DISCUSSION IS GOOD

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "CORRUPTION ....A COAT OF MANY COLOURS":

One of the reasons these things can be done is because there is plenty of money to go around. If the money is there it only requires imagination to co-mingle receipts, cook a deal, or simply have invoices altered to fit the right category.
Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 31 October 2017 at 14:29

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I have a different perspective of how things should be because my experience is different.

The town had a population of 7,500 when I was elected. Before then, elections were held every twelve months. Issues stayed fresh. Secrets were few.

Council's agenda included the correspondence and accounts payable.

Cheques were co-signed by the Mayor and Clerk-Treasurer. Later it was Mayor and Treasurer.

Principle being, one individual alone was not responsible for funds disbursed.

The budget struck was the first to reach a million dollars. Mayor Clarence Davis made a solemn pronouncement.

Once I asked why we were buying mosquito repellent for the works department. Angus McGregor, Works Superintendent, had a brusque way with him.

There were no microphones or video cameras and we rose to address the Chair. Council meetings were well re-hashed later in Ray's Cafe, predecessor to Moon Garden.

When I came back to Council, early this century, correspondence and accounts payable were no longer part of the Business Agenda. Cheques were not signed by either Mayor or Treasurer. The budget was closer to sixty than fifty million, and Councillors remained seated when addressing the Chair. A small thing but some dignity was lost. Not that we didn't have at each other with gusto in debate. Time limits to speak were never heard of and buttons to shut someone up would have been ill-regarded.

Accounts and correspondence were on file in the councillors' room.

The massive administrative structure was like a Berlin Wall. A Mayor insufficiently mindful of Council authority meant council had none.

At the same time, a council without sense of the value of working together behind the Mayor's leadership, also undermined authority.

In a new and different circumstance, capable professional staff were replaced, the Mayor exercised powers of omnipotent plenipotentiary and evil transpired.

In his role of Mayor, I am critical of Mayor Dawe. I do not challenge his personal integrity.

When staff spending authority is increased, it's generally because prices have increased.

None of which is to suggest hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on legal fees for purely political purposes was permissible use of public funds. It certainly is not and never should have happened. The authority to collect taxes does not extend to using the funds to protect any person's political posterior.

The law never intended it that way.