Yet another Town of Orangeville Council Meeting begins with a passionate and angry Orangeville resident voicing his opinion on the happenings in Council Chambers. Orangeville resident, Brian Wormington, got up and spoke about his disgust with the behaviours of council as a whole since their elections into office.
“I am very disgusted by the way committees were handled. I don’t want to see our elected officials debating, arguing, trading for committees. I am tired of the bickering, and you guys haven’t even been here that long.” Mr. Wormington said of his feelings on the committee assignments. He went on to say “You are the ones that have to make sure that this Town works. Stop bickering. Stop your pompous flamingo attitudes. Stop wasting time. We need something to happen in this town and this is not a good progression as to where we are going in this Town.” Mr.Wormington is quite right in his statements – as I have previously mentioned, the time has come for all members of council to set aside their personal agendas and work together to the betterment of the Town of Orangeville. “We aren’t going to anywhere in this 4 year term if you keep this attitude up” Mr Wormington said “and I can guarantee that in 4 years, I’m going to be in front of your face telling you how bad you just did.”
Thank you to Mr. Wormington for your passion for Orangeville. As a side note, to anyone who peeked at the agenda, there were also a few emails that were sent to The Town of Orangeville clerks office and were received as information at council. And the tone of those emails was very similar to the concerned voiced by Mr Toms and Mr Wormington.
Hydro Board
I found this topic quite interesting. Currently there are 2 representatives from council that sit of the Hydro Board. Mayor Williams put forth a motion to reduce that number to 1 to open up another spot for the public to sit on the board. I found this interesting because most of the councillors jumped on the chance to ensure that at least 2 representatives from council stay on the board…and yet no one has jumped up yet to volunteer for the Arts & Culture committee. In fact, Councillor Bradley said it best when she said “We are the elected officials. It is our job to represent the people appropriately on boards and committees.” Hmmm…Arts & Culture anyone?!?!
Of course at this point, they didn’t have full clarification as to the composition of the Board, so they have deferred this item until they can get this report. But it should be interesting to see how many council representatives are on this particular board.
Recorded Votes At Council
voting in council
Deputy Mayor Maycock put forth a motion that going forward all votes during council meetings will be recorded votes. This motion was seconded by Councillor Campbell. There was a lot of discussion about this item – not surprisingly :)
“I’ve always been in favour of recorded votes” Mayor Williams stated “It will slow things down”…..Slow things down? Oh geez, how much more slowly can council meetings possibly move!?!?!?!?
Councillor Kidd stated “To go for a recorded vote on every item? I firmly believe that is very childish. A waste of time. If we can’t trust each other around this council table, we have a real problem in this room.” (A motion for a recorded vote is your indication that there is a real problem in this room?!?! In my humble opinion, this the least of the problems!)
Councillor Bradley replied to Councillor Kidd by saying “This is not a matter of trusting each other around the table. It is a matter of communicating to the public. That is the purpose of it.”
So they took it to a recorded vote:
Councillor Wilson – Yes, Councillor Bradley – Yes, Councillor Campbell – Yes, Councillor Kidd – No, Councillor Garisto – Yes, Deputy Mayor Maycock – Yes, Mayor Williams – Yes
Regardless of how this would slow things down, I am a huge advocate of the recorded vote. In my humble opinion, this will make it easier for the public to better understand what is happening in council chambers. It will bring to light to how your council members are voting. I am hoping that someone brings a motion forward at the next budget meeting (to be held on Monday, January 26th, 2015) that all of the Finance Committee meetings will have a recorded vote as well – because as of now, this new motion about having recorded votes only applies to Council Meetings. I, for one, would love to know how each member votes as related to the budget proceedings. Sure would help out when voting in the next municipal election wouldn’t it?? What are your thoughts on this one??