"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 8 May 2014

Wherefrom comes authority?

The market is located on a town right-of-way  which is closed for the purpose.

Permits to vendors are issued by the town usually on a seasonal basis.

No-one else has that  authority.

For the Market to move from Temperance to Wells  Street . the  town spent upwards of a hundred thousand dollars  for a power supply  for refrigerated  trucks needed by vendors selling perishable foodstuffs.

The  Market Bylaw requires an  executive  with officers elected  annually for the purpose of communication with the town.

Logic would dictate executive  members would be vendors to be representative of   vendors.

Council appoints a  Councillor to liase with the market.

It is understood,there has been no election of officers  for at least a couple of years and the person  currently making decisions and ordering people about is not a vendor at  the market.

Now ... the last factor  is the one that needs o be clarified.

If the town's requirement for the market vendors to hold annual elections in order for  there tobe formal  communication  between the town and the market for an institution to exists that is entirely within the authority of the town, there certainly is an issue for council to  resolve ..
whether or not some  Council members  regard the matter as beneath their  august notice.

Sometimes being an elected representative  means getting down to the nitty gritty  and correcting
whatever is not working as it should.

The Market is loosely  organized , as it must be for what it is.

It can't be so loose as to be dis-organized and people treated unfairly at the hands of someone who
has no  authority to exercise authority.

Council's job is not all about Fab Labs, Piano Concerts and  giving away our provenance to
bribe a university to locate  within our midst.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had believed Cllr Humfryes was the go-to person. That must be incorrect as she said nothing - not even her usual promise to " Look into it. " If the individual doing the ordering-around is out of town, that should not mean there is no communication - we have no power outage.

Anonymous said...

If Council has appointed a Councillor to liaise with the market...Where are they in this mess?

Anonymous said...


This situation calls for a strong and immediate intervention by Council.

If the Market's Bylaw has been ignored and no election of officers has occurred for two years the Market must forthwith undertake to make full compliance or risk being shuttered.

Anonymous said...

This timing is truly awful. It is the start of the open market, the beginning of electioneering, people are getting out & talking about what is going on in town and this group starts a free-for-all on their ' borrowed ' turf. You cannot fix stupid.

Anonymous said...

Cllr Humfryes?...Miss Events Councillor?... Really? What makes me think there's more to this story?

Anonymous said...

The weekend is upon us. A simple canvas of vendors should reveal who they believe owns the Aurora Town Park. And they will certainly talk to shoppers either then or later. I very much doubt the final moral and legal responsibility is that of some organization that is given free space & support on the taxpayers' behalf.

Anonymous said...


Let's pause from this silliness for a moment or two.

A few days less than a year from now, on May 3, 1915, on a battlefield near Ypres, Belgium, the following few lines were penned:

"In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead: Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved: and now we lie
In Flanders fields!

Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from falling hands, we throw
The torch: be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

It is tragic that some of our race still engage in war and brutality, that brings carnage to hundreds of thousands of men, women and children; that we still spend hundreds of billions of dollars on weapons of destruction instead of bringing clean water and sanitation, food, clothing, shelter, medicine and education to those in need.

When I look about at the "issues" that some of us think of as important or dominant in our lives, I almost have to laugh, but more often than not I end up crying.

Anonymous said...

I think the Auroran might actually be up with just a few goofs.

Anonymous said...

Come on... The season just started!...Do we have to have drama with a small Farmers Market? Ridiculous! If Humphryes can't handle these types of performances with a small farmers market...Resign now. Get someone in there to start cleaning up these stupidities.

Anonymous said...

What really troubles me is there could NOT have been an early resolution to this by the Clr.Humfryes.The market I found out meets Tuesday evenings.This liason cannot attend as it is council.Now isnt that suspect.A councilor can never attend if need be.

Anonymous said...

Cllr Humfryes did tell us to watch what she did & listen to what she said. I believe we have all done that & I have made up my mind. I do wonder, when she turns yet again for audience approval, if she remembers that the leaders of her current pack were the ones who advised her to stick to committees and not run for election.

Anonymous said...

22:28
That works 2 ways, both of them equally silly. If the Marketeers are meeting, they cannot attend council either .I suspect Cllr Sandra just decided she was not needed and has been giving the entire assignment short-shift. Could be she did not even know. She really was sort of speechless on the subject at the last council gathering.

Anonymous said...

A tempest in a teapot.