The Blame Game
- allardkg
- Oct 19
- 4 min read
EDITED - After I published this, I got a message that Councillor (for another day) Hirsch piled on.
Councillor (for the next day) Cassi Hider came out swinging against Mayor Linnsie Clark with a video casting the blame on Clark for this council's failure. Hirsch piled on this morning.
Hider who in the past has described herself as the “Town Crier” (she got a little weepy during a meeting and it was a lighthearted self- deprecation) has now apparently assumed the role of Town Critic.
Hider has not distinguished herself during her term on council. She has become known as Council’s Cheerleader, often adding nothing to the discussion but platitudes. In the video she seems to indicate that the blame falls solely on Mayor Clark.
Hirsch, being an experienced council member shows a similar lack of awareness of his own repsonsibility, again putting the full blame on Mayor Clark.
Never mind the fact that:
at former City Manager Ann Mitchell's 2nd council meeting she formally apologized to Hirsch for trying to ditch the MPC (Municpal Planning Commission) That should heva been a red flag to keep a close eye on what she was doing.
they allowed former City Manager Ann Mitchell to walk all over them, failing to hold her accountable
a judge found council incapable of making reasonable decisions.
Hider and Hirsch ignore all that and insist on the narrative that Clark was wrong, they were right. This sort of mean girl behaviour is something I would expect from a surly teenager with an axe to grind. Council's poor decision making was put on display which likely caused some embarassment. Instead of accepting that they screwed up and admitting it, Hirsch and Hider try to shift the blame to make themselves look better. Hider and Hirsch make no acknowledgement of their own foibles in their videos, stressing that everyone needs to read the last 6 pages of the Municipal Inspection Report, something echoed by a number of candidates this election.
I agree, people should read the report but not just the last 6 pages.
This did not happen overnight, there is no way that in a few short years that things could get so FUBAR. This has been going on for a long time until the Municipal Inspection shone a bright light on the improper practices.
Here’s some other pages to read.
Pg 31 A council member stated that “our orientation was a massive failure; it was more of a brainwashing session. Council needs to know more about their lane and what it’s not.” Hirsch has sat on council for three terms, one would think that he should know what is needed or lacking.
Pg 34 Speaks on the need for ongoing council training - again, this is evident of lacking policies that have been going on since before this last council term.
pg 107 “Discussing council agenda items informally prior to council meetings and in the absence of the public is an improper practice and a matter of concern. The primacy of the public council table needs to be respected.”
According to mayoral candidate Kris Samraj they've been doing this for years. When he spoke at the Mayoral Forum held by Owl News, he said
“Transparency means different things, you do everything in open for sure, that is very transparent, it takes a lot of time…….That comes with downsides as well maybe sometimes in closed meetings you tighten everything up so you know what you’re doing when you come to council so you’re not, so the community doesn't have to follow the issue for six months, they can tune into one meeting where they get everything done in one meeting, that’s a form of transparency as well.” (Timestamp of above video 52:00)
Pg 127 The report speaks about how they were creating summaries of closed session meetings. The recommendation was to stop such summaries being created. This predates the 2021 council. I received a copy of such a summary as part of a FOIP request, something that never should have happened. The meeting took place in February 2022.
Pg 128 Speaks to how bylaws and policies should be reviewed on a regular basis. The records Management Policy was last updated in 2014 and still mentions the COO of Energy Services, a position that has not existed since Mr Labas left partway through 2015, he's not even mentioned in the 2015 Annual Report.
2014 Annual Report see page 6
2015 Annual Report see page 11
Pg 188 On June 3 2024 the longest serving council member Robert Dumanowski improperly declared a pecuniary interest on a vote. He’s been there long enough to know what pecuniary interest is - obviously he did not.
This all goes to prove that the City has been run in an irregular, improper, and improvident manner for a long time. The failure of this last term does not fall only on the shoulders of those sitting at the horseshoe for this term, it falls on the shoulders of previous councils who failed to pave the way.
Those resistant to changing the culture at City Hall, who are resistant to doing things by the book, seem to be the ones with the loudest voices right now.
The Municipal Inspection Report states that the city has been run in an irregular, improper and improvident manner.
Previous councils could have prevented a lot of this trouble this last term.
The 2021 Council ultimately failed because previous councils failed; they had inadequate procedures and inadequate training of new council members.
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