If honesty is unprofessional, let’s have more amateurs. Probably the last thing we need at the municipal level of government is professional politicians. Council and mayor should be, and in most cases are, our neighbours working to build and maintain our community.
Good people will honestly disagree about a course of action. It doesn’t mean either of them are wrong or incapable people.
But the ugly truth is that the work environment within city hall is toxic. That state not only predates the existing council but two or three before it. It is not the fault of any one person there now, it is just the water in which those fish swim. My heart breaks for each and every one of them, as it would for a third or fourth generation abusive family.
No problem is ever corrected or solved by pretending there is no problem. Nor mistakes repaired by saying that moment is past. As George Santayana said in Reason and Common Sense; “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.”
While I agree the mayor’s words will likely exacerbate an uncomfortable situation, I see no other way to fix the problem now than to break it.
As things stand, individual homeowners bringing relatively minor issues to city hall for what should be a simple rubber stamping are required to submit a ridiculous amount of paperwork and needless expense. then, having done this and successfully completed the required red tape and received approval from neighbours, the bureaucrat in the way disapproves the application for no clear reason. (but has initialed every copy of every memo that crosses their desk in an effort to cover their own risks.)
The same happens at the commercial level as the papers recently reported regarding the Zellers/Target renovations. These are not isolated incidents.
I don’t really care much for uncivil argument (though I have a high regard and respect for fevered public debate) however the current situation is absolutely untenable and action must be taken to correct it at the earliest inconvenience.
Philip Hicks
Campbell River