OBSERVER'S TAKE ON COUNCIL'S "DECISION" TUESDAY EVENING

Today's Woolwich Observer carries the following front page story titled "Woolwich opts for open application process to fill vacant Ward 1 seat". At first read I was a little disappointed as it appeared to me that the Observer (Steve Kannon) were not taking a strong stand in regards to Council's choosing to ignore the best, easiest, quickest and least expensive route to fill the vacancy on Council occasioned by Scott Hahn's departure. I almost said sudden departure however in hindsight and with further thought I wonder if he was intended right from the start to be nothing but a seat filler who with his youth and inexperience would simply follow the lead of the long term councillors.

After a second read through I did notice the significance however of a number of items. Firstly was Dr. Dan Holt's quote namely "Otherwise...you would be saying that your five votes are worth more than over a thousand votes from the electorate", he told councillors. That is in reference to the 1,036 votes he received as the third place finisher in Ward 1 after Scott and Patrick Merlihan. Secondly were the words in a later interview of fourth place finisher Sebastian Seibel-Achenbach. Sebastian is a man of integrity and he made it clear that he would not apply to Council, as the seat should go to the first runner-up in the last election, namely Dr. Holt. Lastly is the headline at the top of the Observer article on page 2 namely: "Three council members bypass 2014 election results". This headline is exactly what happened and is also fairly matter of fact. Is the Woolwich Observer (or Steve) making a point here with this headline? I would like to think so.

Council are now succeeding in spending more time and money than necessary and one must conclude that it is for the ignoble purpose of ensuring that they and they alone, not the voters, are in complete charge of whom will replace Scott on Council. If I thought for one second that most of them truly wanted a superior candidate of knowledge and integrity then I would be less concerned. Their history however suggests that they want a cheerleader, a co-opted fellow travellor who will drink the Kool-Aid along with them.