1040 VOTES VERSUS 3 VOTES - WOOLWICH COUNCIL ARE SHAMELESS

Well was my prediction in yesterday's posting here in the Advocate right on the money? What I didn't predict was how blatant and obvious the whole circus was going to be. This Council couldn't even orchestrate a credible charade. As far as Julie-Anne Herteis's performance, it rivalled her four years on Council it was so lame. After the meeting the words being tossed around in the gallery included circus, gong show and sham.

Ten candidates were listed although only nine were in attendance. Even then only eight of the nine actually showed up to speak to either council or the public. Other than Julie-Anne the others all spoke either professionally or at least competently about their credentials and resume. They spoke from the heart about wanting to serve their communities. They sincerely put themselves out there and demonstrated long term interests in their community as well as their educational and work backgrounds.

Julie-Anne advised us that she had no university degree which coincidentally is in line with most of our past and current councils. She further advised us that she was resting upon her experience on Council between 2010 and 2014. I was present for many of her public council experiences and they varied from sad to embarrassing. She was so far out of her depth that she and everyone else on council, staff and in the gallery all knew it. Until last night I had been told that she attempted to pull a Scott Hahn once during her time on council. Last evening I was advised that in fact she twice tried to quit and both times former mayor Todd Cowan convinced her to finish her term.

The calibre and experience of the field of candidates to fill the council vacancy was astonishing. There were two former professors, a former school Principal and Superintendant, an emergency services worker, an owner of an environmental company, a woman with extensive professional municipal experience and so much more. All eight of the serious speakers last evening were from qualified to incredibly qualified. Then there was Julie-Anne who couldn't even be bothered to write a short speech. She didn't tell us about her work experience. She didn't tell us about her commitment. She showed up with a sense of entitlement which was soon clarified by our council who barely were able to keep straight faces.

I feel sorry for Councillor Patrick Merlihan. How he is able to continue to deal calmly and professionally with that pack of hyenas is beyond me. Whatever tiny, naive spark of respect that I may have had left for any of them (other than Patrick) is now gone. The rest of Council couldn't even accomplish raising last night to the level of a circus. Credit goes to the Municipal Clerk and Council's lapdog, Val Hummel. She at least sounded authoritative and sincere in her explanation of the voting procedure. She did her best to at least seriously pretend that the whole thing was a legitimate picking of the best candidate for the job. It wasn't.

This Council, less Patrick, lied to nine other candidates by telling them that this process was to choose the best candidate to fill the vacancy. They lied in both the best candidate matter as well as the fact that they had chosen Julie-Anne weeks ago. As Councillor Merlihan suggested the best and most appropriate appointee should have been the runner-up in the last election namely Dr. Dan Holt. He received 1,036 votes from the citizens in Ward 1 plus four council votes over two sessions. Julie-Anne received three votes last evening.

This council have publicly, shamelessly lied to nine citizen candidates as well as to the general public yet again. Those that run for council this fall deserve denunciation at the polls.

TONITE'S DOG & PONY SHOW IN WOOLWICH COUNCIL CHAMBERS

P.T. Barnum has nothing over Woolwich Council when it comes to putting on a show. This will be a spectacular demonstration of chutzpah, misdirection and smoke and mirrors. We will hear from ten, mostly sincere, Woolwich citizens who are all throwing their hats in the ring to sit on Council from now until October when they have the option of facing the electorate. I would suggest that Council in their infinite arrogance have dug themselves a tiger trap. How embarrassing will it be if their hand picked appointee tonite gets soundly rejected by the voters in October; especially if it's in favour of one of tonite's unsuccessful candidates?

Dare I hint of my belief that Julie-Anne Herteis is their hand picked appointee from the beginning? Dare I suggest that this Council would so arrogantly waste the time and energy of nine other citizens just to mask their own gamesmanship? Dare I suggest that I believe that most members of this council are so shallow and unethical that they would put on a circus in order to mask their manipulations to give a council seat to their preselected candidate now and a foot up on the competition in the fall?

Of course if I'm correct then council will feel the need to assist their previously hand picked candidate in the fall election. Look for endorsements at the minimum. Look for their appearances at her media events and or other public events. Hell would it be illegal for them to donate to her campaign fund? If it is they need not worry because as we've already seen there are no legal penalties even when they are caught red handed breaking the Municipal Elections Act.

Come out one and all at 6 pm. this evening. You will meet and hear from ten citizens and get to learn something about them and their hopes and aspirations. Do not blame them for the circus unnecessarily put on by Woolwich Council.

