"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 21 September 2011

Another Opinion

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Rise And Report":

With respect to this post and the previous one, it is obvious that if Aurora Council had a speaker, the work on hand would be accomplished much faster, in accordance with the agenda for each meeting, and with far less acrimony.

I do not believe that time will improve the situation.

The more opportunity wayward councillors have the to play their stupid little games the more set in their ways they will become, and it will become impossible to bring them to heel.

Are there no long serving retired councillors or former legislators, either Federal of Provincial, with experience with the rules of procedural conduct who might be happy to work for a few hours each week within easy driving time of Aurora? Even at a princely figure of $100 - $200 per hour the cost would be repaid very quickly through Council efficiency and more rapid decision making.

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Speakers in the House of Commons,  Ontario Legislative Assembly and the City of Toronto are perforce elected to office.

Our system of gvernment gives the electorate the right to choose who will make decisions
.
They may be "wayward" they may "play stupid little games". it may be impossible to" bring them to heel"  

They were  chosen by the electorate  to do the job as they see fit for the next four years. There is no role for anyone outside of the elected body to change that.

Possibility for improvement must come from within with positive and critical  feedback from the community. I continue to be optimistic.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

If we had the right of recall in this province certain sitting councillors might have the shepherd's reach out for them and remove them from their chairs.

Election campaigns don't really offer much opportunity to the electorate to get to know all the candidates running for office. In many instances people might know enough about a few candidates to make an informed judgement. They then turn to fill out the remaining spaces on the ballot with those they deem the least offensive.

Candidate web sites and campaign literature are often cleverly or confusingly written to portray only a small portion of a person's experience and/or capability. This does nothing to inform the public in an intelligent manner.

Having a non-elected member of our society with years of experience as a former speaker is far more desirable than having to rely on elected persons with no experience whatsoever.

Our Town's Council meetings are often a shambles because the rules are either not known or not enforced. This ultimately costs taxpayers through faulty decision making, sometimes deferred for unacceptable periods.

This is no way to spend $50 million.

There is no reason why it should not be possible to set a precedent at the Provincial level to amend the Municipal Act, if necessary, to permit non-elected experienced persons to act in the position of local municipal Council Speakers.

I am not as optimistic as the blog owner.

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

I don't understand. the Mayor is not a stupid man.
He has his Council and a set of rules. Why does he let
a trio of dimwits push him around ? What happened to his pre-electoral emphasis on the word 'no' ?

Anonymoose said...

"I don't understand. the Mayor is not a stupid man."

Indeed he is not. So perhaps you should instead be asking yourself if your information sources are as reliable and fair as you'd like.

You can't believe everything you read on the Internet you know. That goes doubly so if the issue has anything to do with this town.