Category: Ethics and behaviour

Really? Another sole-sourced lawyer?

Collingwood / Council / Deceit / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Election 2018 / Ethics and behaviourOne Comment

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Collingwood hires lawyer for judicial inquiry. That’s the headline on a story in the Connection. Do I understand this story correctly? The same sole-sourced lawyer who encouraged Brian Saunderson and his council puppets to launch a judicial inquiry that may cost taxpayers $6 million or more has been appointed to to be “legal counsel for the judicial inquiry”?* Anyone remember this promise by Brian Saunderson to… Change the purchasing policy to ensure there can be no sole sourcing of any contract for goods or services … click below for more ↓

Brian’s new campaign slogan

Collingwood / Council / Deceit / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Election 2018 / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Humour & SatireLeave a comment

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Brian Saunderson needs a new campaign slogan, now he’s officially filed papers in his ill-fated race to become mayor against the hard-working, well-liked, ethical, community-minded, former police chief, John Trude. It’s not good enough for Brian to run on his slogans from last election – “I’ll Show ‘Em Who’s Boss!”, “My Way or the Highway!”, “Why Be Open and Accountable When Secrecy and Deception Get My Way So Much Better?” and the local favourite, “I’ll Get Even With All of You!” Last election, he launched … click below for more ↓

Plutarch on listening, and The Block

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviourOne Comment

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“[W]e observe that… the great majority of persons …practise speaking before they have acquired the habit of listening.” Plutarch wrote that in his essay De Auditu, or On Listening. Reading those words immediately made me think of that group we have on Collingwood Council who never listen to anyone but themselves and frequently speak without any apparent thought behind their comments: The Block. And, no, I don’t expect any of them to heed his words of wisdom or advice on this or any other subject. … click below for more ↓

Jeffrey’s snout back in the trough

Collingwood / Council / Deceit / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour4 Comments

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Last Monday The Block snuck a motion into the meeting without putting it on the agenda: to allow Councillor Jeffrey to pursue her personal political goals at taxpayer expense, and chase another seat on the FCM (Federation of Canadian Municipalities) board – even though she failed to win re-election to the board in May, 2017. At the upcoming FCM meeting in Halifax she can wine and dine on your dollar. Of course The Block didn’t want it publicized beforehand because they knew it would arouse … click below for more ↓

Block bullies are at it again

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Ethics and behaviourOne Comment

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May 14’s council agenda (p. 40-49) contained yet more evidence of The Block’s bully-boy tactics and pettiness: a complaint made to the integrity commissioner against our mayor. They damn her no matter what she does. This complaint was filed by someone who might charitably be called the Block’s pet barnacle for his concreted attachment to them, dragged along by their momentum without any of his own. He’s also nicknamed the “frequent filer” for his habit of filing FOI requests against people he doesn’t like, apparently looking … click below for more ↓

Deception, The Block, and EPCOR

Collingwood / Deceit / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Ethics and behaviour / Publicity & Communications / Utilities: electricity and waterLeave a comment

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The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) is currently conducting hearings about the proposed sale of our publicly-owned electrical utility, Collus, to the for-profit, out-of-province corporation, EPCOR. Several documents have already been entered into the record and you can read them here. Most of them are fairly technical and steeped in opaque legalese, but download and read this one: EPCOR_IRR_SEC_EPCOR Collingwood MAADs_20180503.pdf. There’s some interesting content here and I think it’s stuff that The Block, the town and maybe even EPCOR don’t want you – the public … click below for more ↓

John Brown’s letter got the attention it deserved

Collingwood / Council / Deceit / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Ethics and behaviourLeave a comment

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It went almost unnoticed, but on the agenda for the April 30 Collingwood Council agenda was a letter from the former interim CAO, John Brown, with eight questions (and some comments) about the CAO’s report on the costs of the upcoming judicial inquiry (item eight in the Consent Agenda portion). The letter itself is unsigned (see it here) but the agenda notes the author’s name. Not even the local media picked up on it. It’s curious that not one of The Block bothered to have it … click below for more ↓

Doherty’s Magic Money Fairy

Collingwood / deception & secrecy / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies / Taxes / User fees and costs3 Comments

