ALL WILL BE WELL....WE CAN DREAM CAN'T WE

Chris Watts has a post on Aurora's communication system. Safe  to say, without contradiction, Chris is a communications guru. 

Cost and corresponding level of competence has been a bane of contention for some time. 

Me too . For a different reason. 

Chris is pleased Council has agreed with Councillor Humfryes , to direct  staff to make the town's budget more understandable to taxpayers. Councillors Thompson and Gaertner strongly support improving the system. 

The Interim CAO  agrees the town needs to do a better job. 

On the positive side, that's nice. A step in the right direction. Plaudits are  extended  in every direction. 

Take a bow people . For doing the right thing. 

Just a minute ; let me look at my watch.  12.38p.m. on  Saturday, September 12/2015.

It's a cloudy day. Leaves on the magnolia are changing colour. 

Remember where you were when you read a positive comment on this chronicle.

That's all you get.

I think of millions spent over a relatively short period, increasing every year, for information services

less than informative. 

Of a Mayor/ CEO , five years content with a program that didn't quite fill the bill. 

A CAO presiding over an administration that obtained Certificates of Excellence from an Institution that provided such certification for a price, but without an adequate  information service. 

A Chief Financial Officer, whose job it is to provide clear and succinct rendering of details of the town's budget in a manner easily understood by those whose pockets are picked annually like peas from a pod. 

For me ....the question is not whether we got what we paid for all these years.It is now acknowledged by everyone, we did not. 

My question is why not? Who is the responsible party? What's being done about that?

Two years ago a consultant was retained at a cost of $65,000. to report on town service levels 

He reported higher than normal costs were accounted for by higher than normal levels of service. 

We now find that is not true. 

The consultant also advised, a reduction of costs could be achieved by reducing the number of Directors.

And so it came to pass. The Director of Legislative Services was disposed of within a year of retirement with a severance package. Which  would likely have paid for another year of service. Instead we hired another municipal clerk .

No savings there.

An incoming comment this morning poses the question; why do I keep telling stories from the past?

Why am I so negative? 

Why not more positive? 

Concerned about readers,I regularly ask myself that question. 

The answer is;  I do not make this stuff up. It's real. It's authentic. I write to inform not hurt. If it hurts people who hurt me,that's a bonus. 

I do not write fiction or gung-ho promotional material. 

My stories are  the way things were and still are; mostly negative, I agree.

it has been a terrible time.

On the positive side, I hope for happy ending .I am an eternal optimist. 

Bad guys will get their comeuppance and good guys will triumph. 

All together now: 

We will accent the positive 

Eliminate the negative

Latch on to the affirmative 

And don't mess with Mr, In-Befween