"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 25 June 2015

Addendum to the last post.

Council had authority to fill the vacanct seat  by appointment.

It could have been accomplished without inviting individuals to  make presentations as candidates only to be publicly rejected in turn. It was certainly clear to some of the people who came forward in good faith that there never was a possibility of being selected.

Public rejection  is no small matter. 

Without Mr. Constable, a majority vote for the project was by no means a certainty. His friends were at the meeting  to Celebrate his "victory" . No subtlety was employed. 

The joint facility is a  $26 million project

A simple majority vote, engineered, is hardly  a good way to inspire public confidence . 

The decision deserved greater time and effort to arrive at a consensus.

It was my judgement then and it's my judgement now.    

Since the election ,it has been learned  the AFLC project was terribly mismanaged. 

It was an add-on to an existing facility at a fraction of the cost of the joint facility.  

To this point, it  exceeded the budget by  twenty-five per cent and completion was months beyond  
schedule. 

Opening was celebrated twice. Once before and once after the election. Further remediation at considerable expense is still pending.

Now " soil problems"  are cited on a site that had to be created as compelling the need for  a 
supervisory contract not anticipated at the time estimates were presented to Council. 

The Officer responsible is no longer responsible and Council has approved a process to replace the individual by open competition.

It is conceivable a person having no idea what has gone before will be appointed. 

There is no reason for  public confidence. 






10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Twelve people [ or maybe 9 ] attended the open house for the project and none wrote down any objections. The Mayor regarded that as approval enough as those individuals enjoyed their free lunches too.

Anonymous said...

We are heading for a rough ride and many demons from the fiasco are flying the coop.

Anonymous said...

17:25
Just a little over 30% of the electorate vote. And when it's over, everyone pats themselves on the back. Why would the mayor think any different, when nobody is complaining? People need to storm that council chamber for change. Look what happened when that bell tower went up, garbage pick up was not being picked up on a timely basis, and when someone wanted to cut down a tree!! You would have thought world war 3 was about to happen.

Anonymous said...


Now that you've "commented on a couple of things" let's get on with your Joust with Justice.

All this other stuff is getting so old the smell is dying.

Anonymous said...

21:39

I hope evelyn keeps her joust in-house and does not allow us to take cheap pot-shots at it. There is absolutely no reason for her to subject her work in progress to a bunch of arm chair critics. I include myself.

Anonymous said...

wonder if the councillors will be ' allowed ' at any interviews for staff. Someone is going to have to ' micro-manage ' - i think they are going to insist on participation.

Anonymous said...

Looks like we might have used up our ration of good weather for events. I do hope Mr Water Loss is keeping track this year.

Anonymous said...

17:23- Nah. Micromanaging means more work. But then again...they can just pay some outside consultant or contract out some more micromanagers to pick up the slack, and we're already doing that.

Anonymous said...


We already have a person who would make an excellent CAO.

Al Downey.

He knows just about all the ropes.

His only problem is that he is a truly nice guy and he gets along very well with people.

Do we really want a CAO with those attributes?

Anonymous said...

I do not think the soil problems are over. And all thus rain will serve to stimulate any existing weaknesses un the soil composition.