Council – Page 5 – Scripturient

Comi-gate Continues to Plague Council

Mayor Saunderson and his gang of bullies continue to take flack for their hostile, childish behaviour towards the former Councillor Tina Comi, who resigned her seat late last month. The week after she resigned, the town’s integrity commissioner (IC) revealed a complaint against Comi filled by the Gang of Six because her 11-year-old son entered her room during a council training session that should have been held in public. You can read the story about their disgraceful, vengeful act here. And once again, our council … click below for more ↓

More Misogyny at Council

2022-02-02 2022-02-02 Collingwood / Conflicts of Interest / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour5 Comments

At Monday night’s council (Jan. 31), there was yet one more example of the misogyny male members of council exhibit towards their female peers. And, as you might have expected, it involved Councillor Madigan, our mayor’s most loyal lapdog supporter who never seems to be called out for his puerile behaviour. You can watch it on the video of the meeting, starting at 01:42:35 or watch the snippet from the meeting, downloaded here.* The snippet begins with Councillor Hamlin expressing her disappointment that “our community … click below for more ↓

The Bullying Will Continue Until We’re Satisfied

2022-01-28 2022-01-28 Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour2 Comments

Which of the following words or phrases do you feel best describe Collingwood Council (you may choose more than one): Petty Vindictive Puritanical Hypocritical Vicious Punitive Jealous Envious Mean-spirited Puerile Slavishly loyal to their Great Leader Self-righteous All of the above Imagine this (cue the Twilight Zone soundtrack…): a council member is participating in an in-camera Zoom meeting, this one a training session about the importance of in-camera confidentiality in which NO CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION was shared. It should, of course, have been held IN THE … click below for more ↓

Morally and Ethically Bankrupt

2022-01-25 2022-01-25 Collingwood / Conflicts of Interest / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Ethics and behaviour / Legal issues7 Comments

It’s official: our council is morally and ethically bankrupt. You may have felt that from their past behaviour, but Monday night they confirmed it for everyone. There is not a shred of decency left to share among them. At the Jan. 24 meeting of council, they voted unanimously to revoke Ed Houghton’s Order of Collingwood award, given in 1998. Rescinding his award was done to punish the former Collus CEO for hurting our mayor’s feelings a decade ago. Not a single member of our diminished … click below for more ↓

A Bullied Councillor Resigns

2022-01-23 2022-01-23 Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour5 Comments

On Friday, Jan. 21, Councillor Tina Comi resigned from council. I am deeply disappointed and troubled. She was the only one at the table not among the slate of slavish sycophants who serve The Great Leader. Her departure leaves us with a dysfunctional council devoid of wisdom, devoid of community spirit, with a black hole of greed at their collective core instead of a conscience. She was the sole independent voice at the table and will be sorely missed. While I have sometimes chastised her … click below for more ↓

Saunderson’s Groundhog Day

2022-01-21 2022-01-21 Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Legal issues / Saunderson's MPP campaign / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial InquiryLeave a comment

Mayor Brian Saunderon’s two petty, vindictive, and very personal motions are on the agenda for Monday, Jan. 24. You can read the agenda here, and read my comments on our mayor’s obsessive, Stalinist cancel-culture program here, and the background machinations that led to his motion here. This is nothing more than a personal vendetta using town funds and resources. Saunderson’s first motion — to revoke an award given for former Collus-CEO Ed Houghton’s contributions to the community 24 years ago — starts on page 5 … click below for more ↓

Socrates and Saunderson

2022-01-17 2022-01-17 Classics / Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Philosophy / Saunderson's MPP campaignOne Comment

In Plato’s dialogue Gorgias, Socrates debates with three sophists — Gorgias the rhetorician and his pupils Polus, and Callicles — about justice, power, morality, and virtue. Socrates also questions the value of oratory and rhetoric — the crafts of the sophists — in contemporary politics and whether they do good for the people. Spoiler alert: he’s not convinced they are for the good. You can read the somewhat stuffy Benjamin Jowett translation here and here, or read David Horan’s more modern translation here. I realize … click below for more ↓

The Dark History Behind Saunderson’s Cancel-Culture Motion

2022-01-14 2022-01-14 Collingwood / Council / Deceit / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Wacky WTF ideasLeave a comment

Without any fanfare or media coverage (no surprises there!), last September Collingwood Council approved a significant change to the policy regarding the Order of Collingwood that would pave the way for Mayor Brian Saunderson to launch his cancel-culture attack on someone he despises for hurting his feelings. But the real history goes back to the spring of 2021. It began with a CAO report presented to council in April, 2021. That report included two neo-Stalinist suggestions to erase and revise Collingwood’s history to suit the … click below for more ↓

Should Candidates and Officials Disclose Criminal Records?

