Since last summer, Councilman Stuart Taylor has been trying to review an existing agreement between the town and an engineering firm. Council members are often called upon to make financial decisions for the town, so in the interest of due diligence Taylor asked to see the agreement.
Having spent the better part of a year trying to get access to the information, and having access denied, Taylor finally sent a letter to a few newspapers explaining the whole story. And he used the S-word (secrecy). Taylor never called for the information to be public. As a councillor, he simply wanted to read the agreement.
Just helping shine sunlight on a local story. Things do sound rather odd.
Oh, tut-tut. I’m sure it’s all completely above board. Please rest easy and go about your business, citizens.
I dont ‘get’ it. the stonewalling councilors are, like, ‘the’ town. Why in gawds name would they vote to *disallow themselves* from perusing the financial agreement? good grief. finances have to be among the top 3 concerns of pretty much ANY elected body whether its the kids in the tree house or parliament. again, why, why, why would they take a route preventing *themselves* from reading the damm thing?
p.s., at first I thought Hinton was in Ontario . . . . LOL !!!
You need to blame Nancy Pelosi, who set the template for politicians everywhere by saying … “You need to pass the bill (Obamakare) to see what is in the bill” Obama did it with the TIPP … and now it is an acceptable obfuscation for politicians of all,levels.
Federal corruption is bad.
Provincial corruption can be appalling.
Local corruption is business as usual.
Nobody in their right mind wants the job,hence fools and bandits gravitate to seek these positions.
Then federal funding helps obscure the picture and nobody notices until the local goes bankrupt or their taxes drive out most of their former ratepayers.
Nobody is accountable, not even to the tiny percentage of residents who bother to vote.
It has been my experience that when there is smoke, there is a fire. Also that if an organisation is unwilling to be open and transparent,and insists on hiding behind an interpretation of the rules, it is definitely hiding wrong doing. No exceptions. Hinton town council is hiding something. Shall we try to guess what it might be?
I suspect people in Hinton have been genetically brain damaged from all the sulphurous compounds that used to spew from the pulp mill. The place smelled worse than my male doberman’s farts. People who are making financial decisions deny themselves information to allow themselves to make such decisions? The seven dwarves on council have to be absolutely retarded. (figuratively speaking of course)
Or in Hinton’s case, where there is smoke, there’s a pulp mill.
Or in Hinton’s case, where there is smoke, there’s a pulp mill.
Kate;
Its good to see ‘Allbertans’ finally paying attention to the cost-escalating machinations of their municipal governments. Much too late they are waking up to the concerted efforts of their administrations cozy relationship with council and the union bosses. This oversight on the part of the citizenry has resulted in sky-rocketing taxes and fees that will take a generation to catch up to with inflation.
A major concern about this article though is the messenger. If anyone would know how to try to manipulate the public/membership it is duplicitous danny. As Regan would have said: “Trust, but verify”.
Sincerely,
Duplicitous Danny Watch
Taylor should go nuclear.
Contact APPEGA, the engineering Society and demand the information he desires.
Court is next….
Also:
Who is the company involvved?
Taylor should run for mayor. This is absolutely appalling.
I live in Hinton Stuart is the ONLY one on council that is NOT a dyed in the wool progressive. He has the support of MANY people that live here…………….
A lot of times in smaller centres, the municipal manager or chief administrative officer holds a lot of sway over the elected members of council so they will defer to that person when making decisions. I suspect they other members of council have been advised what actions to take by the municipality’s administration.
“He has the support of MANY people that live here…………….”
Then, they’ll all be at the next council meeting backing him up, right?
I know I will be
Martin S, do any of the councillors have access to the agreement? In other words are they voting to deny access to only Taylor or to the whole council.
The real problem lies with the Provincial Government not doing its job to properly monitor the incompetents that are running these little fiefdoms.
Not necessarily, Scar. Look at Trail, BC – lead smelter right above the town, and – at least in the early days – spewing lead and sulphur from the smokestacks. The old saying was that you didn’t need to cut your lawn, you just waited for the wind to blow your way. Cleaned up in the 30’s when the Americans complained about vegetation dying their side of the border, at which time the fertilizer plant was built on the next bench up from the smelter to turn the sulphur (from the lead-zinc sulphide ores which were being smelted) into fertilizer. Said plant was the site for a heavy water building furnishing deuterium oxide for the atom bomb project – cheap hydro from Cominco’s own dams on the Kootenay River being a factor.
With all that pollution, you’d think the locals would be morons. Not so: in the 50s and 60s, J Lloyd Crowe Senior High was consistently one of the top high schools in British Columbia, with Rossland High School – up the hill – not that far behind. It embarrassed Vancouver principals to no end, accustomed as they were to only considering local schools as worthy competition.