"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

Thursday 1 May 2014

Don't Ask Don't Tell

Tuesday night was general committee. Council  received a report from staff recommending a contract for museum services be awarded .

Decisions are not made in Committee.

Recommendations are made from committee to Council. 

The recommendation as it  stands, is not to award  the contract for service. 

None of the parties are recommended for  the contract. 

Not the Historical Society, Not the Culture Centre  Board,

If  Council appoints  a curator, the town will provide heritage and museum services. The  town will have a presence in Church Street School .

The Culture Centre Board  presents quarterly financial statements to the Director of Parks and Recreation. 

No reports  on performance are submitted to Council. 

A self-appointed board  receives almost $400,000  tax resources  and free facilities  from the town and accounts  to  no-one for none of it. 


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

& that, is exactly why no one with whom I have spoken wants the town's heritage collection to go into some faceless, unaccountable organization of any type.

Anonymous said...

I received the impression from the orations of Cllrs Thompson and Humfryes that the Centre and the Historical Society were going to link hands and dance off happily together down the tax-payers' path.

Anonymous said...

The Board reports to the Director, and the Director reports to the CAO, and the CAO reports to Council.

That 'chain of command' sounds like accountability to me.

Anonymous said...


According to the latest listing there are four Officer/Directors, the President, the Vice-President, the Treasurer and the Secretary. In addition there are nine Directors of the Culture Centre Board. Two of these are ex officio, namely Mayor Dawe and Councillor Abel.

Since Messrs. Dawe and Abel are both Centre Directors and Council members presumably information can flow, possibly both ways.

The original agreement between the Town and the Centre was flawed and rewritten and is still flawed.

Let's face it, the Centre can probably do whatever it wishes, whether with or without financial accountability, although it does have to present its budget and plan annually.

For the most part the Centre is probably doing a reasonably good job, it touches a relatively small number of the community and there are those who continue to fight it. Maybe it's time when it would be better to join than to fight.

By the way - is there a complete list of the heritage artifacts with individual values?





Anonymous said...

16:35
The only Easter Bunny I believe in is the one who meets with the Auroran cartoonist.

Anonymous said...

17:43, you also believe in the Pied Piper of Holman.

Anonymous said...

22:17
Of whence ?

Anonymous said...

I know that Councillor Ballard once trumpeted " Let the games begin " in a reference to council. But you are the only person i ever hear laugh out loud at something you or someone else has said. Am I missing shared mirth ?

Anonymous said...

It's a play on words, 08:50. Rather than Hamelin, Cllr Buck's street of residence was used.