Haldimand "Council Should Follow Its Own Policy"
The following is a letter I sent to the editor of the Dunnville Chronicle. My letter appeared in the Dunnville Chronicle today.
COUNCIL SHOULD FOLLOW ITS OWN POLICY
Posted 2 hours ago
TO THE EDITOR:
This is to the editor of the Chronicle: I have to correct you on the procedure to appear before council; You stated this in last weeks ourview called "Who's Listening"; Council also rejected a request from Grand Erie Energy Quest to make a presentation at council. "They were within their rights to deny the appearance since it wasn't on the agenda. But blocking information gathering sessions hardly promotes better communication."
This was Janet Fraser's third attempt (Grand Erie Energy Quest) to be put on the agenda! Janet had previously written to the Clerk and requested to appear as a delegation and was denied both times. Mayor Trainer brought this up at council on August 5th, 2008 and once a again council voted 5-2 to "deny" Janet her right to appear before council.
So someone should explain to Janet Fraser why she was turned down again? She was asking to be put on the agenda! If I have misunderstood this procedure please point it out to me so "I" can get it right!
I would like to clarify the procedure for appearing as a delegation before Council of the Committee meetings. County Staff and Council know this procedure as they wrote it, yet the facts don't seem to come out straight.
This is the Official Procedure as written verbatim by Haldimand County.
19.2 Delegations
19.2.1 Any person desiring to present information verbally at a Council in Committee Meeting shall give notice to the Clerk by twelve o'clock (12:00 p. m.) noon at least six (6) days prior to the Committee Meeting. In order to be include on the "Agenda."
19.2.2 A written brief outlining the subject matter of the presentation shall be provided to the Clerk at the time of the request to appear and will form part of the official record of the proceedings.
19.2.3 Delegations shall be permitted to speak not more than ten (10) minutes in total per person, per group, per per organization.
19.2.7 No person shall be permitted to appear as a delegation to address Council relating to any litigation matters with respect to the County.
Donna Pitcher
Cayuga
Ed note: We stand corrected
Article ID# 1167480 http://www.dunnvillechronicle.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1167480
With all due respect Donna,your blogs are getting repetetive, boring and smack of nothing but vengeance and finger pointing. Is there anything positive and productive you get involved in that you can report or is it forever going to be an obsession with pointing out the flaws of others and making other people, who are actually doing something, miserable.
ReplyDeleteHaldimand seems to have a little group of people who have nothing better in their lives to do than to get in the way of others.
You're sounding a bit like that McHale guy now. All talk with no substance other than "Hey everyone! Look at me! I'm powerful and everyone should be afraid of me!"
Well, the courts aren't afraid of McHale obviously as we read today in the Spectator (Spectator story attached below) and neither should council be afraid of you.
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/423664
sounds like a halidmand councillors responce .We are right you are wrong. With respect of something positive, lets see wallmarts, tsc, no frills, gone . No developement , two new arenas needed and no money, ecoli. found in local ditchs, and no responce from staff for years, water rates going through the roof. Council slamming all levels of government begging for money .oh and they do not follow there own rules.
ReplyDeleteI for one appreciate your service Donna. Be certain, there are many more. People who stick their neck out to educate and provide constructive criticism are rare. However, your service is not free of criticism either as is posted above. There is always something to learn in life, and there is a reason for your talent. Thank you for it and keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteEarp
Thanks everyone for your comments.
ReplyDelete"With all due respect Donna,your blogs are getting repetetive, boring and smack of nothing but vengeance and finger pointing".
My response to this is a simple one.....if you don't like reading my blog....then don't.
"Haldimand seems to have a little group of people who have nothing better in their lives to do than to get in the way of others".
My response to this.....I am not sure who the "others" are, but I am going to assume that you are speaking about Haldimand County Councillors, and if you are I have every right!
It is important that the truth come out, and this is a perfect example of how council is creating their own grief.
ReplyDeleteAnyone can see that council is not following their own rules! This should concern all of us. If they are breaking this rule, how many others are they breaking!
It would be interesting to find out if the first poster has concerns in regards to the negative and destructive comments that have been made by our very own council members? It would seem that this poster is more concerned about your opinion Donna than the fact that council is breaking their own rules, and I must say a very important rule that is part of the democratic process in Haldimand.
ReplyDeleteIn response to the first comment made here, of course you have every right to express your opinion but I must say, to have an attitude like that you must either be a council member or the wife of a council member to be that concerned with someone "pointing out the flaws of others and making other people who are actually doing something, miserable". Either that or you are s member of some secret little group whose objective is to bring on the nukes.
ReplyDeleteJust in case you missed it, the whole point of this letter was to defend a local citizen who wants to make her fellow citizens aware that our council is working behind our backs to promote the building of a nuclear power plant in our back yard. Do you not think we have the right to know this? Do you not think it is council's duty to be honest with it's constituents? Do you not think that each and every one of us has every right to speak our opinion on these matters.
And then you have the audacity to compare Donna Pitcher to Gary McHale? If you honestly knew anything about eiter of these individuals you would realize you are comparing apples with oranges. Donna is a concerned citizen of Haldimand County who is quite simply trying to do her part to keep council honest with the people who elected the members and pay their wages, Gary McHale is an outside agitator with a narcissistic complex who actually has the nerve to compare himself to the late Martin Luther King, a fact which in my mind makes him dangerously delusional.
