"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 29 May 2014

It's Not In My Make-up

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Credit is Due":

13:11
I agree but cannot see how we can help him. Last night it was quite clear that Council, with the one exception, were not going to " micro-manage " the market even if a resident was being bullied. I had been fudging on Cllr Abel but am no longer

Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 28 May 2014 14:


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I have no interest in micro-managing the market. 

I support the intent of the Farmers Market Bylaw. 

Vendors should have representation for communication with the town and they should manage their own affairs. 

I presented  a motion on Tuesday to direct staff to review  the Bylaw  to ensure  wording  was clear as to intent.

Without a seconder the motion was not  tabled.

It  was a slight to be sure.  But it's always a possibility. I don't ask for favours.

A delegate, purporting to represent vendors had five mintes to speak to the issue but a colleague was denied the  right.

Any time a right is denied  the right is surrendered.

The enemy is within.

If anybody is keeping score ,,,that was a   minus zero.

Credit earned  for discontinuing the plan  for district heritage designation  was  reduced .

It had nothing to do with the Market Bylaw   It was fear of Anna Kroeplin.

A person not a vendor, was a vendor for one season,selling painted plates, sufficiently brazen to take the podium in  a  Council meeting and  lay claim to  represent  vendors has already spread a circle of intimidation.

On Wednesday morning, an e-mail  was copied to all Councillors. Unsigned  It came from  Park Residents Committee, in support of district designation. It included  Anna Kroeplin . It  appeared to warn Councillors against failure to act on the "compromise agreement " for protection of the neighborhood  against undesirable development,hammered out at the Heritage Advisory Committee.

Councillors Abel and Humfryes  are Council's valiant representatives on that illustrious committee.

 Sub-committee of the Committee was composed  of  Park Residents Committee .Anna Kroeplin is one.

I have an anecdote to share:

I have known Lynn Knowles and Mary O'Reilly since I was Mayor in the early seventies.

Mary and Lynn were members of a Sorority that raised $15,000. for development of Black Creek Pioneer Village  It's an opportunity to immerse oneself in history if one is so inclined. And it's on our doorstep.

It's a long time since both women established  their credentials in  heritage preservation in my book.

At General Committee ,when Council made the decision to disontinue designation plans Mary and Lynn were standing at the door of the Council chamber. The proponents were leaving  before the decision .

It must be noted throughout repeated appearances before Council , opponents have conducted themselves entirely professionally,  always respectful of  Council and  the proponents.

Never threatening but always firm in their stated determination to oppose the designation to the limit.
every time.

As  the proponents  were leaving the Chamber , a female member of the group, pushed her face  within three inches  from Lynn Knowles and  spat out "You are a liar"

It wasn't Anna Kroeplin. It was an associate, a member of the committee.

The e-mail Council received indicated 49% of residents had not  taken a position on designation.

Some have apparently confiessed to fear. I think that's a distinct possibility.

In this town, much is made of good work  by volunteers. Rightly so.

In every community, in every age, people work together to make a better place. It's a given. It's not extraordinary. It makes a community. But Thank you is always in order.

At this time and in this place and for some time there have been those  who loudly claim  and   proclaim volunteer status and use it to  cloak  selfish interest and club into submission  any who might get in the way of their intent.

"All it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing"

Edmund Burke's quote may not be the precise ,but you get my drift.

It is the  five year anniversary of my personal battle against  harm in  our community .

The virus is not yet contained. The major decision is pending.

I am not about to surrender.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

The important round there was with the south-east designation. That defeat took the wind out of their sails & I believe there is enough vigilance now to prevent it from making another appearance at the table. People who seldom paid attention to municipal politics became involved on both sides. The winning argument in my mind was that we do not try to tell our neighbours how they should live their lives. Buying & selling property is a personal/family matter

Anonymous said...


I found that the fact your motion did not have a seconder from any of the members present, to be a cowardly act and not in keeping with the fact that the Farmers' Market was officially created by the town's passage of a Bylaw, and that councillors and mayor have an obligation to deal with legitimate concerns that arise from time to time under said Bylaw.

There was more time wasted on other completely unimportant issues. But then this is true of Council and GC meetings in general.

If members of Council were paid on the basis of real accomplishments that furthered and improved the lives of our residents they would probably find that for the more than three and a half years in office they each might be entitled to $10,000.

It was interesting to watch Clr. Gallo babble on about Clr. Able's motion re: Code of Conduct and what came forward from it to the courts, and then realize that he was a defendant in another action so hastily stated a conflict of interest. These are supposed to be made before the matter is discussed, not following and having participated. Gaertner quickly followed suit with her own conflict of interest statement.

Anonymous said...

A quick scan of the Auroran.
Another good cartoon.
No letters telling Evelyn to quit.
I saw my first bumble-bee of the year.
All is well in the world.

Anonymous said...


Maybe I am dense, but when a member of Council has a motion that relates to a town By-Law it should be incumbent on another councillor at the table to second the motion, if for no other reason than to get the subject into active discussion, and not simply disappear.

I don't know what provisions there are in the Procedural By-Law, but it surely must contain a directive that a By-Lay related motion MUST have a seconder, even if that person is opposed.

Theoretically all motions that relate to By-Laws could be absent a seconder. And then where the hell is this dimwit Council?

Tuesday evening's failure to gain a seconder represents a gross abuse of responsibility on the part of all councillors present and the utter disregard
of the Oath of Office.

Anonymous said...

13:02
There is no requirement that someone must second a motion. The process of having a motion tabled and then endorsed by at least one person give the motion some chance of life. It the motion cannot be seconded, what is the point in debating it? It will not pass.

Of course you have seen some motions seconded - with a caveat that the seconder is doing it to allow debate - but you know whare the motion will sit at the end of the night.

It was not cowardly. As Ev likes to say, "politics is a game". She rolled the dice with a motion and it came up snake-eyes. Nice try, move on.

Anonymous said...

Entirely too many weird ideas are being created in committees and then allowed to grow like toxic mushrooms.The only good thing about the coming election is that nothing substantive is going to get done by council.

Anonymous said...

There is movement on another proposal. This one is 99 Sudbury St. Should we be paying attention to this one too ?

Anonymous said...

Five years? What's the hang up?

Anonymous said...

I think the motion wasn’t second because the whole mess is an embarrassment. Anna Kroeplin and Councillor Humphreys should be embarrassed that this couldn't be taken care of quietly. Good on the opponents of the SE heritage designation. To think that the Town spent $34,000 on this study is BS. Thank you to all who to personal time and worked hard to stop the handful of self entitled people. It won`t be forgotten.

Anonymous said...

Mr Pullano is using a project in TO as an example of how to do things in Aurora. The man is tooo big for this town.

Anonymous said...

18:57
Ditto that

Anonymous said...

19:22-There’s nothing wrong with looking at what other Towns/cities have done. In fact we could probably cut down on all these studies and save Aurora $$$$ by looking at studies that other municipalities have paid for. Learn from their mistakes and benefit from their successes. Aurora is geographically smack in the middle of towns larger and smaller than us. They opportunities to share information and resources are endless.

Anonymous said...

6:55
We could borrow completed studies from other town thereby saving us the costs of time & redundancy.

Anonymous said...

18:57
Cllr Sandra is riding a Tiger she has fed and nourished. She has no control of it. And she has no sympathy from me.