"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

Sunday 14 November 2010

Where Is The Logic?

Anonymous said...

I assume Mr. Dawe will declare a conflict on any discussions regarding the lawsuit since one of the defendants was his campaign strategist and another publicly endorsed him in an ad.

***************************************

Why exactly does the reader assume any such thing?

Neither circumstance means Mayor-Elect Dawe would realise a pecuniary interest by participating in the decision.

Any more than the those who voted for him, in no small part, because of their complete disgust at the outgoing Mayor's decision to use public funds to pursue this course of action.

I think a rational decision would be for the defeated Mayor to acknowledge her egregious lack of judgment. Withdraw the action  Refund the municipality for expenditures made thus far. Make a full public apology to the defendants.  And at the very least, compensate them for their legal costs.

Nothing less would satisfy justice.

I am not holding my breath.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

He's in a position to affect the outcome of a vote that could have a very positive benefit for two people he is associated with. That doesn't pass the smell test.

If Morris was voting on something involving, say, Susan Walmer or Ken Whitehurst I can just imagine your righteous indignation.

Anonymous said...

I think a rational decision would be for the defeated Mayor to "acknowledge her egregious lack of judgment. Withdraw the action Refund the municipality for expenditures made thus far. Make a full public apology to the defendants. And at the very least, compensate them for their legal costs"


This has a lovely ring to it Evelyn ,and I think quite fitting to craft into a public complaint and post it on the Towns Web Site until such time that all debts are settled , You know just like the other complaint ,Only this time a legitimate one !!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Missing from action
One toothless old bear,
May be in shock
So handle with care.
Does anyone know
If Guy Poppe
Imploded?

Sprite

Anonymous said...

Don't you wonder why these particular people were targeted? Possibly because 1 was the campaign strategist and another endorsed Mr Dawe.

The purpose of launching a lawsuit 2 weeks before an election was a last desperate grasp at trying to win the election -- if she couldn't attack Mr Dawe directly, she could still attack people close to him.

Anonymous said...

To Anonymous 5:01 pm

"He's in a position to affect the outcome of a vote that could have a very positive benefit for two people he is associated with. That doesn't pass the smell test. "

The positve benefit will be for 2 plus 50,000, including Phyllis Morris and the ass hats that voted for this, themselves taxpayers, like the rest of us.

Using your logic, we would not have a town council at all. Each member resides within the town, therefore they each receive a positve benefit from any decision they make on behalf of the town.

How do you figure that by council passing a resolution to stop funding Ms. Morris' PERSONAL lawsuit, that will benefit Mr Hogg and Johnson directly? Council has no authority to drop the lawsuit, they aren't suing, Phyllis Morris is. Are you in a position to know that she will end this farce if she has has to pay for it out of her own pocket?

Luckywife

Anonymous said...

Luckywife.

Council can't stop the lawsuit. But they should be able to stop having the taxpayers cover the cost.

Let's have Morris put HER money where her mouth is, and let the chips fall where they may.

Anonymous said...

To Anonymous 8:52 am

"Council can't stop the lawsuit. But they should be able to stop having the taxpayers cover the cost."

That is exactly my point. The only power our new council has is to withdraw the funding. It should never have been allowed to go forward using public funds to begin with. Not only should PM be paying for it herself, the Town should be re-embursed for all monies spent to date on this fools errand. That is the only right and proper thing to do. I still expect an explaination of what law was cited, what section of the Municipal Act allows for a politician to launch personal lawsuits using public funds. Frankly, it is not enough to have voted her out of office, I want her and the five that voted for this mess to be held to account for it. Therein, lies another issue I have with this. How is it legal or appropriate for these individuals to hide behind the secrecy of "in-camera" session to shirk their responsibility to account for their actions? That is not what I understand the purpose of in-camera sessions to be and I want to know what is being done about it.

Regards,
Luckywife

Anonymous said...

I agree with you, Luckywife. What business did these 5 councillors have voting for something they did not understand; something that had such far-reaching implications for not only the 3 defendants, but for every single taxpayer in this town.
I do not excuse them when they plead ignorance. It is their job NOT to be ignorant about such matters.
Let's see some accountability in this atrocious mess.

Richard Johnson said...

To the anonymous / conflicted poster quoted by Evelyn:

Read the conflict of interest rules and then look up the definition of "pecuniary". The Mayor elect has nothing to gain financially therefore there is no conflict on those grounds.

If your hope was to sway the outcome of a council decision by knocking out one vote that could go against the outgoing Mayor's efforts to continue to finance her legal battle with our tax dollars then you're out of luck. Mr. Ballard endorsed Phyllis on her website therefore the same apparently flawed logic would have to apply in both instances.

The effort to get Mr. Granger back into office via a re-count into office (despite the expense) has also failed.

Three strikes and you're out.

As a side note and for the record: I never publicly endorsed Mr. Dawe other than to provide 14 friends and neighbours with Dawe signs when requested. I was more than happy to oblige.

I also think that it is worth noting that the outgoing Mayor and town are making every effort to sue and possibly bankrupt my family for reasons that they can't possibly have a single shred of credible evidence to support because their accusations (as far as I understand them) are not true. I am being falsely accused of being a moderator of the Aurora Citizen Blog (which I never was) and the fact that I was once a vocal supporter of the Mayor's and am now a well justified critic may suggest (at least to some of us) the petty and politically motivated nature of the legal attack in question.

As far as I am concerned... at some point Phyllis and her team of lawyers will have to accept some level of responsibility for their actions and the resulting impact on Phyllis' political reputation but I also fully appreciate that is highly unlikely to ever happen knowing what we know.

Anonymous said...

Richard,
So many of us are dismayed and disgusted with this lawsuit and how it all came about and just wanting it to go away, that I think some may not being seeing the larger picture.

If this mess ever did get before a judge, YOU, are not the one that has to prove that you were not a moderator. She has to prove that you are. Apparently, she is also claiming that you and your co-defandants caused her to lose the election. Hmmm, how does anyone suppose she can prove that? Of the 13,169 votes cast for the position of Mayor, she received 2806. Is she in a position to know and prove what was in the hearts and minds of 10,363 people that didn't vote for her? As far as the You Tube nonsense goes, that's exactly what it is, sheer nonsense. Seriously, You Tube? You better watch out, next thing you know, some asshat might write a letter to the Pentagon accusing you of being behind Wikileaks.

I wonder also how she can go about proving that the announcement of the lawsuit couldn't have had a negative impact on her campaign two weeks before an election. Might she have had an expectation that the matter would be held secret? The parties involved certainly had no legal or moral obligation to do so.

How can anyone be of a mind to think that this lawsuit was not born out of an effort to intimidate or silence (SLAP) critism? It makes no sense whatsoever. There is so much more that I want to say and discuss, but it is Evelyn's blog after all.

Regards,
Luckywife