Much (more) Ado About Nothing

[a somber look at Brampton politics]

 

 

I can recognize a grand comedy when I see one.  Absent crowd laugher, the on-going sitcom at Brampton City Hall is stand-up comedy at its finest.

The supporting cast is the “regular” assembly of village malcontents that regularly attend, speak in secret codes and revel at seeing themselves on the cable casts.  I suspect that each of them set their PVRs before making the trek to City Hall again last evening.

Spurious accusations are always abundant from the assembled speakers.  What a grand opportunity to discuss million dollar projects from behind one hundred dollar bank accounts. Even better when the rag-tag group can insult a lawyer (such as George Rust D’Eye) simply because he did not unearth sordid details of a scandal that exists only in the furtive imaginations of the little vigilante posse that parade up to the public microphone on any given night.  Oh, Andy Warhol please tell us when the 15 minutes of fame expires.

The parade of malcontents was actually interspersed with two young women who made meaningful comments.  I have known the Sproule’s on Elizabeth Street for decades and was a great pal of the late Bill Sproule.  His daughter appeared and actually had something genuine and real to complain about. It seems their back yard has been damaged by the construction mess and is badly in need of repair. Let’s hope that amid the politicking and game playing that City Council actually listened to what this good family has asked.

The only other bright light was a young lady who summed this entire thing up correctly.  I did not catch her name but the message was clear: move on.  It is not only becoming tiresome but is becoming a bit of civic embarrassment.  It is high time to permit the matter to find its way to civil court where the one remaining piece (a law suit ) will be decided without the theatrics. Heavens, the Toronto Star will have to find other work or projects for its reporter when/if the suit gets decided.

The gist of things last night were so humorous that I nearly spit a mouth full of hot coffee onto the coffee table listening to it.  The Interim Auditor General (George Rust D’Eye) did a reasonable job setting out his terms of engagement and specifically stated that he had avoided any mention of the litigious matters surrounding the pending law suit. The fact that the mentioned “not saying anything “about those areas in his 150 page report  certainly did not mean that he was unaware.

Then Brampton in –house legal council specifically advised the ten councilors and the mayor to avoid discussing the pending civil matter or its evidentiary components.  Too comical (even for SNL) one rambunctious council member then began systematically citing point after point about the case despite repeated attempts to stop the restoration by a visibly frustrated Mayor (who was chairing the meeting) and legal council. Each time they managed to rein this council member in on one subject, he/she would blithely flip a page and move on to another equally sensitive subject. All of this was allegedly under the guise of showing what the Auditor General had left out. 

Not to be out done by the antics of this council member, the regular bunch of citizen posse members was up to full speed in short order. With that group, there are few (if any rules) wild speculation and street gossip are always in high season during their deputations.  Just as I was enjoying a hot cup of java, one of the posse members asked the Auditor General IF he (the Auditor General) had looked at emails. This, after the Auditor General had spent a half hour explaining the exhaustive list of evidence considered.  I suppose the question may have been (in some way) pertinent – at least the posse member posing the question.  Given the high level of education and experience of the Auditor General, I suspect that he figured out that in a modern and computerized office, that there were likely mails floating around.

After watching this sitcom yet again, I plucked a copy of Shakespearian comedies off my book shelf in an attempt to lighten up my evening. At the end of the day these mob swarming forays by the posse have inevitably resulted in the Corporation of the City of Brampton retaining yet another consultant or auditor to delve through the chicken entrails and seek a version of truth that would satisfy the posse. It simply cannot be done.

In then I finally nodded off to sleep with Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” as light reading. It too (fittingly) is about gossip and innuendo.   These words are best used to describe the antics of Brampton’s self appointed vigilante posse who are collectively forcing the waste of hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to satisfy their peculiar and adolescent musings.  

“I wish my horse had the speed of your tongue.”

 Hat’s off to the Mayor. I do not envy your job.

Copyright   Thunderbird Rising 2015

 

The above article is copyrighted.  You may use, copy or distribute this article conditional on attributing your source (Thunderbird Rising) and the author (Lloyd Fournier)