STEVE KANNON (OBSERVER) TAKES WOOLWICH COUNCIL & COUNCILLOR MURRAY MARTIN TO TASK

Well done Steve and well done Woolwich Observer. Councillor Murray Martin has been a well known dinosaur for decades on Woolwich Council. How the hell he gets re-elected is to the shame of the voters in his ward who apparently ignore his words, actions and non-actions except every four years when they re-elect him. Apparently the Mennonite last name helps as it has for so many Martins, Shantz's, Bauman's over the decades. Dinosaur is actually a compliment in describing Councillor Martin. He appears to specialize in not reading reports and instead basing his decisions on his extensive age and life experience. It also helps that he knows where his bread is buttered and rarely rocks the boat with positions contrary to the status quo. Debate or discussion with him is nearly impossible as he does not listen but merely dogmatically holds his position. The fact that he was found to be biased as in supporting the Capitol Paving application for a gravel pit near Maryhill was absolutely no surprise at all. Nor was the fact that he prematurely let his rock solid position be known at a public council meeting is par for the course. He is far too stupid to be able to pretend impartiality as other councillors do until voting time when they pompously announce that after due consideration they are going to support this party versus that party's position. Debate and discussion are supposed to be public but that's actually just for show. Councillors are lobbied privately and generally group decisons made privately including occasional alleged dissent and opposing votes allowed. It's all a crock. ........................................................................................................................... Councillor Scott McMillan has publicly defended Council's decision to not impose penalties on Councillor Martin. These sanctions/penalties were recommended by the Integrity Commissioner. Don't get me wrong. I fully expect that the Integrity Comissioner is just one more cog in the alleged accountability wheel. That Woolwich Council chose not to further expose or sanction the horrid governance provided by Murray Martin for decades was to be expected. Afterall he is a good old boy who can generally be depended on to go with the flow (i.e. council's will). ............................................................................................ Quoting Steve Kannon's last paragraph: (I have capitolized all words) "POLITICIANS WRITE THE RULES FOR THEMSELVES. THEY PREFER NO RULES, BUT FAILING THAT THEY DRAFT VAGUE RULES WITH NO ENFORCEMENT. IF THERE MUST BE ENFORCEMENT, THEN THERE ARE NO PENALTIES FOR BREAKING THE RULES." ................................................................................................................ And there it is. One more example of exactly what Steve is talking about is the Municipal Elections Act and rules around election financing reports. The rules and alleged sanctions are all smoke and mirrors with more effort focused on stick handling around the rules and avoiding/minimizing the so called penalties. Woolwich politicians had decades of experience in doing exactly that prior to my stepping in after the October 2014 municipal election. Even then they mostly skated away unscathed with only minor abrasions mostly to their egos.