Cobourg Council is dysfunctional

More evidence that Cobourg Council is a law unto itself and being ruled by four dead white men and presided over by a Mayor more interested in his legacy hit the public domain this past week.

In theory Cobourg is governed by the Council which has divided the workload into little fiefdoms called "portfolios" - planning, safety, public works, parks etc. In practise this means that each councillor can really only look after the kingdom and ignore what the others are doing. This lazy and inefficient practice has been going on for years. But with a recent election and the imposition, by the public, of the top vote getter being given the most important portfolio - planning, the old way has changed slightly. Now the four dead white men in their chauvinistic way have decided not only will they look after their own little fiefdom they will look after the planning portfolio as well.

Two issues bring this practice to light: one is the announcement of a public meeting to discuss the official review of the Official Plan ad the other is the ongoing definition of the harbourfront park and the planned changes to it. The first issue - the review of the OP, a dispute has arisen between the old king of planning and the incumbent. Dean McCaughey, who was the biggest loser in the last election and now sulks in Public Works and doesn't do committee work, says it should be a very brief meeting because it is only a perfunctory formality to have this meeting, Miriam Mutton disagrees and says that members of the public should be free to speak about their thoughts on the new OP. The second issue is more fundamental and shows that the losers (the four dead white guys) really want to put the boots to the new person who is a woman! Ms Mutton takes the broad view that because the location and planning of the harbourfront area is integrated and therefore changes to one component affects the larger area it is a planning matter in the widest sense. Councillor (I used to be the Deputy Mayor and now sit on my arse and collect the money) Spooner believes that because the area is called Rotary waterfront park, totally diminishing the good name of Dr. Bob Scott, after which the area is named, is in the Parks portfolio and therefore Ms Mutton is "grandstanding" by uttering an opinion.

Putting these issues together and adding in the fact that the Coordinator of planning has had her choices of committee personnel routinely savaged and her cogent and reasonable ideas ignored you could say that she really is not the master of the domain and is not getting the respect that is due her portfolio. That is tragic and cannot be tolerated. That is why the practises of the dead white men majority are continually under scrutiny and often exposed.

The conclusion is that the Council is dysfunctional because the majority of the team have decided that it can run the Town with one member on the bench!