To the Editor,
I was not a proud Nanaimoite after watching the council meeting April 4 – over two hours of bashing each other, slandering.
A mediator should be involved to help deal with issues and also an anger manager, before someone is hurt.
Not a good example for our young future leaders to witness.
Get on with doing the duties that you were elected for.
K. MortensonNanaimo
To the Editor,
Re: Councillors remove mayor from committees, April 7.
Mayors run in elections and the process declares a winner, the people’s choice. There is no second place. Councillors basically run a popularity contest, first, second, etc., their legitimacy always subordinate to the mayor because of the process. Mayors are the only Canadian political leaders directly elected by the people. Our prime minister and our premier cannot claim this distinction.
Mayor McKay won the election. It is not up to council, the mayor or staff to create an environment or make things so difficult and poisonous that nothing works. The democratic process is far more important than the personalities. The community will make judgment in the next election and shall decide if they elected the right person for the job, not council.
I am certain all Nanaimo councillors have the best interest of Nanaimo at heart; I have worked with some; they are all honourable people who have and will continue to put considerable time and effort in promoting the welfare of the community. Having said that, I would suggest they do a rethink of where all this is going. There are no winners in this and the biggest losers will not be council not the mayor nor staff, but democracy and the community itself.
The electorate can accept dissent and discord to a point. Diversity of opinion is important for the decision-making process, however, the current discourse has become personal and goes far beyond the norm.
Jack de JongLantzville
To the Editor,
Re: Council revisits acting mayor’s pay increase, April 7.
Having proudly resided in Nanaimo for almost a quarter of a century, raised my family and owned a business, I am ashamed and bitterly disappointed in what I read and learn as to the serious and damaging rift that is taking place between the mayor and members of council. Appears to me like a bunch of ill-mannered, selfish, misbehaving kids in a classroom with a teacher frustrated in the process of finding a means to gain respect, to lead and to discipline.
Sadly the citizens, those who pay the taxes, are the victims. An audience/population of 90,000 sitting in the civic theatre watching a farce on stage played by nine while the media have a field day. Sadly a community and city that has so much to offer passing up economic opportunity after economic opportunity. Who wants to do business with or move to and invest in a community with such a dysfunctional political and administrative environment? Sad tale indeed emanating from my beloved Harbour City. I’m tempted to head in that direction, gather up all nine and bang their heads together.
Graeme Robertsformer mayor of NanaimoBrentwood Bay, B.C.
To the Editor,
I am appalled. I am discouraged. I am disappointed. I have watched with interest over the past year the developing conflict between your local government, and I want you all to know: it is a joke. It is not a funny one either, it’s one that starts with “Did you hear about the city on Vancouver Island?” Can you imagine what the rest of the world must think? There are investors out there wishing to do business; you have people wishing to move to your city so that they can start a new life.
I watched as your councillors viciously tore into the mayor last Monday, trying to say every nasty thing they possibly could. The mayor himself, in dignity, stayed quiet and kept composure as the people who are supposed to help him make the city run tried to demean him, insulted him, and vented their complaints about him.
Now none of us can really know what happens behind closed doors; the mayor himself very well could be doing exactly what everyone is saying that he is doing, and we have seen sometimes during open conferences that there is some behaviour that is less than stellar. There are two parties here, and they are not blameless, because as we all should know that it does take two to tango.
This is a rallying cry, Nanaimo. Rise up, all of you. This is not a call to boot your council and mayor away, this is not a call to insult them, this is not a time for you to lose faith, but this is a time for you to make them see. Make them hear you. Make them understand that they need to be better, and they can be.
Hastur McKaySurrey