At some point, saying “Shut Up” is the only way to get the message across.
That would be politically incorrect, in so many areas, but in this case, a political case, it just has to be said. New councillors, in particular John Nowak and Gail Broadbent, need to give it a rest.
‘Heads will roll?” What? Are you a pirate? A French Revolutionary? An angry, angry person?
So the financial statements are hard to read — What’s so unusual about that? Perhaps instead of berating the administration tasked with making your request to translate financial-ese into playschool 123, you should first learn from others who have been where you are.
Are you the first laypeople to take on municipal politics? No. Did former mayors like Tom Maccagno, Duane Young or Ray Bouchard know every detail of the municipality’s balance sheet? No. Did each of them ask their administration for a simplified version? Absolutely they did.
It’s an age-old issue. But it’s not one that’s going to be changed by simply yelling and stomping your feet. Learning everything possible, but in a ‘Cole’s Notes’ form, from someone who has been professionally schooled in the same topic for most of their adult life, is not going to happen.
A mechanic can tell you how your sequential gearbox has been affected by a slip in your torque converter, but all you need to know is can it be fixed and how much. He knows cars. You don’t, otherwise you would have fixed it yourself. Knowing about the financial situation of the county doesn’t mean submerging yourself in every entry of the ledger book. It means knowing if we have the money, if we need to spend it, and if we can afford it in the long run.
Threats and grandstanding are not going to get anyone anywhere. Yes, heads might roll, but remember the French Revolution where it was the ruling party who lost theirs when the peasants revolted.
