YOU CAN QUOTE ME ON THIS

"Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them."
Paul Valery (1871 - 1945)

Well in Melancthon that isn't entirely true.  As long as you pay the bills yourself, you can "force" Council to be open and transparent....

Well, I mean not ALL the time. 

Just every time you want information to which you are entitled.

The current Council, despite the new Mayor's comment that Council they will be as transparent as they can, is only as transparent as they want to be.

I mean there have been record number of closed sessions and last minute meetings called since they were sworn in December 2010, of which the public would not know about...

In fact in the last month they went into closed session to talk about their AMO delegation.  Jeez.....  No legal, identifiable individual, etc. etc. reason there, but still, we wouldn't want the pesky public to be there.  See blog post August 9.

Honestly though, you don't have to worry about the public being there.  They threw their hands into the air at the January 2011 meeting when it became evident there would be NO demolition control bylaw, or any real opposition to the Highlands proposal.

It was pretty evident that Melancthon was relying on grass roots organizations and other municipalities and agencies to do battle for them so it wouldn't cost them money.

Although the public has been invited back, in fact a personal plea by a Councillor, but we were warned, no eye rolling or criticism, or ELSE......