I don’t know how many folks tune into municipal council meetings, either live or taped, on the town’s YouTube channel. I do know, if the last meeting was a fair indicator, how many attend the session in-person. Or rather, how few.
I would completely understand why John and Jane Citizen would feel inclined to find something, anything else to do rather than to take in two-plus hours of paint-scraping minutiae that can be the norm in any gathering of local democracy, both here and elsewhere. I feel bad for the primary participants, both political and administrative, who would have to further endure a closed meeting taking place after the open one, if that were to be the case.
Before moving forward, those opening paragraphs are in no way a criticism of the people or the process. Democracy can be a messy beast, and often it’s in that very minutiae where the key truths lay, those little golden nuggets of information that allow them, the primary participants, and us, the adoring public, to fully understand an issue, good or bad, up or down, left or right.
As well, the very nature of Renfrew Town Council is dramatically different from the norm, in that four of the six town staff participants are new to their roles, all having the prefix “acting” in front of their formal titles. Add this to the fact that all four town councillors present at the meeting are first-term representatives, with only the mayor being an incumbent, just not as mayor. Two others, a reeve and another councillor, have varying degrees of experience, but weren’t there.
It’s only fair to say that all of these people, new, acting, re-purposed, and absent, have a pretty lousy job in front of them, especially given what they inherited from the previous administration, political and staff. These folks were given the most challenging hand I believe I’ve ever seen at any level of government, a hand with absolutely no face-cards and completely devoid of trump. A hand that, had they had a chance to get a quick peek at it in advance, might reasonably have led them to stay off the ballot and let somebody else deal with it all. I, for one, am glad they’re there. It’s been a tough ride, and likely not to get any smoother. I fully appreciate their efforts.
So, an awful lot of inexperience is being tasked to do a thankless job, perhaps even one that will go under-appreciated. I wouldn’t want it, but I have to respect those who take up this challenge. And so I do, even after being ignored by most of them, and literally blocked by one.
In the days ahead, I’ll be posting unedited video clips of the Renfrew Town Council in action during their October 24, 2024 gathering. Not to criticize, but to illuminate. I’ll provide commentary and analysis of the information, the questions posed, the answers provided, the gaps in knowledge exposed. And let me just say from the outset that those “gaps” are not the responsibility of the people put on the hot seat in an attempt to answer questions. They are, rather, gaps that have accrued as a possible result of the professional failings of others now gone.
And so, these people, your political representatives and their staff administrative team, have been put in a difficult and delicate position, a position nobody should have to ever endure. They have my complete confidence and best wishes as they undertake their difficult tasks, and I thank them for their service.
The videos, taken from the live feed available to anyone with the internet, are intended to de-mystify the procedures and terminology so as to make the process somewhat more “friendly” to the outside viewer. Local government, all government, has its own lingo, just like a lot of other organizations. It’s why you didn’t understand what the hell the teacher was talking about at that last parent-teacher get-together.
Key terms and concepts will be displayed with their meanings on-screen. The individuals speaking will be identified by name and title. The videos themselves will be broken up into sections corresponding to the various, distinct phases of a municipal council meeting. The longest segment would be a ten-minute segment involving the Committee of the Whole.
See what I mean about the terminology? Here in Horton that term means a bunch of guys standing around with shovels looking at a patch of ground with cigarettes dangling from their lips.
Analysis and commentary will be provided in written form following the videos. Any errors will be completely mine.
Each segment will stand on its own, meaning they will be published a bit at a time so as to help with the digestion of them.
Though no fault of the participants, enduring an entire council meeting is enough to cause one’s eyes to roll back into one’s head. So that’s why its been broken up. And honestly, it gives me time to prepare them sequentially as well.
If you do check this series out, please understand that it’s next to impossible to understand everything said and discussed. Like I said, there are gaps that are beyond any reasonable understanding. And as well, it’s important to realize that when you jump into a river, you have to accept the fact that a lot of water has already gone by, never to be seen, or even understood, again.
So together, we’ll do our best.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 