"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

Sunday 1 June 2014

Greenhorn ..... a must in the beginning

I was thinking while I was out, There's no shame in being a greenhorn.... if newly elected .there's
no escaping either. 

It's  only a problem  because they don't know what they don't know. The  learning curve is huge and it  happens in a fish bowl.

But people understand . Sitting  at home watching ,they put themselves in the shoes of the learners, A grunt when they do well and a groan when they don't.

This Council has been at a particular disadvantage. Six elected without experience is a big deficit. 

A Mayor without experience is a double whammy.  Add apparent lack of interest in council 
and you get ,,,,,Fools rushing  in where angels fear to tread. 

Last Council systematically replaced  experienced administration.There was a  loss of  institutional history and  an inevitable gap in  experienced professional guidance.

Most of the administration does not live in our town.  Most Councillors have no roots . Nor have  they absorbed local culture.  They don't think it matters. because we live in times when you can buy whatever.

Ideas initiated in an office  at the town hall are  imposed from the top.

They do not reflect  growth within the community. 

Expensive consultant studies are not like sharing lives and experiences of  neighbours and friends. c

Read the damned things.
A hundred and forty people  polled.
Thirteen people  interviewed.
Nobody filled out the questionnaire.

What happens when the  same thirteen  are interviewed every time. 

Councillors complain communication isn't good enough

If you don't know the people you represent, communication is never good enough.

These days it seems  everything can be bought, Like understanding  the people  whose lives we share and whose interest we represent.

Just pay a consultant.  He will provide  what you need.

Everything is on tap. Like Google. Type in a question. Out comes the answer.

Iy is  the same virus at every level of government. 

But if we can't  manage it in Aurora, we can't do it anywhere,

The Provincial vote is upon us,  We've seen nothing but cronyism and entitlements .

We have no reason to  look forward to anything different,

It looks like a situation where voters will park their votes to indicate  their disapproval.

The election  on the 12th June will decide nothing. 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...


So we're all doomed to repeat our mistakes, or, heaven forbid, make even worse ones.

This is hardly what one looks forward to.

Were things ever better? Have we learned nothing?

What did you think when you were in your 30's, your 40's, your 50's?

And yet here you are, casting aside most of their little slings and arrows. How do you manage it? What's your secret?

Anonymous said...

I think you might be wrong about the coming election. Sure, we are disgusted with what is on offer but most of us will vote and try to make even tiny changes in the scheme of things. If we let ourselves become disconnected, there is no chance at all.

Anonymous said...

Even Evelyn was a greemhorn. Don't be alarmed at her scare mongering.

Anonymous said...

Off topic
If the town web-site remains in disarray, it is going to be difficult to find the streaming for the GC. That would be if they even bother to use it. Strange that there are so many complaints about resident apathy when participation is such a pain at the end of a day.

Anonymous said...

Now, the 2010 'greenhorns' have the equivalent experience of FOUR of Cllr Buck's earliest terms.