I left the meeting at 11.15 P.M. Not a minute too soon..As I calmly washed my hands in the washroom. ,a sudden and unexpected thought raced through my mind.
Snowhite and The Seven Effing Dwarfs
Imagine if I'd given voice to that during a public meeting.
How inexcusable!
But the fact is ,after a four hour talk marathon there is always the possibility the roof will cave
Our job is to discuss and decide town business with utmost civility and restraint. We must agree to disagree while being mindful of the feelings of others.
Refrain from casting aspersions on the motives of colleagues.
Generally speaking, behave like paragons of virtue and pillars of society.
Last night was a surfeit.
Presentations to the young people who painted park picnic tables
were followed by six delegations.
Many heavy decisions needed to be made.
$1.4 million dollars to increase the soccer field inventory was a decision that hung in the balance.
With the Mayor absent, the vote had previously tied.
The soccer people were out in force to support their cause.
The argument expounding the merits of artificial turf was repeated several times.
We've done it twice already.
Council was admonished for lagging behind in the supply of fields..
Secure in the company of friends,Councillors on the side of the angels,took jabs at the opposition.
Not the best way to win friends and influence enemies.
Councillor Abel in a flashback to a past he did not share, disparaged political decision making.
He waxed lyrical about the need to care for young people and spoke of hardships when his children were young.
I countered with memories of a time before development charges.
Capital projects were financed by debt.
I had three boys playing hockey, two on rep teams at different times
There was no arena and then there was one... It meant rising at five on Saturdays and Sundays and driving all over to wherever there was space to rent.
Councillor Abel complained I distract him while he is speaking.
I occasionally drum my nails on the table.. He says I only do it when he has the floor.. He could be right. I don't notice I'm doing it much less when.
I begged his pardon .
He was not much mollified.
Of course the dice was cast on the soccer field vote. .
The Mayor had already met several times with soccer executives and Director to discuss the problem and assured the Club the Director was "diligently"working on the solution.
A commitment had been made by the Mayor behind the scenes, with perhaps a few close associates in the know.
Enough to ensure the vote.
The report however revealed difficulties.
Construction now means a quarter of a million dollars more than it would later.
How much later is not known.
Soccer fields are a high priority.in the Master Recreation Plan.
A skateboard park has equally high priority
New soccer facilities have been provided while the need for a skate board park languishes.
Development charges have been collected.
But skateboarders are not the same young people, Councillor Abel is concerned about.
They don't have an adult executive to plead their case
They're a bunch of ragamuffin kids trudging around town in pairs, with a board under one arm or on a shoulder. looking for a place to rock.The same kids who might be carrying a kit bag a couple of years from now.
They find places. They damage property.
Yesterday, I heard about them careening down the incline of Kemano Road, at risk of speeding into the path of oncoming cars on Aurora Heights Drive.
But they are not on our radar. Oh Dear me, no.
Mirror, Mirror on the wall
Who is the fairest of them all
Wednesday 27 June 2012
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4 comments:
So was anything eventually decided about anything?
Bummer! Oh, well. Maybe we should talk about why Canada Post wants to shut down Aurora's Post Office when they are leaving the one in Gormley alone ? It does far less business and is in the middle of nowhere.
As you said yesterday....
"Poltics...How She Is Played"
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"A commitment had been made by the Mayor behind the scenes, with perhaps a few close associates in the know.
Enough to ensure the vote."
Is this not how politics is played? Seems to me that SIGs know how to play the game better than those on your side of the equation do.
Good for them to making sure they got what they wanted. If those that oppose stuff like the fencing of a park, or sidewalks on an unused street or agreements with historical buildings took a page out the AYSC's playbook they may be able to affect the changes that they want. Instead they try to complain through social media which in the majority of cases is preaching to the choir.
And stop drumming your fingers!
So I'm not sure what happened - did the vote go in their favour?
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