Well the honeymoon period for Mayor Nenshi appears to be taking a break in Calgary.
Today's Calgary Sun goes after him because he took a flight to Toronto ($721.51) paid for by a company called Kasian Architecture, who just happens to do business with the city of Calgary.
Maybe just an error in judgement, due to lack of experience.
Or maybe his administration will provide the excuse we received here when our Mayor and Director of Public Works were alleged to have attended a Flames game as the guest of a firm that does tons of work for our municipality.
"It was an opportunity to take advantage of hours of "free" time of people that are very expert in the infrastructure issues facing the Crowsnest Pass"
12 comments:
I personally dont have a problem if it is a normal business function and the rest of council is made aware of the trip. Why should the local taxpayers pay? But that can be a fine line and a hockey game is far beyond a normal business function. Most companies have policies about employees accepting gratutity from contractors they deal directly with.I have spoken publicly about a simular issue prior to the elections in 2007 when a counciler was working for a local development company. I felt it was wrong then and of the same opinion now. For more on that go to promoter archives and key in words "forum was good"
Peter
Good comments, there is indeed a fine line. The problem is always determining the fine line.
Couple of other problems here the rest of council did not know about the trip.
It was also not a normal business function. I don't suspect as Iginla was crossing the blue line, they were discussing water issues on Willow Drive.
Lets also keep in mine I do not think these guys were sitting in the nose bleed section eating peanuts and drinking ginger ale.
Lastly I totally agreed with your position in 2007, I hope the people here do not have short memories in coming elections.
Forum was good for candidates and public
Posted 3 years ago
Dear Editor,
After attending the candidates? forum on Oct. 2, I wanted to have a little time to digest all the information that was presented to the public.
I will start with the Mayor?s position. I feel our current Mayor has done a good job for this community for a lot of years. I have had issues with him in regards to sports fields. But I will not judge him on that alone. Mayoral candidate John Prince?s opening remarks went something like this: I was talking with a municipal employee for 40 minutes the other day and he was telling me all the things wrong with the municipality and the public works department. I wonder if he was our Mayor if he would approve of a municipal employee bulls***ting for 40 minutes on our time so that he could be part of the reason ?nothing gets done around here.?
The candidates for councillors? presentations ranged from good to poor. We have a present councillor who sees nothing wrong with working for a local developer while sitting on council. He claimed he excuses himself from council when there is a conflict of interest. I would suggest to Councillor Taje that there will be millions of dollars worth of decisions made on developments this term, and we need a councillor there that can be effective, not excusing himself from the process.
You know what they say, ?Open the wallet and soon the heart and mind will follow.? We have another councillor who has not attended meetings because of personal reasons, yet Councillor Dean Ward attended every meeting despite his tragedy.
Of the prospective new councillors I feel the best presentations and most sincere were David Cole, Ian Macleod, Jamie Thomson and John Salus. I do not know these or any other candidates personally. I could judge David Cole by his past performance on council, but I still feel he would be a good councillor as we need people there with a real connection to the community.
I tend to get a little disturbed when candidates start talking about affordable housing and looking after our seniors. You are a little late and I wonder about this sudden commitment to the seniors. It?s a good sound bite at election time, but does it have any substance?
I feel as a community we have made some big mistakes with wholesale changes in council. I can imagine it would take a year or more for a councillor to become competent with the job. We invest a lot of time and money in these people, and we cannot change them out every three years because they make a few decisions that do not sit well with us. We ask them to take a leadership role, and that?s what we expect of them.
Now after reading this, you are probably asking why I?m not running for council. I would, I just don?t have the time, nor am I prepared.
It is something I would like to do in the future, though. I am writing this letter because I care about what is happening in the Crowsnest Pass, and I do not like to see the people getting short changed with sales pitches.
Peter Rosner
Coleman
“Open the wallet and soon the heart and mind will follow” what a great summary of how things work. I would be happy if the new council breaks with the tradition of giving all the engineering consulting to what ever engineering firm Jeff Drain is working for. While cronyism has been the norm in the past, I think it is time for change.
Engineering as not been put out for bids in 10 years.
How does the Municipality Know its getting the best deal? maybe it is, but they will never know without going through the process.
This is a significant area for potential savings. I always argued that the municipality should put this out for bids.
But every time it came up, the excuses and back pedalling, that was heard was mind boggling.
Anyway we will see what happens in the next year, maybe this is one of those "inefficiences" they give talking about.
Sure hope so.
I would not consider expenses for giving a speech to be a "freebie" like, for example, a hockey game or fishing trip.
If I am applying or appealing to some municipal board or other, either currently or in the past or perhaps I might in the future, is it not OK for a councilor to do business with me? Would you propose different rules for my tax appeal versus big projects like RiverRun? What if the councilor ran the only hardware store in town (just to pick a hypothetical example). Would I have to go to Walmart?
The issue is wher do you draw the line.
If I have a broken water line my basement is flooding and your the only plumber in town. Of course I am going to phone you and of course your going to charge me and I'm going to pay you.
But there is a huge difference between that situation and me being a member of council, you doing all the plumbing for the town, and then inviting me to your private flames box to wine and dine me.
The same conversation could have been had at the municipal office with a lunch provided by a local restaurant.
anon 8:23 i am a little confused here there is a huge difference between accepting gratituty from a businees knowing full well it may influence councils decision on a particular matter and paying outright for a product at one of the local businesses. Of course you would support local business and continue to shop at the businees of your choice but you would not accept gratutity that was not available to the general public.
How about this scenario. A couple of months ago, there was a lot of talk around town about one of the new councilors fresh off his election victory being invited to Lisa’s Halloween party. Seems innocent enough. A week latter she is in front of council lobbing them to stop tendering out newspaper advertising. No money or gifts changed hands. Is it possible that the opportunity to be seen with what some would consider to be the “A list” of the community could cloud a councilors objectivity on the newspaper advertising issue?
Does anyone know of any "freebees" the past mayor and/or a certain councilor may have received from the River Run bunch? If any? I heard a rumour about a super bowl. Not sure of that though.
this debate has really shown how clouded the public perception is on a councillers responsibilities. Dean i am sure when you become a counciller you are made aware of any conflict of interest guidelines are you not? Also on the subject of Lisa being on the "A" list of the community i think you have her a bit overrated. She stands up for what she believes in , i dont have a problem with that. A person elected to council should not have to turn away from family or friends the public doesnt expect that. As long as they are not trying to influence them their is no issue.
I think standing up for what you believe is a great attribute. When you own a newspaper to advance one side of an issue it looks like a bully.
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