Raise the Hammer

It has been an interesting 24 hours since yesterday.

What started out sounding like another Flamborough Slot Revenue debate amongst council, turned into what many have been saying daily is a lack of leadership from within.

At my favourite coffee shop I overheard 4 gentlemen talking about the area rating debate, and they where all stunned that they where paying for Dundurn Castle but others in the City where not.

They could not understand the logic behind this thinking.

They also could not understand why council would be willing to put this off for another few years and have the next council deal with it.

They also wondered aloud where the leadership was in this City.

The last 24 hours I have talked to a lot of councilors on this issue and one in particular Councilor Duvall was especially upset with the fact that this was going to be shelved for years and the next council could deal with it.

Councilor Duvall then knew that this needed to be dealt with now rather than later, and called every councilor and explained what he thought needed to be done.

Councilor Duvall put forth an idea that every councilor agreed to.

Yes you read that right, 100% agreement from all of council!

Not only that, but once the staff report is finished and presented to council, Councilor Duvall would like to lead and form a committee to get feedback from each and every ward through town hall meetings, and openly debate and talk to residents from each ward on this issue.

The idea is to debate it now, not later, get the hard work and tough talk and solutions figured out now with a deadline of December 2010, and then implement them the following year which coincides with the next term of council.

I congratulate Councilor Duvall for his leadership on this issue.

www.chrisecklund.com