Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Furthermore":
Seems like there are a # of negotiations about which councillors [ some ? ] are not been kept informed. When the matter of the dead-lock between ice time & the CofC was discussed the other night, the Mayor mentioned that he had been working with the 2 sides. Nice if he could just drop a note when something reaches the stage where it hits the council table.
Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 20 June 2014 15:12
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The situation illustrates what has been the entire term .
Council passes a resolution...there's no follow through.
Instead the Mayor takes it upon himself to hold meetings and discuss matters and out of that comes recommendations to Council.
He was attending closed meetings of the Culture Centre Board at borad invitation, and keeping it to himself for a year before Council even knew he was doing it.
A resolution was passed to appoint a museum curator in the first year of the term
Instead , without authority ,the Mayor and CAO had meetings with the President of the Historical Society and worked out something they thought was a better idea.
The term is almost over and we are back to appointing a curator and nothing else of substance has
been accomplished.
A couple of weeks ago I suggested Council should meet with representatives of the United Church congregation to discover if there is opportunity for mutual advantage in plans that must be made as a result of Church being lost in a fire.
Councillor Abel indicated the Mayor has been having talks with Church representatives without Council authority.
I don't know if other councillors are in the Mayor's confidence . It seems likely.
It's apparent Council has not privy.
Commitments made by the Mayor have made without Council authority .
Such as the Mayor's signature on a looney tune real estate scheme to separate the town from $11
million fore Heritage Fantasy Park. Even when all the facts established no benefit to the town, he still persisted it was a good idea.
I'm never quite sure what route a staff recommendation has taken before it gets to the Council table.
The idea to compete with builders to acquire the Stronach development lands on Wellington Street for a community park, a real estate appraisal had already been obtained and paid for.
It was $750,000 an acre. The price obtained under the bidding process was $1.2 million.
Not only was the effort futile, it failed to take into consideration forfeit revenues from Development charges calculated for use in the ten year capital forecast.
Nor did it factor reduced population figures derived from development already factored into Master Recreation Plans.
These details would not come naturally to the Mayor's thinking because of his lack of experience.
The issue was discussed behind closed doors because it was about real estate matters.
Council had not authorized staff proceed in that direction.
Town resources were spent chasing after something that was senseless from the beginning.
The Procedure Bylaw sets out requirements for Council to direct staff.
The Code of Conduct clearly states staff take direction from Council.
No single member of Council has authority to direct staff..
The Mayor is a single member of Council.
Time and time again recommendations are received not requested by Council.
Council resolutions giving direction to staff are not followed through.
Part of the Mayor's function is to ensure Council direction is followed. in a timely manner..
That's not what happens.
If anyone at the table besides Councillor Abel is in on the strategy, if that's what it is.it's not apparent.
The pair are members of the closed meetings of the Culture Centre Board.
No record exists of town involvement in board affairs.
The Mayor and Councillor Thompson are the finance monitoring committee on the joint facility project.
Not a dicky bird has been heard on that issue either.
Whatever comfort can be taken from the situation entirely escapes me.
Friday, 20 June 2014
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9 comments:
Yup, & the word " transparency " sure get bandied about too.
Why don't you put up that piece from yesterday about San Jose, California?
We seem to be moving in that direction at a fairly fast rate.
When there is no more money staff will get laid off, including police and fire personnel.
At the next council there is an item on debt financing of the Joint-Ops Project. Since we are in the middle of an election campaign begun far too soon, I do not expect any surprises. Same old, same old.
This type of activity is a page right out of York Region council.
Be gentle with your Italianate neighbours - they were expecting a longer run in the World Cup.
It’s unfortunate that the word “trust” in government has disappeared and probably never to come back. “Codes of Conduct”, “Codes of Ethics”, integrity commissioners, public inquiries, police investigations and even the media are all just smoke screens. It’s funny,I remember Ballard was a huge Code of Conduct/Ethics proponent with “teeth”, and now a Mpp for the Liberal gov’t. They only way we can change the way government behaves is to look for candidates with integrity. I would rather vote for a candidate with a track record of integrity and not like their platform than to vote for someone with no integrity and agree with their platform.
8:27-They're still in. Besides... They're already won the world cup being the best looking team. :)
10:19
Codes of Conduct & the like are usually for " others ".
Codes of conduct and the like were created to quiet those or "others" that are trying to break an old club.
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