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by Fred Kirby June 30, 2004 Liddell Hart, a military historian whose writings on the use of tanks in warfare was rejected by the British High Command and studied by the German military, once wrote that there are no bad soldiers just bad generals. That has been born out, with few exceptions, so many times that it is now axiomatic. It is an axiom reaching beyond the military and one I follow when speaking about our municipality. Workers, for the most part, are as good or bad as the managers and the managers behave as well or as poorly as the expectations of Council. I have had good experiences with the ordinary workers who are generally responsive, wanting to do a decent job but often working under frustrating conditions. If a water fountain is not working for weeks or months, do not blame the worker. It is the manger not doing his or her job; it is councillors not setting appropriate expectations that bring us untended water fountains and park signs worse for wear. Walkerton was a tragedy waiting to happen. There were employees whose jobs were obtained through nepotism and the old boys system. There was a commission with a narrow view of their responsibilities not thinking it necessary to have any understanding of the workers’ responsibilities. When a well is poorly located and a worker in a key position is drinking on the job, someone needed to know, someone needed to ask questions but know one did. It was all too comfortable. It was a tragedy but apart from developing expensive but uncertain remedies, little is learned. In Kincardine we witness nepotism, appearances of conflict of interests, and total lack of transparency. When it takes a year to change a simple procedure from council approval to administrative approval (a few hours work), it is no wonder the water fountain doesn’t work. The buck stops at Council.
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