That Damned Elusive Pimpernel

My grand-daughter's calico cat still crouches with every muscle taut when he spies a likely prey.  His  spring  however is less than spectacular when he takes off.
I still have one- who- shall- be nameless crouching in wait for every post, ready to heap coals of fire upon my head for all my supposed misdeeds.
Occasionally a reference will be made to a time before her arrival   to prove my perfidy.
Yesterday's post was an example of  failure during my watch to make the correct decision when the sewer pipe lining program was first proposed. 
Another post might trigger a reference to how often  mine was the solitary vote in opposition.
The sewer pipe lining program was already in place when I returned to Council in 2003. Like storm water ponds.I challenged the purpose of both.
As I did  the  economic development department and a host of other items that did not appear to me to justify themselves. 
We are now regularly advised how progressive we were. How much more advanced than other municipalities.
Excuse me while I turn aside to smile unseen in irony. 
It's something like the Trillium grant the award winning jazz festival got two years ago.They had to get one from the town first to prove they had community support. They joined the festival association which provides awards for excellence and that  further bolstered their eligibility for another grant from government last year..
But I digress.    
When I came back in 2003, we  had a split on Council between  "old-timers" and  newcomers. Votes divided along those lines.
The old-timers weren't putting up much of a fight. Glowering glances,  sombre insinuation and a proclamation of the towering need for a Code Of Righteous Conduct along  lines of moral principles of  Dark Vadar
EVERYBODY outside the tight little group of newcomers  was suspect; including staff.
The first move to clean things up was to create a name for a street that didn't exist. in order to remove  the name of a former Mayor from the Town hall address.
For no more noble reason than it was a campaign advantage worth thousands of dollars. 
I started this post to underline the disadvantage of a split Council.
It's a contradiction in terms. 
It's a failure in leadership. 
NOBODY wins. 
Not Council, not the administration, not the community.
I also intended to explore  the concept that because Councillors are not "experts", they are obliged to accept the advice of   "experts" whose purpose it is to provide "expert" advice.
It may be, a mainly newbie Council  needs to have  a couple of chunks removed from nether regions to discover how much less of  a comfort blanket that concept really is. 
And since I am zig-zagging between this and that  in this post I think I would be  further ahead to quit now.