Hey, would you rather have that, or would you rather have 'mums the word' Helps?
I'd have rather that the Mayor did not send the original letter to Gail Hall.
Yup, Gail Hall is an agitator at council, but so be it. When you are a politician you have to accept that your feet are held to the fire.
But these are Gail Hall initiatives, not too bad:..
http://www.sookenews.../383286511.html
Sooke residents can get questions answered and learn about the issues at a town hall meeting this fall hosted by district council.
A decision to hold a town hall came after council-watcher Gail Hall made a presentation at last week’s district council meeting.
“All your comments from the election, including inclusiveness, transparency and the like have long since disappeared,” Hall told council. “Virtually every word spoken by a member of the public in this room is governed by a dictate by council or staff.”
Hall and others have complained about the inability to talk directly to council for months.
Those wishing to address a council meeting are allowed two minutes to speak, but only on items on the night’s agenda. Councillors are also available by email and telephone.
Municipal staff is in the process of reworking council’s procedural bylaw with the goal of providing a better question and answer periods. The bylaw has been sent back to staff several times.
Council’s strategic plan calls for at least two public forums on an annual basis, but Mayor Maja Tait admits that hasn’t been done.
Hall would like to see a town hall meeting at least once a month or more often depending on developing issues.
“We need to gather from time to time in a less formal atmosphere than [council chambers] to have opportunities to ask questions that have no other venue,” she said.
Tait defended the lack of town hall meeting, citing new senior management, her own four-month maternity leave, and council’s work on an ambitious strategic plan.
“I don’t think it was an intent by council to not do certain things,” she said. “It’s a case that everyone is busy and focused and we’re trying to do things and perhaps we’re just not communicating out what we’re trying to accomplish and what we’re doing.”
http://www.canada.co...3f7a19&sponsor=
Sooke Coun. Rick Kasper has asked the municipality's auditor to examine use of the municipal Visa cards by Mayor Janet Evans and some former and current senior municipal employees.
Kasper said he first wondered about municipal credit card use some months ago when he and another Sooke councillor were taken for lunch in Sooke by former chief administrative officer Peter Jmaeff who apparently paid for the lunch with a municipal credit card.
It struck him as unusual.
"I've never claimed an expense for lunch in Sooke ever. So if I would go out and have a talk with the former CAO or whoever I would just pay my own freight," Kasper said.
Kasper's request came in the wake of a Freedom Of Information request about credit card expenditures made by Sooke resident Gail Hall.
Kasper said Hall's findings made him question what guidelines the municipality has over credit card use, under what policy municipal credit cards are issued and under what authority certain expenditures were made.
He said there are entries like a $494.61 dinner expense in 2005 by a senior staff member paid by for by credit card but explained by a cryptic notation like: "Dinner after golf tournament." "Well, which golf tournament? I didn't know the District of Sooke was in the business of using taxpayer money to either pay for councillors and/or staff to go to golf tournaments in Sooke. I've never heard of that," Kasper said.
Kasper cited Evans's participation in two charity auctions, one for Sooke Rotary and one for the chamber of commerce in which she ended up spending $430 and $425 respectively for advertising in the Sooke News Mirror.
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>