At noon today, the Rush ran a story on Mayor Cook interrupting Councillor Rathor when giving his year-end statement at the Dec 21st WL Council Meeting (watch Shaw Cable's coverage of Dec 21st WL Council Meeting for proof) as to where he was going with his statement. I suspect it was more about Councillor Rathor raising concerns over the $500,000 Budget overun on the new Fire Hall and property taxes rather than it taking too long
Yet - Mayor Cook took 20 minutes to give her Year-End Statement and not one member of Council, including Councillor Rathor, interrputed her and that is only because Council, I believe, wanted to show respect to Mayor Cook, as a member of Council, to allow her to give her statement in full and Cook should have done the same to Rathor. Note - she did not intervene when Councillors Barr, Bourdon, Hébert, Walters and Zacharias gave their year-end statements. It should not matter how long the statement is, but the fact that we pay attention to what each member of Council is saying
Mayor Cook's justification was "I had a job to do". I, as one taxpayer/voter, do not accept that statement. The true justifiction was - I didn't like his statement as it was too negative and did not promote the positives in our community. I know this because as Chair/Co-Chair of both the City's Advisory Planning Commission and the CRD Area 'D' Advisory Planning Commission, I do not intervene in statements made by members' unless their statement is clearly "crossing the line" or is breaking established rules for conduct. To date, I have never had to intervene as Chair
Again - Local Politics in 2011 will be interesting to observe and participate in as we see a new CRD Electoral Area 'F' Director and a full general election for WL Council, CRD Board & Board of Education (School Trustees) in September - November 2011.
4 comments:
considering after Rathor ranted about god knows what (schizophrenic statements) and since it was impossible to make out where he was going i would have cut him too. ITS CHRISTMAS and all he can do is finger point, position, and campaign for whatever reason, it was dribble and nonsense. You wouldnt have to support any candidate to know that Rathors time is done and he is just posturing to try and remain relevant when in fact, he is done.
After that utter display of embarassment i would not vote for him and will urge everyone that i know to avoid anything he or you support as it is clearly self centered and politiking at its best.....
Merry Christmas Steve, hopefully you have a clearing of the head with some eggnog and come to your senses.
Thanks for your comment...
I don't agree with the substance of your comment. I believe Rathor had a right to say what he said and whether or not we agree with it is a totally different matter.
Believe it was Voltaire who said "I don't have to agree with you but I defend your right, to the death, to say it"
But nevertheless - have a great Merry Christmas and see you in 2011
Mayor Cook is falling into the same trap as past mayors. She fails to see the need for councilpeople who do their homework and not be mere yes-men, yes, Councilman Rathor is somewhat long-winded at times, but he isn't afraid to say what he thinks and while I don't always agree with him, we need to respect that and so should she.
Its not a matter of AGREEING with his statements, its making sense of them. If hes rambling and incoherent, then the Mayor has a right of due diligence to control her chambers, and by watching the video, thats what she did. Theres a time for ranting and campaigning but not when business is to be doing on my taxing paying dollars.
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