Letter to the Editor
April 26, 2010
To The Editor:
ANMORES DYSFUNCTION CONTINUES
I write this to you as I believe you’ll find it quite interesting. Actually quite confusing / concerning for many residents of Anmore as we cannot understand why the dysfunction of our Anmore Councilor continues and we believe it has now “Gone to the next unbelievable level”. When is this going to stop?
On April 13th, 2010 I attended a regular councilor meeting for the Village of Anmore. As most of you already are aware of the difficulties we are experiencing with regards to the governance of our Village, now it has been elevated to a new level.
Firstly, the inability for a couple of councilors to approve a Chief Elections Officer for our Mayoral By-Election without the intervention form the Ministry has now faced us with another serious issue. The passing of our budget.
During the April 13th meeting, Councilor Piamonte raised an issue about a line item in the proposed budget pertaining to the funding of our Community Grants. It seemed that the week prior Councilor Piamonte was fine with the $10,000 line item as he voted in favor of it during the Finance committee meeting to which he is a member.
During the following regular council meeting, Councilor Piamonte seemed confused and agitated when discussion of this topic came up to which he stated the following -
Piamonte Statement (verbatim) “I will delay the Budget if I have too because you’re trying to do a Euchre situation here”
Euchre is defined as “to outwit” or to prevent an opponent from winning
Basically what we heard Councilor Piamonte say (interpretation) – “Im going to delay the budget because you guys are not letting me win”
? HUH! – that is downright crazy. ? How could an elected official in a democratic society make such a statement. ? Isn’t the proper democratic process by “majority vote wins”. Why would councilor Piamonte make such a threat to us. ? Can he not accept the democratic process. If he cant. Then why did he run for our government.
The issue at stake here is with our limited size and resources our Village depends solely on volunteerism and the grants that are issued through the provincial and federal agencies.
With the statement that Piamonte made on April 13th, this puts Anmore in jeopardy and furthermore in a precarious position with Provincial Legislation stipulating balanced budgets must be submitted by May 15, 2010.
There were many residents in the crowd that were shocked to hear Piamonte basically threaten our Village by delaying the budget based on his personal agenda. THIS IS NOT EFFECTIVE GOVERNING. Councilors have to protect the best interest of the residents rather than their personal thoughts / feelings.
We are all asking why Piamonte would threaten our Village with regards to this issue.
It seems that Councilor Piamonte thinks there is a very small group that disapproves of his actions. For example this is what he said at the February 23, 2010 Regular Council meeting when one of many residents asked him to resign because of some of his disapproving actions -
? You can go and complain – ? Whine – ? Take your little groups and do whatever you like – ? HUH – ? Why would Councilor Piamonte speak in such a tone to his constituents. Extremely condescending if you ask many. Why doesn’t he understand that public scrutiny is part of the job he chose to sign up for.
It’s frustrating as a resident to have to communicate these issues, yet what alternative do we have. We still have not heard any explanation for the delays in our By-Election as well we have asked Councilor Piamonte several questions in Public Question Period to which he generally refuses to answer. These questions are fair as they pertain to concerns over spending and or certain action.
Now these unfortunate sequences of advents may have to get the Ministry to intervene possibly once again.
For many of the Anmore residents, Nov 30, 2011 cannot come quick enough
Thanks
Denny Arsene
Anmore Resident
[...The Anmore Resident], while accurately stating a one-line comment by the councillor, neglected to indicate properly what led up to the comment. Due to my previous submissions that the Times was a business, and therefore that the municipal council (unlike the province) was legally prevented under the Community Charter from providing a grant, a compromise was reached whereby a decision on funding would be delayed until the issue was resolved. Council would seek a legal opinion on the matter.
It was Councillor Piamonte’s belief that part of the background information provided to the lawyer would include financial statements from the Anmore Times in order to determine its level of advertising revenue, and its actual expenditures. This is logical since the Times sells advertising space, and if it makes a profit on it, this per se appears to be the hallmark of a business. This is bolstered by Pam Blackman’s comments at the March 23 Finance Committee meeting that, with regard to [another resident's] submission, “We asked him to tone it down, he didn’t want to and then we had the money given to us to pay for the printing of it and so we decided to print it.”
Councillors McEwen and Issac, though, for some reason refused to ask for or include Times financial records, so instead a request for a legal opinion has been sent off to the Village solicitor to opine whether the Times is a business, without any such records. We shall see what sort of useful opinion the lawyer can provide under these constraints.
It was in these circumstances that Councillor Piamonte felt tricked or cheated.
There are two Webster dictionary definitions for the word “Eucher”. The first, to do with the card game of the same name, means “trick to win”. The second, defining the word as it is used in common English, means “cheat” or “trick”. [...]
I do not expect Councillor Piamonte to hold up the budget on this issue. [...]
[editor's note: As per the Anmore Times online policy, I have removed personal references regarding residents]
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Instead of arguing about the definition of a word, it seems like the important information here is that the Anmore budget may not be approved! Whether this councillor felt like he was “dealt a bad hand” or “tricked” it sounds like he doesn’t want to pass a municipal budget along with the rest of council. I would assume this is only a problem if there is a 2/2 vote, without a Mayor, which would result in an automatic failure.. so what are our other councillors doing?
Wouldn’t everyone on council have had many months to review the budget process and discuss it at the council table or in a finance meeting? This sounds like a clear case of one councillor not getting his way and making a threat to hold up the budget process in the 11th hour. This is exactly why Anmore needs a Mayor and why we should all get out and vote in the upcoming election!
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As I pointed out in my previous letter, all four councillors, including McEwen and Isaac, voted to delay approval of the grant funding (including for the Times) until there is a legal opinion regarding whether the Times is a business or not. This was a new issue and they had not had “many months” to consider the issue.
Further, none of the other three councillors has threatened to hold up passage of the budget, so it can be passed even without a new mayor, and whether or not Councillor Piamonte approves. Indeed it needs to be since it must be done by May 15, before a new mayor will have a chance to cast a vote.
Hence, whatever other good reasons there are to want a new mayor installed ASAP, it will not affect passage of the budget in any way.
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I have one last comment to make regarding the resident’s letter above which initiated this post chain. In it he states, as regards the councillor he is criticizing: “Can he not accept the democratic process.”
He then goes on to note residents asking the councillor to resign.
The councillor was elected by Villagers in the most basic of democratic processes. It seems to me that disgruntled Villagers who continually demand his resignation are themselves continually refusing to accept the democratic process, and only invoking it when convenient.
(editor’s note: “This submission is the opinion of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Anmore Times, it’s editors and volunteers.”)
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