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By Fred Kirby   February 9, 2005 

The Kincardine council would like to set terms of office at four years instead of three. In a free society, the cost of an election should be the last consideration for increasing the term of office. Perhaps recall legislation is needed more. 

And how many “complicated matters” are there that cannot be resolved within three years? Council should list them so the people can assess their complexity. As for being a larger municipality than before, well, Ron, we are still three little principalities arguing about who has advantage over the other. If we actually were one municipality some issues which councillors think are complicated would melt away. 

Council has great difficulty resolving simple housekeeping matters; years in office will not resolve that inability.  How long does it take to decide that members of council will have common email addresses and have them posted similar to those of management? When will council post complete minutes of council and committee minutes on the website? Both decisions bear greatly on the practice of transparent democracy and the openness with which one can communicate. If council members cannot embrace readily available technology to advance the democratic process then, perhaps, they do not deserve one year in office let alone three. 

Toronto, with both its population and budget larger than many provinces, might justify a four year term but not Kincardine. Clarington should be told now that Kincardine, after sanity prevailed, takes back its endorsement. 

Further to transparent government, Barry Schmidt is correct. Frank discussion of the issues is not happening in council. The deputy mayor may feel, “Here, we get the work done.” But Sandy is mistaken. He should look at the website for work not done, he should tell us what happened to the elevator we were to get last year. And he should remind himself of his election pledge to have better communication. Secret agendas and closed sessions have no place in open and fair government. But then again, I am assuming Sandy and others on council actually want transparent and fair government.  If they do, they have the power to make it happen; if they do not, they will stay as they are. It is their decision