"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

Saturday 20 October 2012

About Repeating Facts

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "It's Not True That A Statement Repeated Often Enou...":

"I have repeated the facts (sic) many times."
.. and don't we know it!

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If you do, what you know is not apparent. 
A couple of other minor matters are:
Televised  meetings allow people  to listen to what passes for debate and make their own decision.
They  hear   arguments. They make judgements.
They would surely not be watching without keen interest. 
They are the opinion-makers. 
Despite the tired ennui expressed above, the people I meet tell me 
first;  keep doing what  you're doing. Second;  take care of yourself.
 I do so, confident of support  and that I am doing what is expected of me. 
Sometimes things are said in a meeting that can't be pursued at the time
Like last Tuesday;the question on the table was the  purchase of cultural services agreement ..
The Mayor repeated  the agreement had been written by a law clerk and lack of legal counsel was  the reason for its shortcomings. 
The Mayor was not on Council when the contract was prepared..   He could only have  been told.  
The town's administration is managed by an Executive Leadership  Team,formerly known as Management Team., headed by a Chief Administrative Officer.
Each Spring , a roster of external legal firms are approved by Council.  
There is no time when legal counsel is not available.
No time when it might be necessary to assign the task of  creating a legal agreement  to a law clerk. 
Never a time when responsibility for a shoddy agreement negating the town's interest could be laid at the feet of that  law clerk.
Shame .......Shame. 
Let me repeat once more;
The night the agreement  was presented for approval, I stated, I could only vote for it on the basis of blind trust.There had not been time for  council review. 
The mover of the motion,former Councillor MacEachern added an amendment,  the contract be reviewed by the newly appointed 
town solicitor to report to Council if  there was a need.
It's in the record." Check the transcript "
We  assume the contract was reviewed by the solicitor.
No  errors or omissions  were ever reported  to Council. 
The town did have legal counsel  when the agreement  was signed. 
The town  was paying  a whole crew of  high-price experts to ensure the town's interest was protected. 
The town's interest was not protected. 
It was not the fault of a lowly law clerk.
It is beneath the Office of  Mayor to keep repeating something   untrue in the hopes  people will believe it  if  repeated often enough. 
One other small detail to add  in the closing argument.
Council is currently huddling behind closed doors with an unclean audit  because of the risk of identifying an identifiable individual.
No such concern is evident when blame for the purchase of culture services agreement is laid by management  and the Mayor himself, at the feet of a law clerk.
We  have two.    

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It must be very frustrating to try & talk sense to those who will not/ can not listen. Every since the Mayor was quoted in the Auroran stating that he had ignored advice from the Town's lawyer and would do so again, that deal has been tainted. I know nothing whatever about all the municipal rules that are in play here, nor whether there has been any impropriety. But it sure looks very ugly.

Anonymous said...

Again, another potted history, another look backwards. How does harping on what was help us now that the remedied arrangement is before Council? What is relevant now is the NEW agreement.