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At 3:55:20 in the video of Monday’s Collingwood Council meeting, Councillor Deb Doherty utters the self-congratulatory claim that she is “glad” the costs of the upcoming judicial inquiry to pursue the Block’s maniacal conspiracy theories are not coming out of “taxpayer funds on an annual basis.” I can hear your head shaking. Where does she think money comes from? And since taxes are calculated yearly, is there any other sort of taxation aside from an “annual basis”? Well, read on… This bit of financial wisdom … click below for more ↓

Council kills Collingwood construction

Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies / Publicity & CommunicationsLeave a comment

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Collingwood council – dominated by The Block – has voted to cripple the booming construction industry in town. A bylaw passed this week prohibits, “…operation of construction equipment to Monday to Friday from 7 a.m., to 7 p.m.” according to a story in the Connection.* This means The Block have really put a damper on construction, making it even more difficult for developers to get homes finished on time, hurting the workers who depend on those jobs, delaying new home buyers from moving in and … click below for more ↓

The costs of the Block’s conspiracy theory

Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Ethics and behaviour / Utilities: electricity and water2 Comments

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$6.2 million. That’s how much it cost Mississauga to have a judicial inquiry into its utility Enersource, back in 2011. That inquiry was initially estimated to cost $2 million but the costs more than tripled, according to a story in The Connection. Imagine what The Block’s judicial inquiry is going to cost us in Collingwood. Millions and millions more. They’ve already admitted it will cost taxpayers around $2 million. But none of them have even the slightest idea of what’s involved, who has to be … click below for more ↓

The Block Bullies

Collingwood / Council / Deceit / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Ethics and behaviourLeave a comment

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Like all schoolyard bullies, The Block use aggressive tactics intended to intimidate and cow anyone who stands up to or disagrees with them. From their phony, trumped-up OPP investigation – which after five years hasn’t produce a single charge, nor have any of the alleged miscreants even been interviewed by police – through the debacle of how they handled the sale of Collus, to bullying the hospital, to their puerile judicial inquiry, The Block are hellbent on their vendettas. This is a group that continues … click below for more ↓

Our treasonous council

Collingwood / Council / Deceit / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Ethics and behaviour / Utilities: electricity and water3 Comments

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If Collingwood Council operated at a higher tier or government – say the federal level – they would be called treasonous and taken to court for their culture of deception, their attacks on our democratic and civic institutions, and for their ongoing betrayal of the public trust. But because they are only a municipal government, they can merely be called despicable while we await the next election. The latest act of desperation in the dungheap of this term is the recent motion to demand a … click below for more ↓

Thoughts on local municipal governance

Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Ethics and behaviourLeave a comment

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A popular political theory presents two basic and often contradictory models of how elected officials should (or do) behave as representatives. One is as a delegate: solely acting as a representative of the people who elected them. The other is as a trustee, serving (or attempting to serve) everyone under their governance. In practice, these are not absolutely discrete, but are practiced in combination with one another, as situations dictate or according to how vocal the electors are.* How is this practiced here, in Collingwood? … click below for more ↓

Madigan’s motion jeopardizes town

Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Ethics and behaviour / Staff and administration2 Comments

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On January 15, Councillor Bob Madigan made a motion (seconded, of course, by his puppetmaster, Deputy Mayor Saunderson) to limit the progress of the Indigo/Eden-Oak/McNabb development at the south end of town. Madigan’s motion demanded that, …council provide no further approvals to the Eden Oak/McNabb development until such time as council as a whole has the opportunity to review the concerns expressed by the neighbouring residents and agree upon any mitigation options. (Yes, I wondered who wrote it for him, too… whoever did it wasn’t … click below for more ↓

Bullshit and hypocrisy again

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Ethics and behaviour / Hospital / Staff and administration / TaxesLeave a comment

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You have to hand it to our Deputy Mayor: for all his many, many faults, he does do two things remarkably well: hypocrisy and bullshit. Neither does he do in halfway measures. No, when he dons their mantle, he wears the emperor’s new clothes with pride, head to toe. At January 15’s council meeting, Brian took both bullshit and hypocrisy to stratospherically new levels. Astounding levels seldom seen outside today’s White House; truly breathtaking to see it here in our little town. More proof the … click below for more ↓

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