"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

Saturday 16 February 2013

NEVER... NEVER... NEVER

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "There's a Funny Side":

What? No post about the Morris COI decision?

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I've heard  about  the decision. I've not read  it.

I will of course do so  before  commenting .

After four years of being on a Council with P.M. in the Mayor's
chair and E.Mac E, her  right-hand man, whatever decisions  made outside that crucible are but ragged-edged fragments of the whole.  

 $55,000  of public resources paid to a lawyer  to sue members of the public  with their own money, to realise, six million dollars for herself ,is minute fraction of  public funds expended to satisfy the woman's lust for power and revenge.

It started hours after she was elected. When the new Council, six of whom rode in on her coat-tails, gave  authority behind closed doors to hire a lawyer to pursue the former Mayor, the one she defeated,  for what she claimed to have been  invasion of privacy. 

Two years later, only the treasurer would know how many lawyers had been hired and fired by herself ,before that particular hunt ended, she was advised , again in a closed meeting, by the last in the line of lawyers, with  CAO and  Clerk of the day finally  providing  input, any court action would have to be private, at her own expense, and the possibility of recovering damages slim to nil.

We remember the night her best friend came to Council and spent twenty minutes in a public forum making unfounded allegations and accusation against a Councillor. We clearly recall the waiver of  a procedure vote that didn't carry with  two thirds majority, but proceeded anyway, to direct staff to record the comments  in the minutes  of the meeting."

And how, when the minutes were produced the direction had not been followed. 

The reason being; the CAO,  Solicitor and  Clerk conferenced in private and decided to do something other than  publish  the slander as  directed by the Mayor and her five followers. 

Last Tuesday, as I listened to Councillor Ballard speak triumphantly of how the  Mayor, thrown out in ignominious defeat, had been "exonerated" by the decision on the Conflict of Interest charges, I marvelled . 

Councillors Gaertner and Gallo who were there, who  made all  things possible  every step of the way, said nothing While Councillor Ballard  who was not, had so much to say . 

But it wasn't enough my friends.

It will never be enough.        

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The problem with that decision is that no one to whom I have spoken believes it to be correct. Since the Municipal Act allows no appeal in this situation, any possible errors in law just sit and glare from the pages. The blather about ' vindication ' sure doesn't cover the Court decision that she filed a SLAPP against totally unsuspecting residents with Aurora taxpayers' money.

Anonymous said...

Just this week we heard Councillor Gaertner demand outside legal advice on the tax status of the Sports Dome. She has clearly learned nothing and is willing to play the same stupid and costly games instead of dealing with items at the Council table and with Aurora staff.

Anonymous said...

Not to worry , the court of public opinon, the only one that really matters, has spoken once and will speak again should any one of them be silly enough to try it again ,2014 is certainly not enough healing time!

Anonymous said...


From today's Globe and Mail TALKING POINT - readers' comments:

"Since Senators don't actually do anything, why don't they do it from home so we can all save on their travel expenses?"

How complicated is defining a primary residence? It isn't, unless you're a senator."

"If I had an apartment in Ottawa, a condo in Toronto, a cabin at Fishing Lake and a generous expense account, I certainly wouldn't be found in Wadena too often."