IN CLOSING

Final observation about Bill's most recent letter to the editor:

Bill’s final sentence in his letter states:
“Council has nothing to hide if either of the Malloy’s are not clear about things all they have to do is ask.”

Well he is right; all you have to do is ask.

BUT there are rules about HOW you ask.

If you want an answer in a meeting of Council, so everyone knows what was asked and and the reply/answer gets into the public record via the meeting minutes the rules are:

You get to ask ONE question at each Council meeting;

The question must be submitted in writing, in advance;

There is no opportunity for follow up questions because that would mean you asked TWO questions;

If there is time, then they will accept verbal questions, but again ONE question per person;

Anyone who has attended a Council meeting in the past 16 months knows this because Melancthon’s procedure bylaw, which was revamped in 2009 by this Council (exception to Councillor White) says so.

On the other hand, if you are Highlands you apparently get to submit one written question per employee per meeting AND then the Highland spokesperson who attends every meeting of Council still gets to ask a question at the meeting, which at times is a follow up question to one of the written questions that was submitted in advance.

AND as the spokesperson for Highlands, at times you even get to ANSWER some of the questions that are posed by ratepayers to Councillors.