Opinion: Clock runs out on council

Is the gravy train about to pull into Grimsby Town Hall?

Nobody’s quite sure, but why risk it?

Those were underlying questions of a rather awkward debate Monday night – just a small part of a near-five-hour committee of the whole session of Grimsby council.

There was a decent debate – half-hearted really as all knew the outcome as soon as the motion got on the floor – surrounding a new procurement process for the Town.

It is a long and involved policy, much of it good, some items just loaded with history and a near expectation of issues down the line.

There has been a lot of media coverage for issues in Brampton of late – namely consulting contracts for huge sums, approved by the CAO with no council permission or knowledge, initially. Now, who do we know who used to work in Brampton, hired the guy running the show there now and worked the system currently in place there?

Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

Nobody is saying abuse of power will happen in Grimsby, not at all. The issue, though, is the infrastructure is now constructed to facilitate it, and it simply did not need to be that way. There were the Coun. Randy Vaines of council blindly approving because a staff “expert” told him it was a good thing. Don’t really need to say any more about that.

But you have other councillors who pay attention to the general interests of taxpayers who wanted the $50,000 ceiling on the no-council-oversight limit reduced to $20,000-$25,000. In this climate, there is no question that was the route, but (5-4) council voted to give it the old college try.

Coun. Dave Sharpe and Coun. Kevin Ritchie were more interested in cutting off a taxpayer who made a delegation to council regarding its Integrity Commissioner process than pushing for policies in the best interests of their constituents.

The highlight of the night came at 11 p.m. when council voted not to extend the proceedings past the hour.

It has been said many times on this page before and after it was adopted, but the committee of the whole process for this council has been a disaster from the get-go. You have exhausted people – both on council and in the gallery – stumbling their way through vital town issues. It’s not good for anyone.

Council needs to give in, admit adopting this process was an error, go back to sub-committees and get one with it. M.W.