Skip to content

No new tricks

Despite the low-hanging fruit brushing the ears of Town of Athabasca councillors, none took a bite.

Despite the low-hanging fruit brushing the ears of Town of Athabasca councillors, none took a bite.

Council’s lack of action this week during a meeting that was specifically set up to address recommendation’s in the municipal inspection report – publically released Aug. 28 – was proof yet again of why the inspection was called for in the first place.

Mayor Roger Morrill noted at council’s Sept. 15 special meeting that he saw a lot of “low hanging fruit council could deal with” now. An hour and a half later, council had read through each recommendation in the inspection report together, gone through chief administrative officer Robert Jorgensen’s notes, and that was about it – an illusion of action.

A few around the table expressed a desire to take some action now, rather than leave the next council to deal with it, as Coun. Steve Schafer suggested. However, the only two motions that resembled action were to hire an outside consultant to help council, and to instruct Jorgensen and Morrill to respond to Municipal Affairs, which council is required to do by Oct. 12.

With only two meetings left in council’s term, council shows no evidence of the will to work together in addressing the inspection report’s findings. Rather than deal with the mess they created, this council will be shrugging the responsibility on to the next.

One point in the inspection report was that leadership lacks amongst the current council. Last week’s special meeting was proof of this again.

The division amongst this council was highlighted at this meeting as well, even after councillors had their wrists slapped for it. It is clear to anyone who has observed council there are two distinct camps. In this case the Morrill-Schafer-Verhaeghe camp pushed through a motion that was previously defeated to hire an outside consultant.

When the motion was first made during their Sept. 5 council meeting, Schafer had been missing, so the Gurba-Evans-Peckham camp had the majority. During the Sept. 15 meeting, Coun. Joanne Peckham was missing, and the first camp did not miss the opportunity to pass their motion.

Despite a clear road map of how this council can be effective leaders of this community, it appears nothing has changed.

Apparently, you cannot teach old dogs new tricks.

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks