"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

Tuesday 5 August 2014

When you sink that low...nobody wins

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What does it profit a man .":

Uh, *quite*, 08:21. On July 18th, Cllr Buck laid out her conspiracy theory regarding the upcoming vote on the Joint Operations Centre and named

Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 5 August 2014 12:19


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As long as my point appears to have been missed, I don't mind continuing the discussion. There's nothing involved here but time.There are other issues I want to talk about. But this one is easier and it has just about run it's course.

I don't believe I used the word conspiracy. I did not accept the staff  advice that Council could not discuss a choice of candidate to fill the vacancy behind closed doors.

Right to Privacy requires that individuals   are not  discussed in public.

I just stopped short of naming the person I believed should fill the vacancy prior to the sham of an election process was adopted by Council.

I  had established  Bob McRoberts  was willing to accept  the appointment . I left the council table early to ask Bob before he left the meeting.

 I believed his  appointment would be most  acceptable to  the electorate  for and  any decision he made during the time would be his  and his alone.

I argued against inviting citizens to submit their names and undergo a process that was meaningless
To Council but certainly not to them.

I did what the  other Councillors did.  I  made up my mind before the meeting. I did not pretend otherwise.

In the event I might be wrong, I spent  several hours composing questions for each candidate as provided  in the process. My purpose was opportunity to indicate on-going interest in the town's affairs.

No other councillor followed the process they  themselves had adopted.

A  candidate had  three votes in the first round and four in the second. The majority required.

The issue is not that Councillors decided  previously on their collective choice.

The issue is the elaborate procedure adopted and trust they exploited ....to pretend they were not doing exactly what they did.

No debate could take place in the public forum  to justify the choice.

No opportunity to find consensus ....make the appointment unanimous...and give the appointee and the community assurance of confidence.

It's  been repeatedly dismissed as a non-event.  Foul temper is evident  because discussion continues.

The fact remains. A process was adopted they had no intention of following.

People who had a right to expect better  from their council were exploited in the process.

That's politics ......they say.

No it is not.

For such a minor task to be  undertaken without  a smidgen of grace is not politics.

That is a total absence  of political skill.

A shameful lack of intestinal fortitude......an insult to public intelligence .......and
we are all degraded by it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...



"For such a minor task to be undertaken without a smidgen of grace is not politics.

That is a total absence of political skill.

A shameful lack of intestinal fortitude.....an insult to public intelligence......and we are all degraded by it."

My intelligence is not insulted and I don't feel degraded.

This is what I have come expect, and with great disgust accept.

Politics seems to have become anything with which the human species indulges itself, there is no good behaviour, no bad behaviour, just behaviour. Thought is not a prerequisite, nor is common sense nor the maxim that one should treat another the way one would like to be treated.

The practitioners of this discipline are a disgraceful lot, parroting pithy words like transparency, accountability and VISION in their nascent campaigns to retain the office of councillor. What has been accomplished this term besides endless hours discussing "heritage trees" and "clear" garbage bags?

There are plans, studies, schemes, all involving consultants and costing several hundred thousand dollars, and nothing to show for these. Except to defer them to the next term, when they will no doubt be subject to more time wastage and the squandering of more taxpayer dollars.

Leadership is in very short supply these days, in all political forums throughout the world. Aurora is not unique. We don't even have decent followers.

And I really do not want to see the word VISION appear in any campaign advertising. The people who use this word wouldn't know it if it bashed them over the head with a wet cabbage.

Anonymous said...

If we cut to the bottom line, it was a waste of money, time & energy. Maybe the fault lies partially in the streaming - one felt as if the various speakers were addressing a blurry set of robots.

Anonymous said...

I don't think anyone gives a continental this time around. In fact, I do not know what happened to a couple of individuals who ran for council last time - they just vanished including ones who ran to be mayor.