It took a giant, fiberglass lumberjack to drive the point home, but it's become all too obvious the Adventure Centre management structure is not working.
The tempest in a teapot that resulted from the removal of Sam the Axeman from Adventure Centre grounds may well have been avoided if debate had been held in the public realm.
But since the entire management team, the "arm's length" 老澳门六合彩开奖记录资料 Sustainability Corporation (SSC) board, is made up of council members, elected officials got to discuss the fate of the second most prominent landmark in town without all that pesky scrutiny.
This creates several problems.
One major issue is that limiting public scrutiny means limiting accountability, which is a serious breach of the transparency clause that makes democracy viable.
Yes, even if it is over a 30-foot logger.
The Community Charter states council discussions are to be held behind closed doors only for three reasons: divestment or purchase of property, personnel matters or legal issues.
But they're not a council, they're a board, argues the mayor. Not all agree.
Coun. Patricia Heintzman put a spotlight on lack of accountability when council took over the SSC after the previous board's mass resignation.
She made a motion that "in the spirit of fostering transparency and open government, council ensure that 老澳门六合彩开奖记录资料 Sustainability Corporation [SSC] board meetings are open to the public and responsible to the same rules as outlined in the Community Charter while council comprises the entire makeup of the SSC board." Hear, hear.
But it was not to be, and the arguments against seem just as weak as the SSC structure itself.
What happened was Mayor Greg Gardner took exception to the word "ensure." He said council cannot make such ironclad promises, so Heintzman changed the wording to "request." That led Coun. Doug Race to argue a "request" is too soft, and renders the bylaw meaningless.
Every single council member -except Coun. Corinne Lonsdale who was absent -agreed with the tag-team and voted down the motion for transparency.
That "everyone" included Coun. Bryan Raiser, by the way.
Ironic, since his newsletter rant this week highlights another dysfunctional symptom of closed-door governance.
Elected officials usually want their opinions heard, if only to maintain their base. Typically they have the narrow structure of a council meeting to allow them to express their views. Call it a pressure valve.
Gagging valves causes pressure, and when enough pressure is pent up, the outburst can be unpredictable. And unpredictability and politics don't mix.
So this week Raiser had his say, and a blunt say it was. It was a rare peek into the dysfunctionality these very gag rules are meant to hide.
Either way you look at it, the SSC is a mess. It either has to be disbanded, with Adventure Centre decisions going public through actual council meetings, or it must return to its previous make-up of experienced volunteers.
These half-measures obviously don't cut it.
- Sylvie Paillard
