Disrespect and bad behaviour – Page 6

Will Madigan Pay for Inquiry Costs?

In a recent story on CollingwoodToday about the Saunderson Vindictive Judicial Inquiry (SVJI), Councillor Bob “Lapdog” Madigan commented that he wanted, “…those who are responsible for this need to be held accountable.” Since neither the inquiry nor the OPP found anything illegal or criminal in the proceedings (no charges have been laid, although the OPP began its investigation in 2014!), the basis for a lawsuit would be… what? Council’s opinion? Or just Madigan’s umbrage? We assume from the story’s headline, “Council wants to know litigation options following inquiry,” that he and others at the table want the town to sue ……… click below for more ↓

Enough B.S. (Brian Saunderson)

2021-02-05 2021-02-07 Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Hospital / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial Inquiry3 Comments

Yet another week has gone by and our mayor, Brian Saunderson, stubbornly refuses to do the right thing for the people of the town of Collingwood, and resign. He continues to pursue his personal political ambitions at the expense of both our taxpayers and the credibility of the office. Not to mention tarnishing the reputation of those on council and staff who refuse to stand up to him or call on him to resign. Resigning would be the honourable and ethical thing to do, but I do not believe residents can expect that from Saunderson. You might want to take ……… click below for more ↓

My Report About the Report About the Report

2021-02-04 2021-02-04 Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Financial follies / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial Inquiry / Staff and administration / Taxes3 Comments

As I predicted (correctly) late last year, Collingwood Council was given a dumbed-down, $700,000-as-important-as-clean-drinking-water-report-about-the-judicial-inquiry-report. More than 900 pages of the original report reduced to a mere 15 to report on the report. And as I also predicted, it would include pie charts. You can read it here: “STAFF REPORT #CAO2021-02 Phase One – Collingwood Judicial Inquiry Next Steps. You can also look at the PowerPoint presentation made to council — which, as I also correctly predicted, would have the report “reduced to a dozen bullets on PowerPoint slides, written in a large font and read aloud, slowly, at a council ……… click below for more ↓

A Municipal Challenge to Democracy?

2021-02-02 2021-02-02 Collingwood / Council / Deceit / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies / Publicity & Communications / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial Inquiry / Staff and administration / User fees and costsLeave a comment

Collingwood has joined other local municipalities asking the province to revamp its Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA; a guide from the Information and Privacy Commissioner to the Act is also available here) to make the process more restrictive and less open. While some of those changes might seem appropriate to outsiders, I see buried in the wording of the request some dark challenges to our democracy. The story in Collingwood Today is titled, “Freedom of information rules ‘archaic’ and in need of modernization, says Collingwood clerk.” Democracies depend on some core attributes: openness, accountability, transparency, ……… click below for more ↓

Saunderson’s Still Here

2021-01-31 2021-01-31 Collingwood / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial InquiryOne Comment

A week has gone by and our mayor, Brian Saunderson, has still not done the right thing by the town of Collingwood and resigned from his office. He continues to pursue his personal ambition at the expense of both the local taxpayer and any credibility he might have had. As my readers know, Saunderson announced he didn’t want the job of mayor and is campaigning to be our local MPP (Member of Provincial Parliament). However, he announced he is staying on as mayor until he gets elected, which won’t be (if it happens at all) until June, 2021. Until then, ……… click below for more ↓

Why Saunderson Should Resign Now

2021-01-25 2021-01-25 Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour3 Comments

Imagine an issue so important, so utterly non-partisan that both the National Post and the Toronto Star — two newspapers of widely divergent politics, perspectives, and ideology — agreed. That issue is that municipal politicians running for higher office should resign from their municipal roles on council. But our own Mayor Brian Saunderson, running for the Progressive Conservatives, has decided he’s above all that, and will stay in office. I’ve already written that I see his resignation as the only honourable and ethical acrion. Imagine, too, you’re an employer. A worker comes to you, says his job sucks, and boasts ……… click below for more ↓

Saunderson’s Role in Blocking the Hospital Redevelopment

2021-01-24 2022-08-14 Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Development & Growth / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Ethics and behaviour / Hospital / Planning & Policies6 Comments

During the previous council’s four years (2014-18), I documented the aggressive efforts to stall the local hospital’s desperately-needed redevelopment by a group of those on council (aka The Block*). Every other municipality in the region enthusiastically supported the hospital’s plan; only this group on Collingwood council put up roadblocks. And they were significant roadblocks raised at great expense to the taxpayer. Collingwood council SHOULD have taken the lead to promote their own hospital, but couldn’t get past their self-importance. As a result of the former council’s pettiness and negative interference, the hospital’s plans were set back as much as a ……… click below for more ↓

An Honourable Mayor?

