Just two months into this new term and things aren't going as Council planned. After orchestrating to remove any possible opposition from Council, the gruesome-twosome should be settling down to a long honeymoon period.
To their favour, the Council agenda has been extremely light. Debates over where to pile excess snow, (if not at the expansive parking lot at RTC then where?) or how Council can take credit for the hard work of volunteers and community minded businesses (such as Home Depot) who have constructed skating rinks, are the only items that have caused any discussion within Council chambers. Not much controversy in these two items to upset the apple cart. (Although judging by the amount of closed door meetings on the agenda lately, we can only presume that the more controversial items are being discussed in secrecy).
But there can be no denying that there is a palpable level of public distrust for our 2014-2018 Council. Everywhere I go, somebody is openly complaining about the Mayor or one of the Councillors.
After 8-weeks on the job, this has got to be the shortest honeymoon in the history of Newmarket politics.
The question arises, Why are people so mistrustful now and not 3 months ago?
The Internet has to be the game changer.
Now that we can have pretty much 24/7 access to Newmarket politics, (despite that best attempts of the Newmarket Era against this), people are more aware what's going on. And as they become more aware, they realize that they don't like how things are going.
For me, Maddie Di Muccio's blogging started it all. She threw the curtains open and gave the public it's first glance at what was going on in Council. All attempts to "nip it in the bud" by John Taylor failed.
Maddie's blogging spawned the creation of my blog. In response to me, Gordon Prentice started his own; originally opposing everything I've said but lately Gordon Prentice has been coming around to the fact that I've been right all along about the unacceptable back room plotting and scheming conducted by the gruesome-twosome bloc against public interests.
And spun off from that, on both sides, a myriad of others who tweeted regularly about issues. I have noticed that the tone of these tweets are changing too. People that once supported the gruesome-twosome are expressing opinions that are far from supportive these days.
As a political strategy, the gruesome-twosome made a fatal political error in defeating Maddie Di Muccio. With Maddie on Council, they had someone they could point at and blame. With 8-1 vote results, they could say that she was the person creating dysfunction. They don't have the luxury of deflecting blame now that vote results are 9-0.
Mayor Van Bynen truly believes that if can make it to the ribbon cutting at the Old Town Hall opening and the Broadband Internet pilot project, that he can resuscitate his broken image. He is wrong. The amount of Newmarket citizens who are theatre goers or who will benefit from his internet scheme number in the dozens. The vast majority of people won't be impressed with either of these accomplishments.
So things will continue to circle the drain for this term of Council.
I don't expect Council to take my advice on how to fix the predicament they have found themselves in. But for the benefit of everyone else, here is how I would proceed if I were in the gruesome-twosome's shoes:
1) Increase visibility - Rather than shrink away on Twitter, how about actually engaging the public and answer questions and deal with challenges? Why are our Councillor's hiding (as in not being on Twitter at all or if they are, reporting on lost cats as opposed to local issues)?
2) Release documents - Distrust stems from the inexplicable need of the gruesome-twosome to be secretive. Mayor Van Bynen and Regional Councillor Taylor will never change their spots. But, maybe one of the other councillors will realize that their own good name is being dragged through the mud because these two are so terrified of transparency. The Soccer Loan, the University expenses, the SDI grant spending, the Glenway documents: these are all initiatives of prior terms of council and are closed matters. There can be no reasonable excuse to continue to keep these items secret Why not release these documents and show the public you have nothing to hide. Alternatively, keep them secret and confirm the public's suspicions that you conducted some very shady business
3) Fix the Town Website - The Town's website has some very useful information but I swear that the search engine feature was designed to prevent someone from finding an agenda item. (If you don't believe me, try it for yourself). Fix the web site. Move the voting record tab to a place of prominence. Make Council agendas more accessible with an executive summary. And abide by the rules of closed door meetings, not to the minimum standards but to the maximum amount of information possible so that the public knows what's going on. Again, the impression from the website to the public is that this Council is hiding things.
4) Hire the Ombudsman - No other gesture would show both a) that you take transparency and accountability seriously, and b) you want to save taxpayers money, than firing LAS and hiring the Ombudsman. You can gain back 90% of the public's trust with this one small decision.
To those people who are today complaining about snow plows, lack of Davis Drive progress, and so on, I want to give you a shake and say, "Wake up!" We are living with probably one of the most corrupt administrations in the history of Newmarket. Our focus needs to remain on how public money is being spent and who is getting rich off the spending. Things are only starting to unravel for the gruesome-twosome. Let's make it our goal to see them resign in disgrace before 2018.
No comments:
Post a Comment