Cornwall Ontario – Cornwall City Council debated and voted on whether council should be given agendas further in advance. For all of this scribblers time on CFN councilors have complained about not having enough time to go over reports and data before being asked to make important decisions.
Councilor Maurice Dupelle, the man who knocks on the most doors in Cornwall consulting the public, sent in the following statement on the issue.
Hi Jamie
I hope all is well, I am responding to your email regarding a statement regarding the motion passed last evening at council regarding the earlier delivery date of the council agenda. Jamie I made this motion because I believe that as elected official of Cornwall City Council it is very important that we represent the residents of Cornwall to the best of our ability. The current practice is that we receive the agenda on the Friday and then have our council meeting on the Monday, this does not give ample time for us to research and obtain the required information prior to the meeting.
Administration must provide us with the information and tools that we require to make well thought out and informed decisions that residents expect from their elected officials. I believe that if we were to poll the elector if they would like the elected officials to make decisions over a weekend or over the course of a week the electors no doubt would agree that more time represents a more informed decision.
I would like to thank you for the opportunity to respond to your question.
Warmest regards
Councillor Dupelle
Council clearly supported Mr. Dupelle’s position and I do too. What is most disturbing is how many times that this council has voted in the past clearly not having a full scope of information on a subject; especially during the dark days of former CAO Paul Fitzpatrick when many times council were allegedly asked to vote on issues with only “verbal” reports.
The big question is why many more issues were not deferred and why certain councilors relied so much on clearly false or faulty information from city management and the hiring of consultants when they themselves campaigned to lead?
Any monkey can sit and read documents and listen to a consultant. Surely a city with a budget north of $150M per year needs strong leadership and guidance from its elected officials?
Certainly something to think about come election time when people ask for your vote.
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