After which - I received a comment which agreed with the blog post, in general, however it is a couple of lines of that comment that I wish to address:
Firstly - the commenter said, in part:
I was sickened to hear that she called someone at home on their personal time to address a letter that was written against her. Why would someone of her stature do that to someone else except to intimidate them with her position"If this person is referring to what I call the "Ollie Martens" case (Ms. Martens suggesting, in 2010, why City residents should have to heed watering restriction when the City doesn't and I thought it was a great letter and raised an excellent point, is this a case of the City saying "Do as I say and not as I do") - I've been aware of this issue for about a year but chose not to make an issue of it but since then, I've heard this complaint a number of times throughout the community. Firstly - the public, generally speaking, provides its input to politicians in various ways which could include:
1) Phone call to elected official(s) at home, work or City Hall
2) Use of Social Media Tools (ie - Blog, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube)
3) Letters to the Editor
4) One on One contact on the street
5) Emails or Traditional Letters
All of the above forms of contact between the public/elected officials needs to be congratulated as they (public) is trying to provide input to make Williams Lake or, in the case of the local Regional District, the Electoral Area the very best it can be. In fact - I bumped into CRD Area 'E' Steve Mazur earlier today to discuss the Mountview Water Project and he told me that nothing new had been received and they were waiting anxiously to see if the project will get funding but as has been previous practice - Ottawa got more applications than money available so they're going through the applications with Victoria and announcements will be made in due course. I find him to be very approachable when wanting to discuss CRD-wide or CRD Area 'E' issues. I also find the same with WL City Councillors Tom Barr, Geoff Bourdon, Surinderpal Rathor
As a rule - politicians contacting people at home is not a bad thing as long as the elected official (Mayor, Councillor or Electoral Area Director) is looking to either:
1) Returning a Phone Call
2) Requesting a meeting at the local Municipal Hall or CRD Office to explain a "Letter to the Editor" in a very polite and diplomatic manner to clarify their concern and hash out, again in a polite manner, what the issue is and what the options are and to ensure that they (public) are kept in the loop on developments
Anything else (talking with voters' in a negative way) is unacceptable and voters should say so to elected officials who try to complain to the voter re: a letter to the editor that they recently wrote
Secondly - the commenter also stated:
. I watched when Mayor Cook and Councillor Zacharias admonished Councillor Rathor on two different occasions when he spoke his opinion which was contrary to their own..this does not speak to me of a democratic society but one of an attempted dictatorship or at least one of a subtle intimidation
This was a result of the April 5th meeting where WL Council was debating to give "approve-in-principle" to the City's 2011 Budget (1st, 2nd and 3rd Reading). While previous Mayors/Councillors have always disagreed with Councillor Rathor's comments, none have been as personal as Mayor Cook and Councillor Zacharias. While I wouldn't agree with the use of the word "intimidation" and "dictatorship", I would agree that the actions of Mayor Cook/Councillor Zacharias on the 2011 City of WL Budget & 5-Year Financial Plan are not keeping with local democratic principles which requires polite and civil disagreements (ie - I respect and appreciate Councillor Rathor's views but I don't agree with him on opposition of the 2011 Budget and I'm going vote for this budget). Had Mayor Cook and Councillor Sue Zacharias done this - I suspect that they would have more respect from the community - certainly more than they enjoy at the moment as Councillor Rathor enjoys, at the moment, a huge amount of support and that support will likely be there when he seeks re-election this fall
SBF
PS: Stay tuned over the next few weeks where I will be running two poll questions, pertaining to the Civic Election (what issues matter to you & support for Williams Lake Mayoralty candidates) and also a blog post where I will muse about the potential runners for Mayor/ Councillors of Williams Lake for the 2011-2014 Term
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