Wasaga council “special” meetings

Monday, our Council had a “Special Meeting”. That’s not unusual with this Council. They have had many.

A special meeting is held when the town business cannot be conducted during a regular scheduled meeting. There are rules about ALL meetings, but this Council feels they are immune to actual rules. I wonder if the “Special Meeting” was requested by a majority vote?

At the very beginning of the meeting they at least recognized they were going to breach a rule in their own procedural bylaw, so they just put forward a motion to make the exception. Then the Mayor read his notice of Motion to send a letter to the Premier.

So they just voted to break a policy. Okay, that’s their prerogative. But, what followed was inexcusable. The rest of their agenda was so filled it took

Normally, I would say, Oh Well, they choose to be Council Members. But it is not fair to the community. It is not fair to staff. It is not fair to those who… through a desire to attend, set aside their day.

There were four (yes-4) public meetings today that became a part of the “special” council meeting. Why is that a problem? Well, these public meetings generally attract large crowds from interested parties. Today was no different. GREAT speakers! Council KNOWS this, but they don’t care. In fact, there is a very specific rule in their very own procedural bylaw that limits public meetings to two per meeting. I guess the Council that wrote the actual policy respected the public.

There were times in Mondays meeting that the Chair would call out the name of someone listed to speak and the audience or the clerk would say… that person left.

Those that did stay spoke well. They were very respectful and abided by the rules.

It is refreshing to see how many people truly care about our community and that they are willing to speak up and be heard.

There are rules Council members need to abide by and there are rules residents, députants and staff need to abide by. But if you are the Mayor, it seems the rules do not apply to you!

Over the next few days, I will time stamp a few interesting clips I encourage everyone to watch. This meeting was FILLED with examples of how some Council members are left in the dark, some appear to be in the inner circle and in many cases, blatantly disrespectful of others with NO intervention from our Mayor.

Let’s hope the media isn’t listening carefully or they may call to ask him what he meant about us not having the same problems they have south of the border. Loose lips-sink ships.

In Mondays meeting despite rules of respect, a senior staff member called a comment from my wife “asenine” with no intervention from the Mayor. Our Deputy Mayor called a business person in our community “greedy” with no intervention from our Mayor. In fact, she then asked the clerk if they could ignore, not only their own policies, but planning act regulations. She wanted to hold a vote immediately to deny the planning application being discussed. She knows the rules… she just doesn’t seem to care.

Finally, our Mayor made remarks belittling our staff. In fact, he repeated these so frequently, he felt the need to clarify his intent.

I was always taught to listen carefully when someone starts a sentence with, “I don’t mean to be offensive. But…”

It actually translates into: “I’m about to say something I know is offensive, but I don’t care and I want to soften the public perception.”

Think about that, while listening to Brian Smith say, “I’m not criticizing staff (in a public meeting), but…”

Here is the link to Mondays special Council meeting.