One of the first things I learned about Athabasca after arriving was the last town council had a lot of dysfunction.
One of the first things I learned about Athabasca after arriving was the last town council had a lot of dysfunction.
I was told many stories about what I missed – from the attempted ousting of council members to the remuneration issues to the municipal inspection still being dealt with today.
By all accounts, it was a difficult term, one that Athabascans displayed a desire to move away from when they voted in a completely new council in the last election.
But in our desire to move past the last term, fear should not linger in discussing it. History needs to be learned from, and our local council should feel secure in outlining how they want to differ from their predecessors.
I have seen a couple of cases at the town council table of bitten tongues about the previous term. As this council deals with the legacy of ineptitude left over, a degree of discomfort in discussing it has been evident.
It is not hard to imagine why. One can certainly dwell too much on the past. Whereas new provincial and federal governments love to loudly declare how they are fixing all of their predecessor's messes, the lack of partisanship at the municipal level largely prevents this.
As in all small towns, councillors tend to be active members of the community. An old councillor could be a neighbour, a fellow society member, or a friend. The new council thus has to tread carefully, lest they risk offending both members of the old council and the many citizens who probably like the old councillors on a personal level.
But our new council should not have too many misgivings about being frank about the failures of the old. The last term was not all bad, but there were significant, abnormal issues. Those issues did have an impact on the town and public perception of council.
The current council would be remiss not to discuss how it can do things differently to avoid the same pitfalls. Councillors and administration should have no fear in stating how their decisions improve on the work of the previous government.
Council and staff should feel free to tread a little less lightly in talking about the mistakes of the past. Hurt feelings can only be considered so far. After that, it's buckling down, helping a town that's been through a lot of chaos and relaying to your citizens how you will avoid those mistakes in the future.
There's no shame in that.
