Councillors Don’t Get It: BENN
Too many councillors would not acknowledge a conflict of interest if they were standing hip deep in one.
Reference their failure to support the recommendations of the integrity commissioner, let alone censure, former Barrhaven councillor and planning committee chairwoman Jan Harder for her transgressions.
Reference the frequent mantra about how a contribution of $1,200 to an election campaign is not enough to “buy their vote”, missing the point that this implies that for an undefined quantum of more dollars their vote could be bought.
There’s a need for independence of auditors, whether internal or external. Having said that, city hall’s reporting current structure, where the audit committee approves the work plan flies in the face of even the pretense of independence. Which circles back to the absence of an open, transparent and accountable city government.
We suffer in so many ways from council’s inattention to the very nature of their role.
Ron Benn, a finance executive, has been a member of the Centrepointe Community Association for the better part of three decades.
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Ron. You stated “Reference the frequent mantra about how a contribution of $1,200 to an election campaign is not enough to “buy their vote”. The comment concerning buying votes can be construed in many ways. Personally, I think the councilors are still having problems figuring out how chat bots work. They’ll improve their cover ups after they’ve taken the 101 version of the course and fumbled around a bit more.
Since they’re the ones that benefit from all of this and they’re the ones who would need to put into place the policies that would change it, I don’t see any improvements coming any time soon.
I’ve had numerous councillors tell me over the years that they always behave with integrity, some of whom I actually believe. What I can’t get them to comprehend is that it’s not the good guys that need to be reined in.
When you’re one of a hundred people in a bank and one of the other ninety-nine is a robber with a gun, it’s not enough to stand there saying “I would never rob a bank or shoot anyone. Most of us here wouldn’t. That guy shouldn’t either but what do you want me to do? He’s made that choice even though he knows it’s wrong.”