This week Council met for perhaps the last time before the election. One of the items for discussion was the Hallmark Lands. No, this isn’t a case of déjà vu. A month ago, in a 7-2 vote, Council voted to support the option of putting one baseball diamond and one soccer field/multi use field on the Hallmark lands. So you could quite rightly be wondering how did we end up in a situation where Council was debating the whole thing all over again? Quite simply, political games and a lack of leadership in the Chair.
This was always going to be a difficult decision. Most members of council hold strong views about what option is the best option. But after long discussions and debate, we had come to a decision. A decision that the majority felt was in the best interest of the community as a whole. And yet, here was Council a month later, discussing the same thing all over again. Worse still, because of a series of very questionable procedural manoeuvres by the Chair, Council ended up abandoning its decision to build 1 baseball diamond and 1 soccer/multi use field and move forward instead with building just 2 baseball diamonds.
What happened on Tuesday is a prime example of why residents want change. Residents are tired of issues coming back to council again and again and again. They want a Council that makes a decision and sees it through. But for that to happen, it will take real leadership.
And unfortunately, residents of Aurora did not get that on Tuesday. What they got was a Chair that either didn’t understand how a meeting should be run, didn’t care or both. The end result was still the same – the democratic process has been circumvented.
Aurora deserves better.
