"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 5 September 2012

Work Is Required On The Rules

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "About The Rules":
So why do you expect Gallo and Ballard to understand and uphold the Rules of Procedure?

Surely you are no longer surprised.

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I think most Councillors  want to feel and  be seen to be competent with the rules. Especially in the spotlight of presiding where there's a distinct  possibility of making an  absolute fool of oneself.
I haven't seen anyone try to harass a presiding member. 
Unless we count Councillor Gaertner, who really doesn't frighten anyone. 
It's  a long  time since we have had an experienced and competent chairperson. A lot depends on the goodwill of  Council
There is reciprocation,  Learning how to function within the rules  happens  completely under  firm, competent and fair guidance from the chair.
If the Chair hasn't got it, the Council won't get it.  
Nowadays ,new Councillors go off to workshops provided by redundant municipal public servants , who hire themselves out as consultants and write  expert books about something they  never did..
The newbies come back confident they know everything they need to know and more.
They even  feel sufficiently endowed  to  suggest  improvements to rules that have been honed to time-worn  excellence from hundreds of years of usage.
If they concentrated on  gaining proficiency in  age- old, tried and true  existing rules, they might be able to recognise where   improvements  could be made to meet the exigencies. 
The current Procedure  Bylaw is not meeting our needs in many ways.  
We messed with it in the last review. 
Made it even worse than  it was under the Banana Republic of the Mormac administration.   
   

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