Political correctness and its cousins, “openness” and “transparency,” are beginning to hamstring municipal councils to the detriment of everyone, often including those who bring up such issues in the first place.
A good (and trivial) example of that came at the Nov. 23 county council meeting. Councillor Lou Maieron rose when council began considering bylaws to ask what had happened to the “other business” section of the agenda. It was gone.
It turned out the county meeting investigator recommended it be taken out because the agenda is published on the county website before the meeting, and political correctness states nothing should be discussed that is not in the public domain. In fact, it takes a two-thirds majority vote by council to consider something not on the agenda.
That’s a good thing, too, because some issues, no matter how minor, demand a quick response. Suppose a community fails to get its paperwork done for the annual Santa Claus parade and needs a road closed. Council could, and should be able to do that.
It was only during the previous council meeting Maieron was wondering why the administration committee had recommended a two-year term for warden be considered. That subject was not on the published agenda. We suspect “other business” had not yet been removed from that agenda, but we are willing to bet it is gone from all agendas next month.
As for issues that arise, Warden Joanne Ross-Zuj noted any councillor can still ask for an issue to be sent to a committee – so the public knows what is happening.
Sadly, everyone these days is forced to dance to the tune of political correctness. Some though, play the fiddle, too. A few years ago, someone discovered elections each year for county committee chairmen had to be held in open session. We doubt anyone really cared much about who won, except perhaps people seeking the position, but now they are done in public.
This year, to no surprise, there was one councillor running for each committee. No elections.
We doubt, as some suggested, that it was all decided in the back room. The real reason was: no election, no embarrassment. Who wants to lose a 14-2 or 13-3 vote for a committee chairmanship in front of a packed gallery waiting to see who will be the new warden?
Politically correct nonsense like that has been coming at us for years. It used to be people actually knew how much government employees were paid.
It was deemed public knowledge. We had a right to know how much we were paying that guy leaning on that shovel (and for the record, I too was once employed in municipal government and put the annual trouble of being kidded about my terrific lifestyle and pay – for about a week).
Then the province passed its Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. If that sounds like a contradiction, it is. Now, we can no longer know the pay of public servants.
Then, someone else said the well off should suffer, and deemed anyone making over $100,000 should have their names in the public domain. Hey, they’re rich; why not?
All those laws and changes were no doubt passed with good intentions, and we know who uses good intentions and what road he paves with them.
It is no surprise, then, we have people reluctant to run for municipal government, and only a few bother to vote. There is just a little too much madness for many sane people to want to bother. Who needs the grief?
Fortunately, some will step forward. We only hope it is for the right reasons and that enough good people are watching to ensure that.
