Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "E-Mail From The Mayor":
I'm glad that the mayor is still committed to negotiating. However, invoking the termination clause will not facilitate those negotiations. One party holding a proverbial gun to the head of the other party is not bargaining in good faith.
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I have had pleas to stop talking about Church Street School . It has been a pre-occupation since I discovered the museum would not be restored to its rightful place.
I've been told "Get over it"
Tat I will not.
It was my resolution to Council in 2006 to use some of the hydro asset fund to finish what was started by the Historical Society: complete the renovations, get the collection out of boxes and available for enjoyment and enlightenment of the community.
The Board would have to be completely out of touch not to recognize growing resentment in the community at their decision to exclude the Historical Society and the museum from the building,
where they had invested all of their time and resources for so many years.
In three years, the board has never acknowledged or attempted to resolve the situation.
Instead an ill-informed campaign has been organized to oppose any decision by Council to resolve the problem.
The solicitor's report that the agreement does not reflect public interest was published several months ago.
Still no move.
For some of us on Council, it indicated there is no intention to resolve the problem. For three others, no problem exists.
There is no gun at anyone's head.These are not union negotiations.
Council not only has authority and obligation to act responsibly in the interest of the people we are sworn to represent. If the will is there,that's what will happen.
A decision is long overdue. .
If a set of books were to miraculously appear, who would give them any credence?
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to know what percentage of the vigorous-voiced screamers venting their spleens in support of their Cultural Centre have actually taken the time to find and read General Committee Report No. LGL11-011, dated December 6, 2011, prepared by Warren Mar, Director of Legal Services/Town Solicitor?
ReplyDeleteHis report deals with the Provision of Cultural Services Agreement, rather than with two other legal documents that together form the entire "file." As a bit of background he reports that the Town did not have a Town Solicitor in its employ; the Town's Associate Solicitor was on maternity leave and despite this absence of a lawyer in the Town's employ to oversee the required legal work, no permission was granted to retain external legal counsel for the matter. However, the Town's General Municipal/Litigation Law Clerk was directed to provide on-going advice with respect to the matter and draft the required agreements.
As an aside, the former mayor was quick off the mark in having the Town retain expert external lawyers to assist her in the pursuit of her defamation lawsuit against three town residents.
If this is the degree of legal experience that was utilized by the Town by the then disgraceful and now fully disgraced Mayor, it is no wonder that the "PCSA" as it exists today is such a rat's nest of generalities and loopholes. At one point the report questions the Centre's very objectives; do they still fit the Town's current objectives?
There is even the quaint suggestion by Mr. Mar that minutes of the Centre's Board meetings should be made available to all residents of the Town.
A major thrust of the report, close to the outset, is that the Town may wish that the Centre move towards becoming a self-sustaining entity. As such the funding would be reduced on an annual basis, not increased. The Centre may be able to become self-sustaining through non-Town grant funding, fundraisers, donations, the collection of fees for services, and facility rentals. As a self-sustaining entity the Centre might end up having to pay rent to the Town, property taxes, assume responsibility for all repairs and maintenance and insurance.
Perhaps the parties should sit down in a calm, serious and sensible manner to deal with an ill-conceived and amateurish agreement and see how it might be possible to manage to salvage something that is in the best interests of the entire community.
If anyone on Council is considering using the planned invasion by Culture maniacs as an excuse to postpone termination of the Center's agreement, they had better rethink. The time for wiggle-room has passed. Get that damn thing done, please.
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