FINALLY THERE ARE CRACKS IN MUNICIPAL-PROVINCIAL ENVIRONMENTAL LOCKSTEP

Well it's about time. My theory has been that politicians at varying levels ie. municipal, regional, provincial and even federal try to avoid publicly stepping on each other's fragile egos. This means that they tend to support each others decisions and public announcements even when informed viewers can see contradictions in policy positions. I believe that this mutual aid society if you will is all about image. Politicians realize that there is a spillover effect when any of their kind are publicly besmirched. Afterall it would never do for the general public to slowly begin to understand that greater than 90% of all politicians at all levels are there for their and their supporters' benefit versus the benefit of the general public. Hence most of the infighting and turf wars are conducted privately.

So sort of in today's Waterloo Region Record we have a surprisingly blunt Regional government versus Provincial Ministry of Municipal Affairs confrontation. It seems that our Waterloo Regional government is not totally on board with the Greater Golden Horseshoe proposed greenbelt expansion. While at first blush this would seem like a good idea for municipalities in general, the region of Waterloo are saying hold on a minute. It seems that most of the other political areas might be getting improvements in regards to environmental protection but the Region of Waterloo could actually see diminished protection. As it stands now our Regional groundwater protection policies including gravel pit restrictions are actually well ahead of provincial policy whether from Municipal Affairs or from the Ministry of Natural Resources.

There is absolutely no doubt that provincial policy favours aggregate removal throughout Ontario regardless of environmental degradation. Whenever municipalities don't toe the line then historically the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) has stepped in and slapped down dissenting local politicians. Of late there have been cracks in the OMB's armour including a few years back with the proposed Hunder gravel pit between Winterbourne and Conestoga. They actually decided against that proposed pit in conjunction with both citizens' groups and Woolwich Township.

This article is in the on-line Waterloo Region Record although I didn't see it in this morning's edition of the newspaper. It is titled "Provincial proposal to protect our water falls short: report".

WATERLOO REGIONAL POLICE SERVICE ARE SCRAMBLING

So we are advised that the very difficult changes within the WRPS have been underway for a long time. Isn't that just dandy. That must be of some comfort to female police officers who feel that their careers have been stifled and damaged by the culture that they've had to tolerate over the last few decades. Today's Waterloo Region Record carries the following story by Lisa Rutledge titled " Waterloo Regional Police to hire consultants to drive cultural change".

I'm the first to admit that there has been a huge cultural change in Canada within my lifetime. I was born just after the Second World War and boy there was animosity towards immigrants from the European and Asian countries that we and the Allies had fought against for almost six years (1939-1945). It changed but I know my father had difficulties with my friends of Germanic background even into the nineteen sixties.

What I find very difficult to understand is the workplace culture that discriminates against women. Here in Canada, boys and girls went to school together throughout our entire education from public school to high school and through university. In public school the majority of our teachers were female and any boys who were bullies or rude to the girls in the class quite promptly and appropriately got put in their place. In high school there were more male teachers although the ratio may have been 3:2 . Again discrimination or rudeness based upon gender simply didn't happen because if it did the offenders would be given one warning and then promptly sent home.

So what the hell happened in our workplaces? Yes I saw gender discrimination in wages and promotions in private industry. The vast majority of managers were male as were the bosses. As significant as that was what I did not see was overt rudeness and or gender based crude "jokes" or other obvious female putdowns. Subtle (somewhat) dumb blonde jokes maybe. The odd risque joke between two genders who were of equal status maybe. There was no touching, butt grabbing or skirt lifting as has been alleged (repeatedly) at the WRPS. That would have been grounds for immediate dismissal with no defence available whatsoever.

Guess what Waterloo Regional Police? In non-union private industry there was no democracy in the workplace. When the bosses said jump you asked how high. But despite this there were social conventions that were not explicitly contravened and those conventions were followed. If you seriously believed that women were less able to do certain jobs then that was your thinking. It did not give you license to treat them poorly or disrespectfully. From the top down through the ranks gender based blatant disrespect simply was not tolerated.

It appears that these beliefs and behaviours have never existed at the WRPS or many other police services. Traditional male dominated jobs such as construction, police , firemen, mining, military all likely share the same negative attitudes and sterotypes. It requires the so called leaders and managers to bring their institutions into the 21st century. The times changed dramatically during the Second World War when women were desperately needed in factories as the younger males all went overseas. Women filled these roles magnificently in all our times of need. That war ended nearly 3/4 of a century ago and our local police service and many others still haven't gotten with the program. Perhaps our current police leadership all need to step aside. Clearly they have been unwilling and or unable to keep up with normal, common sense behaviour in the workplace.

ELMIRA'S NEW RE PURPOSE CENTRE

There was an article in this week's Woolwich Observer regarding this new venture which opens March 1/18 in the Freiberger building on Arthur St.. That said most of the information in this posting is from a direct interview with a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Thrift Shop manager.

