I almost forgot to mention this.

I should mention this before I forget again.
I apologize in advance because it is political and not overly exciting.

I do have to say something though for those who may be wondering where I am while the Water and Wastewater meetings are going on.
I'm there! I swear I am!

A little background for those just tuning in.

When I was in Ontario over the Christmas holidays I sent a letter to Council that I did not support the proposed water rate amount for the Village residents on the Village water system.
At the time I was Chair of the Water and Wastewater Committee.
I had presented the first reading of the new rate prior to leaving for Ontario.
The rate amount chosen was based on data presented to the committee and appeared to be in order.
During discussions at Council another member indicated that our data was not entirely correct.
I should also mention that I had not been comfortable as Chair of the Committee as a first term Councillor and the delicate and complicated nature of what we have to deal with.
It would be so much easier if everyone in the Village was on the system but less than half of the households are.
The rest of us are on our own wells for now, and likely to be for a few more years to come.
I had been on the Committee as a public member prior to being elected. However, there is much that the public may not be privy to information that the elected representatives are.

Whatever.
While in Ontario I re-examined the figures and came to complete agreement with my associate on Council.

I sent my e-mail to Council concerning the rates and that I did not support them. I also added in a few things about my displeasure at being chair of the only Committee that I had asked not to be.
For whatever reason came over me, I plopped the same email up on my blog for everyone to see.
To my surprise the Fredericton newspaper, the Daily Gleaner caught wind of the blog and it made headlines. (Slow news day I guess.)
The next thing I knew people were contacting me to offer support me and others that they didn't support me.
Keep in mind I was with mom at the time.

Just over a week after my return to New Brunswick the Mayor wanted to get together for a chat.
As I had expected he was not too thrilled with my media coverage.
As a form of punishment I was taken off as Chair of Water and Wastewater and turned into a regular committee member.

That's okay, I knew that I deserved it. I most likely would have done the same to a little bugger like me.

As I have also mentioned in my second blog ever to be taken down (the last time that will happen), the punishment was fine.
The problem was that nobody was ever told of it.
It became a little embarrassing when I had to tell someone that did not know about my demotion.
I didn't take this very well.

The Village office did send a letter out to Councillors that I was not Chair anymore.
The public wasn't told though.
This didn't seem like a problem to me until our last open Council meeting.

The Mayor is the current committee chair so he presents the Committee report during open Council.
It occurred to me as he was giving the report that anyone paying attention would have absolutely no idea that I was going to the committee meetings unless my name was specifically mentioned.

During our swearing in the Mayor announced to all present who would chair what committees.
Nobody knew that things have changed since then as no official announcement was made. .
An outsider may think that I don't even go to the meetings even though I certainly do.
I participate quite a bit too!

So I brought this up at the meeting to go on the record.
The media in attendance wasn't too interested but at least I said it.

So I'm the co-chair of the Recreation Committee and the no-chair of the Water and Wastewater Committee now.

Take Care,
Tim


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