"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

Monday 17 May 2010

A question to The Saga Ongoing.

if this is an in-camera meeting is it available online in the Robbers archives? what would have been the date?

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I know there's a more professional way of setting this up. Next year I resolve to take lessons at the Senior's Computer Club.

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Retaining legal counsel to settle political scores happened consistently during in-camera meetings.

The Special Meeting referred to in the post was public. It was to receive the first report of a new team of in-house auditors. The six northern municipalities of the region have an association to do things to-gether with more economical efficiency than we can do them apart.

It was an in-house audit system, intended to be on-going, as opposed to, but in addition to, the annual audit required by Provincial regulation. My impression is the auditors are employed by the region. So that also is a plus.

The meeting would not have been covered by Cable. Only Council Meetings are. If we allowed Rogers to install their cameras as requested months ago, we could probably have much more taping. Rogers asked for an agreement months ago. The equipment they would install is very expensive. They wanted an agreement that would assure them they could take it back if necessary.

They got neither that nor an answer to their request as far as I know.

Oops! I just remembered. That was another matter stuck behind closed doors. For a reason I cannot fathom.

We have cameras in the chamber and tapes can be produced .

I can't remember the date of the meeting but I think it was not much more than six months into the term.

There may be no-one left in the clerk's department, who was there at the time. The clerk is the keeper of the records. Only a couple of members of the senior management team have survived.

If I ask anyone on staff to track down the date, I may be putting them at risk.

You might check with Councillor McRoberts,Collins Mrakas and/or former Councillor Grace
Marsh. They may be a little hazy on the early details of the meeting.

They were on a fast learning curve at the time. They had been refused the regular orientation provided to new Councillors. They didn't even know it was their authority to decide. And they weren't paying much attention to anything I had to tell them.

Re-orientation helps to form cohesion between staff and Councillors, as well as bringing them up to speed on town business.

Better informed Councillors were apparently not considered an asset to the Mormac 's concept of exercising absolute power.

And y'all know what's said about absolute power.

1 comment:

Grace Marsh said...

The meeting was a Special General Committee Meeting on June 18th, 2007. It was not televised, but a copy of a disc can be requested from the Town I believe.

Here is the link to the minutes on the Town's website:

http://www.town.aurora.on.ca/aurora/index.aspx?ArticleID=1465&lang=en-CA

I remeber the night well. You are correct Evelyn, Grainger had to be told more than once to leave. He had no idea what was going on.

What the minutes clearly show, and speaks volumes, is the fact that Wilson didn't arrive until 8:30 and walked back out with the rest at 8:40, having no idea why he was breaking quorum, other than he was told to.