Year: 2016

The latest FOI emails examined

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

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One hundred and seventy pages of email correspondence between the town’s interim CAO, John Brown, and the Collus/Powerstream CEO, Ed Houghton, from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, , 2015, were recently released to the public as the result of a Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request filed locally. I have printed and read through all 170 pages, and marked up many of them. It’s dull reading, aside, that is, from the included “Third Party Review of the Collus PowerStream Strategic Partnership,” which should be required reading for all members of council. Let’s get something straight: No one at Collus works for the town, ……… click below for more ↓

Collingwood’s broken committee system, part 2

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

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Back in early 2015, I wrote that the experimental standing committee structure adopted by council was broken. Well, wouldn’t you know it, a year later, council finally agreed. And they replaced it with… you guessed it: another standing committee system. But it’s potentially a much more dangerous threat to our community. The former system had committees of three council members, which met away from the prying cameras that broadcast full council meetings, some of the committees skulking on the top floor of the library to further avoid public scrutiny. Because a group of three councillors was not a quorum, committees could only recommend a course of ……… click below for more ↓

Fixing the shared services agreement

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies / User fees and costs3 Comments

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First, some history: for 15 years, Collus – now Collus/Powerstream – had a beneficial, mutually-agreed-on and successful agreement with the town to provide services back to the town at reasonable rates. These were things the town did not or could not provide itself for reasons of cost, staffing, expertise, equipment or interest. It was mutually beneficial to have Collus provide them. The list of potential services included: Reconnect & Collection, Meter Reading, Billing & Collecting, Customer Service, Information Technology Management, Data Tracking, Accounting, Engineering, Planning & Necessary Maintenance, Contracting with Developers, Customers & Others, Subcontracting Services, After Hours Response, Normal Hours Response, Emergency Preparedness, Provision of Supervisory Services, HR, Policy Development, Regulatory Assistance, Reporting and Capital Construction Activities. ……… click below for more ↓

Master Han Fei’s Wisdom

Collingwood / Council / Politics / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

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Long before Niccolo Machiavelli wrote his now-famous work of political philosophy, The Prince, there was another man writing in a similar vein in China. And, like many other sages, his words have important lessons that can prove useful, even today, for our own municipal council. Han Fei Tzu (aka Han Feizi) was a prince in the Han Kingdom in the third century BCE. He was a member of and spokesperson for the “legalistic” school that challenged many of the Confucian notions of government. In his short life he wrote 55 books – really short essays we would call chapters today. ……… click below for more ↓

Betraying the Public Interest

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Taxes3 Comments

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At last Monday’s council meeting, Deputy Mayor Brian Saunderson maneuvered so that interim CAO John Brown was allowed to publicly speak to the question of his contract being extended before any vote was taken. Even before anyone on council had a chance to comment on whether he should be allowed to speak. This motion was the topic of my previous post. I believe this is an egregious betrayal of the public interest, but it’s worth looking at the process in more detail, especially to watch the video of the meeting. In the video, it seems clear to me that Saunderson has little or no interest in an ……… click below for more ↓

The $1.2 Million Bird-Flip

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Taxes / User fees and costs2 Comments

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Only 16 months into this term and I’m already worn out from saying “I told you so.” I warned you it would get worse just a few weeks ago. And look: IT DID. But you’re not really surprised, are you? The whole thing was choreographed by the Bobblehead Block Five through months of secret meetings and emails without any public input. Secrecy, no openness, no accountability – the hallmarks of this term. And it will get worse. Much worse. I’m going to be saying “I told you so” a lot more through the train wreck of this term. Get used to ……… click below for more ↓

The Crow and the Lion

Fables / Literary pretensions / PoliticsLeave a comment

Once upon a time, a crafty, old crow was sitting in his nest while his dole of pet doves brought him his breakfast. He happened to look down to the forest floor and saw a convocation of animals had been called. The animals gathered in front of their leader, a wise old lion. I don’t like lions, said the crow to himself. They’re too full of themselves. The animals like them too much. The lion shouldn’t be king of the beasts. I should be. So he called his doves to his side. “I am far more experienced, wiser, and smarter and ……… click below for more ↓