There is a great deal wrong with the way OUR council is running OUR county, too many closed door meetings, major decisions being made and either kept secret or lied about, and on and on and I for one am very happy to have a watchdog like Donna keeping us informed. Without her and others like her, council would be free to run hog wild with it's dictatorial ways and our voices would be silenced for good. Keep up the good work Donna, you may not always be right but you are definitely always worth hearing. Thank you!
"And then you have the audacity to compare Donna Pitcher to Gary McHale? If you honestly knew anything about eiter of these individuals you would realize you are comparing apples with oranges. Donna is a concerned citizen of Haldimand County who is quite simply trying to do her part to keep council honest with the people who elected the members and pay their wages, Gary McHale is an outside agitator with a narcissistic complex who actually has the nerve to compare himself to the late Martin Luther King, a fact which in my mind makes him dangerously delusional."
ReplyDeleteYes, I do apologize for that comparison and regret it. I take that back because, as you so eloquently corrected me, Ms. Pitcher is a resident of Haldimand and has earned a voice whereas, it's crystal clear that McHale is everything you said he is and probably more.
So, I humbly apologize for that comparison.
I suppose what is getting in my craw is that although there is much finger-pointing all over Haldimand (and not all by Ms. Pitcher by any stretch), I see very little in the way of positive things being initiated and it concerns me. That's all.
I'm sorry for using Donna's blog and her comments to air that out.
I'll select my wording better next time.
And to further your claim about McHale being narcissistic, he just posted this in response to the fact that the Crown dropped his private prosection charges against Floyd and Ruby Montour. He never quits trying to reach out for fame and glory for himself.
ReplyDeleteAre there issues to be dealt with? Of course there are, but why does McHale try to make everyone think he is the Director of all things Police, Native and Government? Much better people point out the same problems but he seems to think he is the exclusive clearing house of information and is the sole representative or agaent for all.
Again, I deeply regret comparing Ms. Pitcher to the likes of him.
That was very stupid of me.
"gmchale
Administrator
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Re: Aboriginal demonstrators have charges withdrawn
« Reply #1 on: Today at 09:45:55 AM »
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Another perfect example of how the media spins the news... they don't have a problem using my name in a story while refusing to provide any quotes from me.
At no time did I express any frustration... in fact, I was quite positive about the fact I was filing a Judicial Review.
If they did quote from me they would have included a quote about how the OPP refused to provide evidence, which they are required to do by law, and thereby, in my view, they wilfully sabotaged the charges.
The Crown refused to review all the evidence - which I can prove - therefore the Crown wasn't interested in finding out whether there was proof of Extortion because they simply didn't want to have Extortion charges against two native people."
Thanks for your comments.
ReplyDeleteA special thanks to a very close friend that called me and said that he had posted a response on my blog.
The only thing that I have to add to these posts is the fact that this issue and my letter to the editor was to "clarify" what the procedure is to appear before council.
We should all be very thankful that we live in a country where we are "allowed" the right to have our voices be heard and to have our individual opinions, I know I am!
I agree with the first poster.
ReplyDeleteBesides there is nothing to speak to at this time, so why waste County time.
This may never happen and if it does I am very sure the County/Staff will do there research.
It is very interesting that there is constant criticism of Council and Staff. There was change in half the Council members, major change in Staff and that was not good enough it seems.
Donna, you say the you ran twice for Council and presumably you lost. I am very sure that if you had won you would see the whole picture of County business and I am sure that you would not do much different.
The last election was very dirty with certain individuals ( Haldimand First group) trying to put different people in each ward to put each incumbent out. May I add that certain individuals ran in areas outside there ward. IMO, clone thinking and action.
Thank God that idea did not work or Haldimand would have been in a real mess.
One of the posters made a comment in regards to, "besides there is nothing to speak to at this time, so why waste county time", and "This may never happen and if it does I am very sure the county/staff will do their research".
ReplyDeleteI want to remind this poster of the "proposed sale" of Haldimand County Hydro. This was behind closed doors for months. Staff were under "direction" from council, so what makes you think that they wouldn't pull off the same bull!
The most important issue here is that a resident is being denied her "right" to speak, whether council wants to hear her or not!
I also disagree with what you said about Donna if she had been elected, (just read her blog), how can you even think that she would not do much different!
Interesting!
ReplyDeleteWhen there definitely is a need to discuss our energy future, we have people wanting to discuss politics and personalities.
There are reasons why this and other energy forums are necessary; we have a power corridor with infrastructure, we have two major industrial areas within 50 miles of each other, we have several cities within 100 miles, we have a great lake and all the amenities that go with it, and we have the Province and two corporations looking at Nanticoke for a nuclear site to replace Nanticoke's coal-fired station, all supported by municipal politicians who feel that their municipalities will benefit from the Ontario tax burden from well documented nuclear cost overruns, to which all will start with a $20,000,000.00 environmental assessment.
With head-nodders like the poster above, it cannot be more evident for the need for education on all modern energy resources we have available to power Ontario safe and clean for the generations ahead. The public should have the opportunity to be the responsible stewards here. The elected handful should not be the decision makers here on what they perceive as being best for Haldimand/Norfolk and the Ontario taxpayer.
As far as the head-nodders go the point I believe they were trying to make is that our council doesn't give a damn about how we feel. If we can't get past this major issue of not being allowed to speak to council, just whose decision do you think this would be if it came to that point.
ReplyDeleteNot Ours! Our council will decide for US!
If it ever got to the point of doing an EA at a $20 million dollar cost, you bet your bottom dollar it is too late at that point in time!
You are absolutely right!
ReplyDeleteBeing too late is the bottom line here!