"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

Tuesday 11 December 2012

Ah Perfidious Fate !

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Streaming Or Not": 
The Auroran is up complete with a statement from the CAO that staff endorse the proposal for the Centre. One has to wonder if he cleared that with Council the way he requires Council to clear their questions with him. Real trouble deciding who works for whom. But if council members allow him to do this when they are in favour of a motion, they must expect him to do the same when they might be in opposition. Fair warning.
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Like every other Councillor, I had a meeting with the new CAO when he first came to Aurora from the Region. 
I informed him the job has a high profile. People watch how the CAO performs .
I explained the line between authority of the elected body and accountability of the administration to the elected body. I knew it was something he had not experienced at the Region
I gave a friendly warning about crossing the line between the political and the administrative.
But  the dynamics of that council were not conducive to keeping the line clear and untrammelled.
A council divided neuters itself. 
The former Mayor had a genius for  encouraging people to do the nasty while ensuring her  incriminating fingerprints were nowhere to be seen.
Countless examples exist of people willing to take the podium  in the Council Chamber to say things she wanted said but had no intention of saying. 
On one occasion, a taxi operator came to spew out an unintelligible list of complaints, in the midst  of which he said;
"And you Madam Councillor Buck"
Mystified because I had had no communication with the fellow before then, awaited what was to follow. 
Nothing .
His reference is still obscure. 
Faint light shone when the Mayor, on  a subsequent occasion, revealed she was in the habit of visiting the taxi office in the small hours of the morning, to make sure everything was alright. 
The taxi business is unlike any other.
I'm not sure how a Mayor  could ensure that all was well. 
But there iwas . It's what she said. 
All in a perfectly helpful vein of course.No potential for mischief. Yes, it is  the same party suing the Mayor former  to the former Mayor for millions of dollars.  
The taxi operator  may still  be receiving unsolicited  advice from  the same  source 
Including  a blaze of publicity from the same publication  previously slow to cover SLAPP  activities of the former Mayor.
No, not the Mayor former to the former Mayor. 
The Mayor, the former Mayor, spent untold sums of public resources in legal fees, to catch out in  skullduggery of invading   privacy  in the use of  a public amenity in a public building. 
Which he did not.
Which in any case, in the final advice from the lawyer paid for by the town, would have been a civil case  even if what didn't happen had happened.  Pay attention to me now. This is all  pretty tricky trickery. 
Now, to add to the mix, we have an exchange of tweetery promises of payback  from  Deborah Kelly to  Councillor Ballard following the  Banner's loss of the lucrative contract of the Town's Bulletin Board. 
It's Guerilla Warfare people.
Stay tuned for  more  devilish details as they appear.     

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Banner is not capable of ' a blaze of publicity '. And what, pray tell, is the point of whatever they do cobble together when no one reads the silly thing? They are on the skids as cancellations grow while The Auroran is delivered right into mail-boxes. Mine arrived last week after dark with a rumble of skate blades and a shadowy figure outlined by our minimal seasonal lighting. Most impressive.

Anonymous said...

Since the Aurora Website is pretty well useless, Councillor Ballard and the CAO are using the press instead. Evelyn has her Blog & Christopher has his. Otherwise there really is no way to obtain news except for some-time streaming and Rogers if they don't have a hockey game.

Anonymous said...

Evelyn writes: "we have an exchange of tweetery promises of payback from Deborah Kelly to Councillor Ballard following the Banner's loss of the lucrative contract of the Town's Bulletin Board."

I now find that the Banner covers everything and anything that puts the Mayor or any council member in bad light and does so out of proportion and balance. How many times do I have to read that the Jazz Festival organizers have said they won't bid.

On the other hand, The Auroran while taking a stand on editorial issues keeps telling both sides of a story and publishes letters to the editor covering both sides.

The Auroran is only published once a week but they seem to get the news out in a more timely manner than the Banner. Reading the current weekend Banner is telling you the news of the past weekend. The Banner really is just a vehicle to deliver a tree's worth of flyers. That is their business - ads & flyers pays for the newsprint but it needs to be more print worthy. Not to say that The Auroran doesn't have ads etc but I believe it's news quality is better so it delivers better to its paying clients - the ones buying the ad space. This now includes the Town of Aurora.

It's like the old rental car ad "The Auroran is #2 so they try harder". They may in fact be #1.

Anonymous said...

To 8:04pm....

I would suggest to you that if you are looking for "information" and not "news", your only source would be to attend the meetings in person.

Regardless of who creates your "news", you will never get the "information" without some sort of bias. Even in your short post, you have separated the factions into Ballard/CAO vs. Buck and Watts.

Anonymous said...

10:36 AM
That person seemed to be taking whatever news was available from all the sources. I see no bias - just a comment on sourcing information.

Anonymous said...

Councillor Buck confessed to a bias during last night's General Committee meeting.

Anonymous said...

2:10 PM
So?

Anonymous said...

Biases abound, 3:35 PM.