Public Thinking

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Let The Wind Blow Hard..Let The Wind Blow Strng":

From Cllr Ballard's Twitter feed:

Chris Ballard ‏@Chris4Aurora
If a Councillor is suing a local business and then argues against giving said company a Town contract, is that a conflict?
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If a Councillor worked for a newspaper. Received remuneration  from the newspaper and  voted to give a contract  worth $30,000 to  said newspaper,  the Councillor would indeed have a conflict of interest. The  vote  would result in a  financial advantage to the Councillor.. 
 The Councillor would have  a  Conflict of Interest .
The  tweeting Councillor has been a member of  the elected body  for  almost two years .The issue of conflict of interest has been discussed many  times .
A former Mayor and friend of the Councillor  has been charged with a Conflict of Interest. 
Court proceedings are ongoing at this time. 
Public resources were used to pursue litigation  which would, if successful, have netted  $6 million dollars to her financial advantage.
This Council's first decision was to cut off the funds to pay the former Mayor's lawyer of  choice. But not before $63,000 of public money had been spent.
The tweeting Councillor's vote in that regard is  a matter of record. 
The Councillor had no  doubt then that using  public money for personal gain  of $6 million dollars  was not a conflict of interest.
One of the bonuses of being in public office is the opportunity to watch a person take his thinking out of his head ,or wherever it might be, and lay it out for everyone else  to examine.