World Poetry Day

Culture / Festivals & Events / Poetry & LyricsLeave a comment

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Today, March 21, is World Poetry Day. Do you care? Not that I’m cynical about poetry – I think it’s important stuff. Poetry is far more important than, say, hockey. The Kardashians. The Oscars. The budget. The latest iPhone or iPad. A cute puppy or kitten video on Facebook. The latest anti-science fad. Or fad diet. It’s even more important than the US election. But that’s a hard sell to a culture with the average attention span lower than that of a goldfish. Whoever gets elected in the US in November will get into the history books, but the campaigns and the ……… click below for more ↓

Anti-GMO = Anti-Science

Critical Thinking / Diet Fads / New Age Codswallop2 Comments

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The politics of persuasion play a bigger role in the anti-GMO movement than science. Like so many anti-science movements before them – the anti-gluten fad, the anti-vaccination idiocies, creationism, the HIV and Zika virus conspiracies, chemtrails and on and on. Like them, anti-GMO is built on a combination of ignorance, fear and gullibility. And it’s all codswallop. First, lets get something clear: almost every single thing you eat today has been modified. Tomatoes, corn, beef, chicken, salmon, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, peas, apples, almonds, peanuts, wheat, potatoes, bananas, milk, cheese, yeast… aside from some wild fish and wild game, everything you ……… click below for more ↓

CAOs: Mene mene, tekel upharsin

Books & Reviews / Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

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The title, as you well know, dear reader, comes from the writing on the wall in Daniel 5, translated as, “You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.” Those words came to me as I read David Siegel’s recent book on Canadian municipal CAOs, Leaders in the Shadows.  It’s subtitled, “The Leadership Qualities of Municipal Chief Administrative Officers.” Interesting stuff for any municipal politician engaged in the recruitment of a CAO.* Siegel suggests CAOs lead from the shadows because, in part, “…a CAO whose name is in the media frequently is probably in some kind of trouble.” I also suggest ……… click below for more ↓

The Crow and the Eagles

Collingwood / Council / Legends & MythsLeave a comment

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Once upon a time, the crafty old crow was huffing and puffing as he flapped his way up into his nest. Although the nest was barely halfway up the tree, the crow could barely fly that high with his stubby, fat little wings and his round belly full of the delicious clams his pet doves brought to him every day. This nest is too high! he said to himself. I’ll have to get my doves to move it to a lower branch. No bird should have to fly so high to get to its nest. It’s an insult to all ……… click below for more ↓

Undermining the Mayor, and Theft

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour2 Comments

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There are several changes to Collingwood’s procedural bylaw proposed. They will come up for voting on Monday night. Most are dry procedural stuff that will likely improve or smooth the normally byzantine process. But one section in particular troubles me: 4.3: allowing the CAO to call special meetings of council by himself: Special Meetings of Council The Mayor and/or CAO may, at any time, summon a Special Meeting of Council on twenty-four (24) hours written notice to the Members. Upon receipt of a written petition, hard copy or digitally, from a majority of the Members, the Clerk shall summon a Special Meeting ……… click below for more ↓

Debunking the Collus Myths

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies6 Comments

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I was recently told a member of town council is publicly making two incorrect statements that seriously need to be debunked: Collus is 100% owned by the town (not 50%), and Collingwood only received $8 million for the sale of its share. Yes, I realize that these are contradictory statements (why would someone pay you for something they never bought?), but a member of the public alleges they were told to him by a council member this week. That sort of foolishness cannot go unchallenged. So let’s correct those mistakes, shall we? Let’s get into the wayback machine to go ……… click below for more ↓

The Crow and the Pond

Collingwood / Ethics and behaviour / Legends & MythsLeave a comment

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One day, the crafty old crow was sitting in his nest while his pack of pet doves brought him breakfast and plucked out their own chest feathers to make sure his nest was soft and warm. He happened to glance down to the forest floor and saw a large pond at which deer and other animals were drinking. The water was clear and inviting. “That’s a mighty big pond,” the old crow thought to himself. “I’d like to bathe in it. I’d like to drink from its clear waters. But not with so many other animals around. I want it all to ……… click below for more ↓

Mazatlan, 2016

Culture / Mexico / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

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We hadn’t been back to Mexico for at least six years and we missed it. We missed the climate, the culture, the food, the people, the music… Mexico has a dear place in our hearts from more than three decades of visiting it. For more than a decade we had been going to Zihuatanejo every February, staying in a house that was only a 10-15 minute walk from the downtown. Over the years, we met a lot of people, made friends with locals, with three generations of family that owned the house, and got to know the city pretty well. ……… click below for more ↓

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