If there was one overarching theme from yesterday's council meeting it is that your Town Council has given up caring about you and your community.
Never mind passionate feelings towards Newmarket, there were times during yesterday's council meeting that I thought to call 911 to check for signs of life. If there was a pulse in the meeting, it was a very faint one indeed.
Raise your water rates 5.7%?
Hike your business license fees?
Raise most user fees?
Suspend public input by placing a moratorium on all (non-statutory) committees?
Making decisions behind closed doors?
All of these were agreed to by council with little or no actual debate. We saw instead council members quickly and quietly going through the motions. They did exactly what they were told to do.
The meeting wrapped up in approximately 45 minutes which left Rogers TV in a lurch because it had booked 3 hours of air time for this meeting.
As the TV camera rolled, I saw blank stares and boredom on the faces of council members. John Taylor, coming off a stinging defeat at the Regional Council on Tuesday night, may well have worn a t-shirt with the words, "I don't care", across his chest. His body language last night said as much as he reclined his council chair way back.
After this lackadaisical 45-minute get together, Council has decided to take a month off to celebrate Christmas. Metaphorically, it seems the perfect way to start this sleepy, complacent, do-nothing Council.
Away from public scrutiny things are happening. Vast sums of money are being spent on friends of Tony Van Bynen and his vanity projects. Instead of having a Council overseeing the Mayor's activities, he has lulled them to sleep, giving himself free reign to do whatever he wants.
Don't expect the Era to help in any way. After attending last night's meeting, Era reporter Chris Simon has written a story about hockey rinks. That issue is minor in comparison to what Council really agreed to proceed with. The Era reporter just doesn't recognize what is news versus what is trivial.
I don't feel that most of council has the skill sets or experience to investigate or debate important issues: it's just not in their collective wheelhouse.
ReplyDeleteI disagree about the importance of the hockey rinks, however. We need more low-cost or free recreational opportunities for youth in this town.