We make no false claims

A comment  expresses the hope I am not suggesting readers of this blog represent the community at large. Of course it does not. No more than do the residents of the Marsh Harbour neighborhood .

 When a Council holds meetings with twenty-four hours  notice and makes decisions involving  hundreds of thousands of dollars,  it's  hard to argue the community at large  has had any opportunity
to have input and the decision is representative of the community at large either

A meeting scheduled and advertised to deal  the issue of a new Procurement Bylaw has been hi-jacked to deal with the issue of the cell tower.

An issue which had a full meeting scheduled, will now be squeezed into a hlf hour early start to the next regular meeting of Council.

The entire Council  an the Mayor are taking a beating over their  handling of this matter.

What isn't seen is how much of this came about as  the result of  weeks of calculation. This is a Council without much in the way of political skills. They have not had time to learn what people expect of them. They don't  even know how much there is to learn.

These are the tactics that  put politics on a par with the oldest profession. Like the  zebra mussel and the life- sucking green beetle , they are not native to these parts.

This Council, with  the  exception of three, possibly four members has  no idea of the calculation that
went into the cell tower issue and how  easily they were sucked into the vortex.

As I write  I recall  a young inexperienced Doctor Martin Dobkin , elected Mayor  of the  newly created  city  of Mississauga. Regional Councillor Hazel McCallion , former Reeve of  the village of Streetsville, oversaw  his crash and burn . Then she slipped into the seat next  election and has been there ever  since.

I doubt the young Doctor ever  knew what hit him.

I came out of a meeting during a recess a couple of weeks ago and came across Councillors Ballard, Gallo and Humphryes  in a huddle.  AHA, I thought.  what  are they up to.  I think I  know now.

Another image comes to mind.

 An all candidates meeting organized by Susan Walmer. for the 2003 election. It was a Sunday. The turn-out was tremendous. The format included random questions being drawn from a hat  by the late well-regarded  Dick Illingworth.

Former Councillor Mac Eachern was a candidate. She had not run for the previous term . But had served the term before t. No other candidate had  served that term.

She was asked, apparenyly at random, ; had  she observed  any conflict of interest among the  Mayoralty candidates.

MacEachern said, "I can't believe I'm being asked that question.

Then stated Tim Jones  had failed to declare a pecuniary interest  on a  matter of employee
compensation  She stated he did in camera but did not in open Council.

It was cheating on several levels/ Not least in using  the late Dick Illingworth to give the  affair
a semblance of  integrity and impartiality.

The question was asked of the only  person  in the slate who could have spoken to that issue. No other candidate  could have made that  allegation. They were not members  of Council during he last contract negotiation.

Councillor Ballard has not organized the Cell tower brouhaha.  He's not smart enough. John Cunningham ,who went from door to door last week-end  encouraging residents to flood Council members with tales of outrage  and betrayal was not likely the mastermind either.

If  Susan Walmer's name  was even hinted , it would have  blown their cover.

The cell tower is one of a succession of  contrived  events.

Like  Mayor Doctor Martin Dobkin of Mississauga., forty-two years ago , the  current neophytes on  Council  may never know  or acknowledge what hit them.

But  some of the residents, marshaled  for  the  crowd scene  at Tuesday's and Wednesday 's meeting might, after listening to the  solicitor on Wednesday evening. have begun to smell a nest of rats.