"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

Wednesday 9 September 2015

THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS AS THEY SEEM

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "IT'S NOT CORRUPTION YOU HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT": 

14:12
Did the Mayor draw up the lease? Doubt it, she's not that bright.  

You ask who approved the deal. Quite simple, the Council of the Town of Aurora at the time.  

Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 9 September 2015 at 07:50
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No that's not accurate. You don't have to be bright to create chaos. You just have to be surrounded by people who owe you.

Council  never saw the lease agreement. They were informed of it in a closed meeting .

In the same way we were informed of the  interim appointment of  treasurer by the CAO .

And of the appointment of the interim  as the permanent treasurer without  competition. 

Despite that the Muncipal Act requires  a competition to ensure the important position does NOT go to a person picked  who owes his job to the picker. 

The  job is a Statutary position with legal authority  and  must be appointed  by Bylaw and only Council can adopt a bylaw.

The Bylaw was prepared and adopted  after the requirement  it was drawn to attention that  the appointment was not appropriate.

There was never any doubt the CAO would do whatever the Mayor directed.  

It's why the life of the previous CAO was made intolerable. So that he would leave and whoever took his place would do exactly as directed. 

It's what happened. We were also not attracting the best candidates. The word had spread.

MacEachern and Morris , the original designing women were in the Mayor's  office until two in the morning after Council meetings. 

Subtlety was not a feature. Didn't have to be. The votes of Gaertner,Granger and Wilson  and Gallo were always on tap. 

They had  treasury at their behest. 

Nothing was beyond their power. 

After they were gone much of the pattern remained. Everything was in place

Nothing in the Interim CAO's unneccessary entry interview leads me  to expect change.  

Why is there an interim CAO?  

Why is the philosophy of an interim CAO of  interest?

We shall see if the interim appointment morphs into permanent.

One day I may tell the story of how we came to have a CAO in the first place. 

It's a doozy.





8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heck, Gallo was not even there half the time. If things got a bit sticky & they needed him, a call would
be made and the process would be stalled for various reasons until he scuttled into place.
But the person making that comment got one thing right. The one who got all the blame/credit was not the brains.

Anonymous said...

No one wonders why the CAO moved on.
I expect the ripple effect of his tenure to linger for years.

Anonymous said...

You see, none of this stuff about staff was included in those little booklets on How To Be Mayor.

Anonymous said...

Book not necessary. You get plenty of ”mentoring” at the Region with the other Mayors.

Anonymous said...

With all the talk about how MorMac did things on the sly and behinds backs, I have always wondered what was in it for them? Ultimate power? I can't imagine it, we are talking about a small town in Canada - this is hardly the epicentre of an empire. Money - I don't see any indication that they were squirlling away Town funds. So, what was their motivation?

Anonymous said...

@ 9:29 They enjoyed the power of the moment. I used to wonder why they preferred hanging about the town hall
and eating restaurant food to being with their families. Then I realized you couldn't order your family members around
the way they did with staff.

Anonymous said...

11:10
You don't know Mac very well then.

Anonymous said...

There are many arrogant mayors in this Region. I had a family member buy some property in a neighboring Town, and was summoned to the Mayors office before the deal even closed, and asked what his intentions were in ”his Town.”