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A plea to the candidates

September 24, 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Tabitha Wells

Orangeville is at a crossroads. We cannot afford another four years following the same rhythm. Our taxes have not seen any reprieve. Our town infrastructure has not really improved. And several of the “benefits” brought to town worked out to be nothing more than a waste of our money.

Of course, those aren’t the biggest issues with council. It’s rare to see a council do so amazingly well that all of those items above are avoided. The biggest downfall of this council wasn’t even their inability to make a lot of positive strides. It was that, as a whole, they couldn’t function as a team or even behave like adults to attempt to accomplish these things.

Lest anyone suggest I am uneducated because they dislike my perspective (as seems to be the trend), please remember — I spent several years in those council chambers, both in the previous term of council as well as in this one. And while no one could accuse the previous term of being wholly efficient and incredibly functional, it manages to shine like a bright beacon above this term.

It should be be common sense that, in a workplace, you’re not always going to like, enjoy, or want to get along with coworkers. But, in order for a company to continue running, for a team to function, employees must put aside their differences to work together. If they cannot, they need to try to resolve them. If attempts at resolution fail, often times, someone gets fired, or departments are shuffled around.

Council is just like any other workplace in regards to the first half of that statement. People are not always going to like each other. Personalities are going to clash. And when talking about the spending of town finances, emotions will rise and passions will fire red hot. However, unlike a usual workplace, there is nothing really in place ensuring these differences must be worked past. Unlike a regular workplace, behaviours can continue in a downward spiral without any consequences for the individuals.

That is how you end up with a term of council rather effectively dubbed “The Gong Show” and “The Orangeville Circus.” It is how you have line items in a discussion that should not take more than 15 minutes turn into a four and a half hour debate between people who are basically arguing because they don’t want to agree with the other person. Or how you have an item that is literally supposed to be a motion to accept the documentation for review, turn into a huge debate filled with demands for information in the packet you are refusing to accept.

Or how, even after having the information for an item for several days, you can have a counselor confused about why the discussion is being had, and keep asking why content hasn’t been provided when it is in fact in the very package they were given to review.

That is how you end up with a council so obsessed with personal goals and vendettas that they call each other names, make unfounded accusations, and waste council time (and town money) calling for investigations with minimal proof.

It’s how you end up with people attempting to run a budget meeting deciding the rules don’t apply to them. And so, they answer questions not directed to them and attempt to decide what is worthy of discussing.

So, dear candidates, this is my plea. Do. Not. Do. That. Again. We have many respectable people running for council. There are some who have proven themselves to be able to handle hot discussions with cool heads and calm and collected appearances, and those who have proven themselves to be more focused on drama. We have people who fall into neither category, and those who fall into both.

While some combinations of choices will clearly prove more functional than others, how it will end up is literally at the voters’ fingertips. And if we end up with people who lean more towards the overdramatic, than this plea needs to fall heavier on their ears.

We need you to stand up. We need you to put aside petty differences and childish vendettas and be willing to commit to truly work together for the best solutions for the town. To behave as you would be required to in any other workplace — with respect towards your colleagues and with the goal of benefiting the company (aka the Town), rather than yourselves.

My final plea, more pointedly, is to those candidates who have been on council. My plea is short. Grow up. Please. If you manage to get re-elected, the most important thing we can ask of you is to leave childish antics behind. To make a vow to act like an adult. Each of you brought positive traits to the table. Traits drowned out by the constant name-calling, bullying, arguing, and lack of getting informed on the issues at hand. Be better. Be the people you promised us you would be, not the people you gave us.

I know everyone running wants the best for this town. But to do the best, it means you need to hold yourself to a higher standard. You represent our town. You are the faces of our town to the areas around us. Please take pride in that for this term in council. Show the GTA and other areas we are more than just a weekly soap opera to watch and create drinking games for.

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