I Had A Call

I received a phone call last evening, before The Agenda for Tuesday's Council meeting. 
What is the meaning of Item 2?  my caller wished me to explain. 
The item deals with  Tuesday's decision in committee to  award the Notice Board contract to The Auroran.
Staff had recommended the  contract be  awarded  to The Banner. 
After a debate  of  almost two  hours , covering every aspect of the question;with all Councillors participating;on the basis of information provided by staff and other aspects, a majority decided the contract should be awarded to The Auroran. 
One might call it a fine example of open, transparent and vigorous government. No holds  barred. Strong convictions articulated. 
The staff  case rested on a "readership audit" carried out by a third party on behalf of The Banner. 
It was noted in the debate  the "readership audit" was two years out of date 
The Banner's bid  was not advanced by the "audit"
In the scoring,  The Auroran  lost points because it had no "readership audit"
Staff have now discovered  a new factor, the "audited readership" provided two years ago by The Era? Banner did not break out Aurora readership from Aurora/Newmarket circulation of the paper with  East Gwillimbury  in there as well. 
The upcoming  Agenda contains a Report from the CAO with the following recommendation .
That Council not adopt the September 4th 2012 General Committee recommendation to award the Notice Board RFP to the Auroran.:
That Council cancel the Notice Board RFP; and
That Council provide direction to staff regarding publication of the Notice Board.
The Purpose of the report is to provide Council with an update on the Notice Board Request for proposal (RFP) after taking into consideration  the comments made at the General Committee meeting.
The alternative to the recommendation is for Council to direct staff to negotiate terms of reference of a sole source contract , to the satisfaction of the Chief Administrative Officer , with a local newspaper for the publication of the Town's Notice Board  and authorize the Mayor and  Town Clerk to execute such an agreement.
In other words, pretend everything that happened on Tuesday  didn't;that the staff recommendation failed;that, after a full and comprehensive debate, and discovering for ourselves what needed to be considered,  a clear motion moved  and duly seconded, decided the question with  a majority of five votes.
Now we are  being advised   to strip ourselves of  authority to make the decision and hand it over to staff.
This after a  prior recommendation by staff  failed for lack of validity.
We did what we needed to do. We exercised our judgement. 
A decision made in Committee must be ratified in Council.
It is an opportunity for sober second thought.
If a motion passed in committee needs more work, the  opportunity is there  to clarify the intent.
Since the Notice Board was established, Council has authorised the contract.
It has always gone to The Era-Banner, for the simple reason, it was the only publication  available. 
Times  have changed. Gotten better.
A second publication is capable of providing the service.
This is the  year a majority of Council  decided to make the  change.
 It is not the year to strip ourselves of our authority.
Why would we even think of such a thing?