Archive

Mayor terms items in petition ‘crap’

September 29, 2016   ·   2 Comments

“A lot of what you [have written] here is a piece of crap,” was Mayor Jeremy Williams’ comment to Lisa Post on her presentation to Orangeville Council Monday night.

Ms. Post is an Orangeville resident, local political blogger and unsuccessful candidate for Council in the last election.

In the presentation, she invited the seven council members to resign and submit to a new election rather than serve out the balance of their four-year terms, saying their contributions to date were something like a circus and currently they are not fulfilling the duties they were elected to do.

Following is the text of her submission:

“Orangeville has had the misfortune of seeing scandals, investigations, childish schoolyard tactics, an alarming abuse of taxpayer’s money, and a clear violation of public trust. The childish political games have made waves across the media, both in the papers and on social media and clearly show that there are no leaders among you. If the next two years are left unchanged, I fear that the Town and its residents will suffer. Unfortunately, the Municipal Act, unlike Parliament, does not have a vote of non-confidence; however, I have included a petition that has the names and signatures of 290 residents who have lost confidence in your abilities to represent us. With all due respect and for the betterment of the Town, I am asking each of you to tender your resignations and call for a new election immediately.”

The Mayor fairly quickly put forth the idea of a vote to receive the document, an indication that Council would not act upon the given initiative.

Councillor Scott Wilson was the first to comment on the presentation. “I am a very loyal person. I want to defend us as a council. I simply cannot let stand some comments that were shared,” he said.

“The public has not received half-truths. I vote for what is proper, I do not vote against another individual. I do not take the failures of my proposals personally. Democracy can be messy. This comes from the passion that people have for their cause. I do not believe this is a dysfunctional council. We do get a result that is required by a majority. We do not see the outcome of an issue the same way, all the time.”

He summarized his comments by stating, “None of us should resign, as we were rightly elected.”

Councillor Don Kidd termed the resignation request “an absolute insult to the people of Orangeville.”

Mayor Williams articulately shared that “a lot of what you [have written] here is a pile of crap,” adding: “Perhaps making your comments in (council) meetings might be more productive. Democracy is sometimes not pretty.”

In the end, the document was received and none of the council members resigned.

After the meeting, Lisa Post said she was “not surprised by the reaction she received from council. I did not think anyone would resign. I simply wanted each of them to rethink their intent and the impact they are having. All seven are good people, I just want them to think about how they conduct themselves. I never said that they were not doing their jobs. It is how they have gotten to the final result that has not been pretty. I never thought I would see name calling or rolling their eyes. It is not appropriate conduct.”

Pressed to admit that her petition would be beneficial for her own profile and political career, she denied this was the case. “I had not done it for my own political platform. I really just wanted to be the voice of the people who are afraid to stand up on their own.”

However, she did say it was “discouraging to have the Mayor refer to anything written by the public as crap. It is dismissive to the residents. I am an avid volunteer and contributor to the town. I did what I did because I thought it was time that someone try to change the conduct of council.”

Asked her plans for the future, she replied: “I am going to continue to write my blog, hold people accountable, and run again for election in 2018.”

Readers Comments (2)