous said...

LAST NIGHT MAKES THE MICKEY MOUSE CLUB LOOK LIKE ADULT ENTERTAINMENT!

Anonymous said...

One Team Aura t-shirt straight into the garbage without a thought to re-cycling. Garbage night's tomorrow - gone !

Anonymous said...

Nothing really new here. Dawe would not study the rules of procedure and propped himself up with the two new senior staff. I doubt if he gave Evelyn the time of day because of his huge electoral win. Brought it on his own head and on all of ours. Bummer!

Anonymous said...

Sorry. Rule question again. Is there anything to prevent an emergency Council meeting to say 'we screwed up' and correct this mess? It is their Council and they are entitled to goof. Is there no remedy?

Anonymous said...

New Word " Disgustipated "

Anonymous said...

Watching the Council Meeting on TV. the speakers were better during the arguments on the twin-humped
camel apparatus. Why was this allowed to happen ?

Anonymous said...

OMG ! They could have terminated the agreement and put the new one into place. Grand-standing by the entitlements once again. Council caved in. And the outsiders drove home without spending a dime unless some enterprising fund=raiser hit them up for the Cultural Center. Do they not see themselves as we do?
Lazy, greedy posers who pay not a cent in rent or revenue. Patrons of the Arts on Taxpayer Dollars. Way to make a contribution to the community. NOT.