During the City Council meeting of January 27th, Council adopted a Recommendation contained in Committee of Whole Council Report #8-2009 which permits Ray Caron to keep his personal items in a storage locker at the Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex until May 1st, 2009. Immediately following this, the Mayor made a comment that openly criticized Staff for bringing forward the issue relating to Mr. Caron and felt Council’s time could have been better used for other more important, community-wide issues. This comment having been made in public, in my humble opinion, is highly inappropriate, in Mayor Cook’s capacity as CEO of the City and she should have waited to do so, in a private, one on one conversation with Alberto DeFeo, CAO (Chief Administrative Officer) of the City of Williams Lake.
Also, Councillor Tom Barr, one of the two senior members on City Council, wished to correct her comment around City Staff however Mayor Cook completely cut off Councillor Barr in a way that, in my humble opinion, showed disrespect to Councillor Barr. She should, as a sign of respect to Councillor Barr being a senior member of City Council, apologize to Councillor Barr publicly for that regrettable action and ensure that she doesn’t repeat that mistake again
In private business, most business owners' do not openly criticize their Staff in public and I think that City Staff are no different. If she is genuinely concerned about how issues are brought forward from City Staff, then all she needs to do is to have a private, one-on-one conversation with Alberto DeFeo (CAO, City of Williams Lake) and explain her expectations on how liability issues or other issues are brought forward and when Council will get involved. After all, City Staff are human beings too and we should, as politicians, treat them as such.
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