"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

Friday 18 November 2011

Small Is Good

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Separation of Political and Administrative":

Rules of order I feel are guidelines rather than hard and fast rules when it come to local government.

Was there any harm caused by Sandra's actions?

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The writer is misguided. Rules of order  are legislated by bylaw for the purpose of  completing corporate  business in a timely and  efficient manner.

Nine people are engaged in  decision-making.

It's  not possible  without acceptance of a set of rules all agree to live by.

Rules  should not stifle debate. 

Rules must be fair to all.

Rules should be few, simple, straightforward and easily memorised.

Points of order  to silence a  point of view or  prevent information from being brought forward do not contribute  to good order. They feel like harassment. 

Rules must be combined with even-handed  judgment. 

With  social media  at our finger tips, that which  is not allowed to be said during a debate in council  will   effectively be broadcast  elsewhere.

Without pros and cons, the essence of debate is lost.

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I caught a flash news item day before yesterday. An audit of Toronto's 311 phone service has revealed 21% of phone calls are lost. They get no response.

 311 is apparently the number for  citizen inquiries or communications with the city.

Two years ago, it cost the city $40million to implement and $20million to operate. 

It sound like a Customer Service Gizmo that doesn't work.

You can call me an old-stick-in-the- mud. I have argued against  a "customer service" system being introduced at great expense  and  lost the argument.

Funds have been expended and more will be. It's included in the budget.

 I know of no  problem with customer service that needed attention. People call the town office. If, for any reason, there is no response, they have eight Councillors and a Mayor available. Calls I receive are nothing I can't handle. I imagine most members  would say the same.

We are a small town. We are not, in the foreseeable future,  going to be anything  but a small town

If we  can't  provide  quality customer service to residents without buying  an expensive "system" devised by some outfit  with a crack sales pitch, something is seriously out of kilter and its not.

I don't care if Whitchurch-Stouffville and Newmarket are doing it.

I wonder if  the severely critical audit report to Toronto Council means the system will be deemed to have created  problems that weren't there in the first place?

How much of the taxpayers money will have been wasted?

What will it take to get out of the mess?

We are glad we don't live in Toronto . We  should be able to influence the decisions to be made.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

All of this talk is becoming very boring.

Why don't you do something truly useful, something we could all enjoy?

Share some of your recipes with us.

Thanks, and have a great weekend.

Anonymous said...

The town is too small ! The former Mayor has taken
to hanging out 'volunteering' at our Seniors' Centre.
She smiles and smiles and keep shaking our hands.
Does she think we are stupid because we're older ?
Are there any older people who can scare here away ?
I'm still trying to get my hand cleansed.






yuck !

Anonymous said...

There you go again ,talking common sense, when are you ever going to learn !!

Anonymous said...

FYI
Morris and moneyed cronies running for council.Not for Profit will be the mantra.

Anonymous said...

Globe & Mail
A strong mayor needs a strong opposition.
How does that explain what happened here ? Don't
you love editorials ?

Anonymous said...

Deleting comments after you've decided to publish them sure doesn't look good.

Anonymous said...

The last time Phyllis Morris was a councillor, she and Nigel Keane spent the entire term creating disfunction so that they could run a mayoral campaign based on change.

Well even though far less than half of the ballots cast were in her favour, Phyllis was first past the post and change is what we got.

Four long years later the voters in this town finally had a say about her performance and now you tell me there is a move afoot to pursue this fiasco again?

Tilting at windmills went out with Don Quixote. What was that description of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?