2022-01-13 2022-01-13 Canadian Politics / Collingwood / deception & secrecy / Election campaigns / Municipal Politics / Musings / Politics / Provincial Politics5 Comments

Some questions about openness and truth to consider as we start a year in which we have both a provincial and municipal election coming… Should a candidate for office disclose their criminal records when they campaign? Should they disclose it only if they were convicted of an offence or should they disclose charges as well? For full public transparency and accountability, should officeholders disclose any charges and convictions? Should candidates or officeholders disclose when they have been or are being sued and why? Would you … click below for more ↓

Saunderson Continues His Cancel-Culture Program

2022-01-11 2022-01-11 Collingwood / Council / Deceit / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Ethics and behaviour / Wacky WTF ideasOne Comment

On the agenda for the Strategic Initiatives Standing Committee (SIC) for Jan. 10, 2022 is a single line under other business that underscores just how petty, puerile, and vindictive our mayor is: Order of Collingwood Revocation and OMWA Membership, Mayor Saunderson As you might expect from a secretive, deceptive mayor, there was no documentation or commentary attached to the agenda package as you would expect in an open, transparent council meeting. It cunningly doesn’t even mention he will present notices of motion. Clearly, he didn’t … click below for more ↓

Greed: Council Votes Itself More Money. Again

2022-01-09 2022-01-09 Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Wacky WTF ideas3 Comments

NB. This is a repost from Dec. 16, 2021 At its Dec. 13 budget meeting our perpetually greedy, self-serving council voted 5-3 to increase their own individual expense accounts from $4,000 a year to a staggering $5,500. That’s $2,000 more than councillors were allowed for expenses in 2014. That’s a LOT of money for a council that has spent the last two years in virtual meetings, not attending events, conferences or activities in person. It’s not as if they need it for travel. And guess … click below for more ↓

Collingwood’s Broken Windows

2022-01-09 2022-01-09 Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Ineptitude and bunglingLeave a comment

NB. This post was first published on Dec. 9, 2021 If I sometimes seem to complain in a picayune manner, harping on the same signs of scruffiness and neglect that we seem to see more often around town these days, there’s a reason for it. Mostly it’s because I care about my community and it deeply bothers me when others — especially those elected to do so — don’t. But it’s also because I believe that even small signs of neglect reflect a larger problem, … click below for more ↓

Yet More Disrespect From Madigan

2022-01-08 2022-01-08 Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Ineptitude and bunglingLeave a comment

NB: This is a repost from Dec. 9, 2021. See below. Last year, I wrote about how Councillor Bob “Lapdog” Madigan had behaved in a churlish, misogynistic manner towards female members of council during open council meetings, first in March, 2021, and again in October. But if you thought the boorish Madigan — who, it’s rumoured, plans to run for mayor or deputy mayor next election — could not set the bar any lower in puerile, boorish behaviour, last December he showed his utter disrespect not … click below for more ↓

Power Play Behind Council’s Closed Doors

2022-01-07 2022-01-07 Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Saunderson's MPP campaignOne Comment

This is a repost from a draft of the piece posted on Dec 7, 2021: In the Dec. 7 meeting of the Strategic Initiatives Standing Committee, last Tuesday, one of the issues discussed was the replacement of Deputy Mayor Hull during his unexplained absence, as well the “potential” (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) “Mayoral Vacancy” (readers will recall that Mayor Saunderson sloughed off his mayoral responsibilities and his oath of office last January to announce he wanted a better-paying job at Queen’s Park, and since then has … click below for more ↓

Heritage District Rules Need Repair

2022-01-07 2022-01-07 Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Planning & Policies / Publicity & CommunicationsOne Comment

A November story in CollingwoodToday about a new homeowner who got caught in the quagmire of our heritage district rules underscores the need for a thorough overhaul of the rules, a review of how the district is managed, and serious improvements in how the town and the heritage committee communicate information about the zone to both new and existing property owners. And how they treat homeowners. According to the story in CollingwoodToday, the new owners of a 1930 house on Fourth Street, renovated and painted the building in violation of … click below for more ↓