I have just read Joan Ayton’s letter of July 16, and I am deeply disturbed to learn of her intimidation by city staff. I am very sorry this has happened, and I feel I must add my own experience in support of her letter.
I am vice-chair of the Energy and Environment committee, but have not attended since May. That month the chair resigned for health reasons. Behind closed doors, before the May meeting, it was decided by councillors Burbach and McCabe, as well as the administrator, Vicki Trotter, that Councillor McCabe would be the new chair. There was no vote of the committee. The rules were that the vice-chair becomes chair until the committee votes in a new chair.
No one discussed this with me. I only found out at the beginning of the meeting. I won’t participate in meetings that contradict city procedure – it’s undemocratic – so I left the meeting, and have not been back.
Weeks later, when the minutes for May appeared, I read what had been decided:
Later I had a meeting with Coun. McCabe. I told him that as the elected vice-chair, I should be responsible for chairing meetings, unless the committee voted otherwise. Procedure is important. I thought he understood, but as far as I know he did not act to inquire about or remedy the situation. A few days later he described my actions in a comment on my own public Facebook post.
This is a completely false representation of what I said to Coun. McCabe. I think councillors should not use Facebook to attack advisory committee members. We are volunteers, and we are just doing our best.
I applied to serve on the E&E because I wanted to show that as a member of Get Concerned Stratford, I am capable of working with the city to help prepare for imminent environmental problems. I believe this is very important work. That doesn’t mean I agreed with everything that was said on the committee, but I don’t remember any serious disagreements or harsh words.
Perhaps I should have written about this earlier, but given everything that is now going on at city hall, it seemed to me that my little story wasn’t important. I now think I was wrong, and I apologize to Joan Ayton. We are all in this together, elected or not, and everyone’s voice is important.
Sharon Collingwood,
Stratford, Ont.
