Council started at six, finished at 11. 30 p.m.It was a marathon. By the time I got home I needed
turn my mind off. Twenty minutes of Letterman remained. The last part of the show is noisy.
I turned to P.B.S. Enjoyed the silky tones of Nat King Cole. The program ended with his death at age forty-five.I shed tears of sadness.
It was the right conclusion to my day.
I need a spell of distraction after a lengthy meeting.
One of the issues discussed was elimination a contrived obstructions to safe smooth and efficient movement of traffic in the north-east quadrant of town.
My position was consistent.
I opposed the plan during the previous term.
The decision was made in the interest of a few at the expense of the community at large.
A number of similar decisions undertaken by the previous Council. It was a deliberate political philosophy to cater to special interests.
I did what I could to effect change in the election.
I added my voice to persuade the current Mayor to be a candidate. I recommended him to voters.
Without experience, the job would be difficult. I committed myself to assist..
Last night, when the debate was over, the Mayor exercised his right to participate.
He failed to surrender the gavel. He would have been subject to the rules of order.
He advised, with a nod towards the Clerk, he had been advised, it was unnecessary to transfer the gavel during presentation of a "summary"
He challenged my contentions in the debate. He defended the traffic calming plan which differed with a rationale that varied little from the previous Council.
The plan that so offended the community.
I'm not sure what a "summary" looks or sounds like. I have never heard of it in the context it was used last night.
I do however recognize debate when I hear it.
I respect the authority of the chair. Rules of order ae essential to civil debate.
Exploitation of the authority is not acceptable.
There will be a price to pay.
I don't know what that looks like yet.
I will when I see it.
Thursday, 11 April 2013
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
5 comments:
Mayor Dawe at present is not whom I voted for.The behind closed door meetings re:Heritage Park and his seemed promotion of a single downtown business is disturbing. Many citizens have expressed his interuption of councilors and citizens at the podium is a little like a person who is starting to like control.The behind closed door meetings is exclusion of public input,and exclusion is bullying
We are not finished going through the tape but Mayor Dawe engaged in his ' summary ' exercise during the discussion on that Heritage land boon-doggle in the part we did see. My goodness, it does seem difficult to get the rules of order into some of the newer heads. Councillors Pirri and Thompson seems to have figured them out - why can't the Mayor who gets a crack at them more often than anyone else?
And what will the robin do now?
He'll ride out the storm, just keep himself warm
And tuck his head under his wing. Poor thing.
Those are not summaries. They are more like soliloquies. And residents are beginning to flinch when the Mayor launches into one of them. They have no idea where he is going and suspect he might not know either. That all began early in the term when he made the case to terminate the rotten Centre agreement and then voted not to do it.
Have you ever tried to parse one of Councillor Humfryes' convoluted run-on sentences?
Post a Comment