2021-01-21 2021-01-21 Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial Inquiry / Staff and administration8 Comments

Mayor Brian Saunderson has announced he is running for nomination to the provincial Progressive Conservative party in our riding to be able to stand as the candidate for MPP. According to a story in Collingwood Today, he is not stepping down from his role as mayor, and will not do so even if he wins the nomination: Should Saunderson receive the nomination, he said he would not be stepping back from his duties as mayor of Collingwood unless he were to be successful and elected in 2022. I believe that this poses a threat of both real and perceived conflicts ……… click below for more ↓

Striving for Mediocrity

2021-01-20 2021-01-31 Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Local media / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial Inquiry / Staff and administration3 Comments

On a council laden with dunces, deadwood, and dullards, it must be some consolation to our elected representatives, that they can at least claim to be less mediocre than Councillor Steve Berman. We all need someone to measure ourselves against, I suppose, and a low bar is so much easier to rise above. Berman’s first year in office was spent mostly consuming oxygen at the table and saying nothing of consequence. Of so little consequence were his words that even the normally sycophantic local media hardly ever bothered to reprint them. But when the pandemic struck and council retreated into ……… click below for more ↓

No Enemies; No Accomplishments

2020-12-01 2020-12-01 Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial InquiryLeave a comment

Have you ever read this poem? I hadn’t, until recently. But now it makes sense. Take a moment… No Enemies You have no enemies, you say? Alas! my friend, the boast is poor; He who has mingled in the fray Of duty, that the brave endure, Must have made foes! If you have none, Small is the work that you have done. You’ve hit no traitor on the hip, You’ve dashed no cup from perjured lip, You’ve never turned the wrong to right, You’ve been a coward in the fight. As Wikipedia tells us, Charles Mackay (27 March 1814 – ……… click below for more ↓

SVJI costs continue to skyrocket

2018-11-20 2018-11-20 Collingwood / Council / Deceit / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial InquiryLeave a comment

As I predicted earlier, the costs for Saunderson’s Vindictive Judicial Inquiry (SVJI) are going to climb through the roof. And of course you, the taxpayer, are going to pay for it. Last month local media carried stories that the SVJI – scheduled to begin this month (November) – wasn’t going to meet its deadlines. It was delayed and would not start until the “new year” (apparently not until February, 2019). Bayshore Broadcasting notes in its coverage*: The inquiry team had hoped they would start this fall, but Inquiry Counsel Janet Leiper tells us that won’t be possible and that it ……… click below for more ↓

Robocalls and smear campaigns

2018-09-30 2018-09-30 Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Election 2018Leave a comment

Have you received the robocall yet? Many Collingwood residents have, and every one I’ve spoken to thinks they are in appallingly bad taste. And they are right. It starts out pretending to be a survey asking who you will vote for in the municipal campaign, but after three questions it turns into a nasty attack ad against mayoral candidate John Trude. As nasty as the candidate for whose campaign it was created. How low, how cheap and immature a tactic this smear campaign is. Well, not inexpensive – these are a huge campaign expense for a small-town candidate. But money ……… click below for more ↓

Saunderson’s abject desperation

2018-07-24 2018-07-24 Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Election 2018 / Entitlement / HospitalLeave a comment

I’m not sure whether I pity Brian Saunderson most for his lack of principles or for his lack of shame. Or maybe both. Desperation makes people do things that common sense would suggest won’t work. Monday we saw desperation replace both principle and shame when Saunderson made a motion to support the hospital at the end of the meeting. It was an abject, grovelling effort. Embarrassing to watch.* Brian Saunderson is, of course, desperate. He faces not one but two credible candidates for the position of mayor, in a town where he and his five Block minions on council are ……… click below for more ↓

You’re being lied to. Again.

2018-07-19 2018-07-19 Collingwood / Council / Deceit / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Ethics and behaviour / Publicity & CommunicationsOne Comment

On Tuesday, July 17, the Strategic Initiatives Standing Committee held a meeting. Its sole purpose was to retreat behind closed doors (as this council does at every opportunity) and discuss the sale of our publicly-owned airport. To date, this council has already held 16 in camera meetings about the airport. And during these secretive meetings, our council not only decided to sell our airport, but not to hold any public consultations about that sale. Not once this term has anyone on council said WHY they wanted to sell a successful, busy, publicly-owned airport. Not once has anyone at the table ……… click below for more ↓

Update: closed door meetings in Collingwood

2018-07-18 2018-07-18 Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Planning & Policies / Publicity & Communications / Utilities: electricity and water6 Comments

Last November, I documented the unacceptably high number of closed-door (aka secretive) meetings held by this council since it took office. More than all of the past three councils combined. Back then I documented that by Oct. 2, 2017, council had held: 14 closed-door meetings about our airport 4 closed-door meetings about our hospital redevelopment 37 closed-door meetings about Collus-PowerStream (plus three potential that were vaguely identified in the agendas). And in all that time, the number of comments or editorials in the local media about this abuse of power and egregious secrecy by our council: zero. I thought I’d ……… click below for more ↓