The three R's are Reduce, Recycle and Reuse. This concept is of course the Reuse one. Profits will go to the MCC for their charitable work both abroad as well as at home. Household goods and clothing are sold by the pound as are toys, tools, books etc.. They are open six days a week from 10 am.-6 pm. with possibly later hours on Thursdays and shorter hours on Saturday.

Staff are both local as well as transfers from other nearby MCC Thrift Shops. The initial idea for this store was the result of brainstorming between several MCC Thrift Shop managers. Excess donations and donations that do not sell at the time during normal sales floor rotations at the various Thrift Stores will be sent to the re Purpose Centre. Customers will be both the general public and possibly even other Thrift Shops or Bargain Shops buying in bulk if they are currently low on product.

Similar to the Thrift Shops, volunteers are always needed and greatly appreciated. Volunteers range from high school students to senior citizens and everything in between.

PROMISES AND LIES: ARE THEY ONE AND THE SAME?

Two days ago I posted here that Lanxess's off-site pumping stinks. Today we are going to look at an article in the Woolwich Observer dated October 1, 2005. The title was "Crompton site remediation behind schedule". You guessed it , it's all about off-site pumping or the lack thereof. You know it's pretty bad when the polluter and his alleged regulator first sell a bill of goods to an unsuspecting public. That bill of goods was that hydraulic containment, otherwise known as pump and treat was the only appropriate method a) to stop the spread of contaminants from the Uniroyal site and b) also the only method to clean up the off-site Elmira Aquifers. What makes it worse however is when those in charge nickel and dime the already cheapest, least effective method possible. Finally above and beyond all that is when they lie, deceive and bafflegab the public throughout the process.

Wilf Ruland, hydrogeologist, advised CPAC in a September 23, 2005 letter that only one out of three pump and treat systems operated by Crompton was being utilized anywhere near its' full potential. Crompton and their spokesperson Jeff Merriman were of course all over this with their usual litany of excuses. According to Jeff "...ammonia levels in the wells have hindered pumping during the warm summer months.". "For certain times of the year, the creek is more sensitive to ammonia and that's in the warm summer months.".

Well I've just gone through my old pumping records from 1999 until 2009 and guess what? Yes there are some years where the pumping decreases during the summer months allegedly due to ammonia considerations. There are however just as many years where the pumping rates from October through to April are just as low as they are during the warmer summer months. It seems clear to me that this is but one more example of Crompton embracing a problem and then using it as an excuse to either reduce pumping rates to save a nickel or simply not to be in a hurry to fix whatever the newest problem might be such as burned out pumps, plumbing breakdowns etc..

FRANK ROVERS & DNAPLS ON THE UNIROYAL / LANXESS SITE

Today's Waterloo Region Record carries the obituary of Frank Rovers, the founder of the now world wide consulting firm Conestoga Rovers & Associates (CRA). That said CRA were bought out a couple of years back and are now known as GHD. GHD now represents Chemtura/Lanxess as CRA represented Uniroyal/Crompton and Chemtura.

The obituary speaks glowingly of Mr. Rovers and as well there are two current CPAC (Citizens Public Advisory Committee) members who knew him personally. Both of them worked for CRA decades ago. They described him this morning as a very interesting and driven individual.

The one and only time he showed up at a UPAC (Uniroyal Public Advisory Committee) meeting very early in the 1990s, I was absent. Years later Susan Bryant advised me that he had told UPAC that the Uniroyal site was filled with DNAPLS whether free phase or residual. Conveniently UPAC and later CPAC seemed to have great difficulty in remembering Frank's words. According to Susan, Frank's purpose was to suggest/advise that because of the quantity and wide dispersion of DNAPL; that rather than chase them down, hydraulic containment of the hence contaminated groundwater was the way to go. At the time that was the understanding and belief of academic experts as well who studied DNAPLS. We were disabused however at a January 2007 meeting at the University of Waterloo with Dr. John Cherry and Dr. Beth Parker. The we included Wilf Ruland , hydrogeologist, and Susan, Pat McLean and myself. Both Doctors advised that hydrogeologists had learned that removal, chemical breakdown or even encapsulation of DNAPLS was now recommended. Simply leaving them in the ground was far too dangerous and guaranteed decades to centuries of slow dissolution of the DNAPLS into the groundwater effectively contaminating it above drinking water standards for that time period and longer.

Again this meeting with two world preeminent DNAPL researchers went almost nowhere. Pat and Susan appeared intent on glasnost or rapprochement with Cromton/Chemtura and Wilf's continued part time work with CPAC was dependent as well upon his getting along with both Susan and Pat as well apparently with the Ministry of Environment and Crompton. I argued to no avail that a presentation needed to be made to CPAC about this meeting. Later that fall Pat and Susan started their backdoor campaign to remove me from CPAC. I do not believe the timing with the DNAPL revelations was coincidental.