Category: Collingwood

Comments, thoughts and musings about my hometown: Collingwood, Ontario. And some local politics, too, with my comments as a municipal councillor.

Killing gnats with grenades

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies2 Comments

Loading

Collingwood Council has taken the equivalent approach of a grenade attack to swat at a little gnat. It has launched a full-frontal assault on people feeding wildlife in order to get a couple of people in town to stop feeding feral cats. And of course it was done without any public input. The sensible, socially active and responsible approach would have been a campaign of education, public meetings, and information. But no, that’s too damned open and transparent for this council. What this council wants – and got – is punitive legislation. Let’s punish people who think they’re being humane ……… click below for more ↓

Amateur layout and bad ads. Again.

Collingwood / Ethics and behaviour / Fonts & Layout / Media / Publicity & Communications / Social Order & Disorder / TypographyOne Comment

Loading

I see the Town of Collingwood is still letting the EB layout its full page of ads in the paper.  Tragic. Embarrassing. Cringe-worthy. The latest back page mashup has as its first ad the worst of the worst sort of ad layout, the sort only amateurs would create. It’s too wide for any human being to comfortably and efficiently read. Then there’s the second page with its fat partner in layout crime. It’s embarrassing for a municipality to be thus represented. The only saving grace is that no one reads the EB any more, so not very many people see how bad it ……… click below for more ↓

Peter, Parkinson and Adams

Books & Reviews / Collingwood / Council / Critical Thinking / Ethics and behaviour / Philosophy / PoliticsOne Comment

Loading

C. Northcote Parkinson, Lawrence J. Peter, and Scott Adams are for me the ‘holy trinity’ of philosophers of modern bureaucracy, within both the public service and the corporate structure. As philosophers, they are all keen observers and witty commentators on the human condition, with emphasis on the nature of organizations, leadership and management. Not always in the lofty or strategically-focused terms of, say, Sun Tzu or Machiavelli; all three are more prosaic and more cynical. And funnier – an adjective seldom used with either classical writer. These three pundits are, of course, well-known today: every CEO, corporate leader and ambitious manager worth their ……… click below for more ↓

Demagogues and democracy

Books & Reviews / Collingwood / Council / Municipal Politics / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

Loading

“I just wish, at some point in time, councillors would show a little more integrity or credibility on the floor of council… It’s like every time we try to do something, there’s criticism, no matter what we do. I’d like to see councillors do the right thing. And in my opinion, these people are not doing the right thing. They’re hypocrites. They’re not telling the truth.” No, that’s not Mayor Cooper speaking about our current council that continues to blindly clear cut its way through the town’s institutions and services, masticate our already battered reputation into spittle-and-chips, and bludgeon staff morale into pulpy submission. ……… click below for more ↓

Why? A few questions for councillors

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

Loading

Why? Councillor Madigan said he had written that on every page of the report about Collus, presented to council last week by lawyer Mark Rodger. After reading the report, I also have many questions why. It’s a good question. I too, wrote ‘why?” on many pages, albeit likely for rather different reasons. Why, I asked myself as I watched the meeting and listened to the comments from councillors last week, is our current council so intent on destroying its successful, accomplished utility – a superb, efficient business – while demoralizing and alienating the staff who have served this community so well for decades? Why is ……… click below for more ↓

The latest FOI emails examined

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

Loading

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

Loading

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

Loading

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

Loading

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

Loading

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

Loading

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 ↓

CAOs: Mene mene, tekel upharsin

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

Loading

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

Loading

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

Loading

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

Loading

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 ↓

Back to Top