Was it legal to change the Vote?

An extract from "The Scott, Foresman "Robert's Rules of Order"":






Page 345 sect.44

So there you have it foks the plot thickens with Councillor Spooner's vote. If the Official Recorder, the Manager of Legislative Services records the vote as 5-2 and the Chair of the meeting announces the result as 5-2 officially it is is 5-2. It will be interesting to see if the minutes are amended for the next Council meeting in the adoption of those minutes. If they have been changed it will be disputable and subject to discussion.

In another vein a comment has been posted on a previous post but must be repeated here for wider education of the readers:

I am the original "anonymous" about the Spooner vote-change trick. For the record, I am NOT any of the "anonymous" since then until now --though those anonymouses had interesting comments. Every person I spoke to who was at the meeting all agree Bob Spooner cast a "Nay" vote. Every person I spoke to who watched the meeting on TVCogeco agree Bob Spooner cast a "Nay" vote. People at the meeting and watching on TV all agree that the Town Clerk read it back that way and Councillor Spooner did not correct her. The vote was announced as 5 - 2.
The fact that the Town Clerk acknowledges a change happened THE NEXT MORNING clearly confirms that Spooner voted "nay" at the meeting. He was not correcting an error. He was changing his vote after the fact.

What is the legality, in a Recorded Vote, to cast the vote one way at the meeting and then change it the following morning? What does the Municipal Act say about this?

As is his habit, the morning of Tuesday March 10, Councillor Spooner was out and about in different places downtown. He told anyone who asked that he had voted "Nay" and also said he went into the in-camera meeting that came right after the meeting with the censure vote to tell all who voted "Yay" that he did not agree what they did. Apparently he underwent an adjustment to his p.o.v. soon after that, contacted Lorraine Brace and changed his vote. Make no mistake. He changed his vote. He did not just correct an error in the way everyone else in the world heard him.

Who gave him a viewpoint adjustment? How can this be "not important"? Councillors know a recorded vote is a significant event. How can such a significant formal procedure be revised 16 hours after the fact? Ben, what does the Municipal Act or Robert's Rules say about changing a vote after the vote is taken and announced, after the meeting ends, after 16 hours elapses? To know what he did, we don't need Spooner to tell us what he did, we saw it for ourselves. We need him or someone to tell us why he did it. We need Mayor Delanty or someone to tell us why he was allowed to do it.

If Bob Spooner thought this was going to go away because he says so he is wrong a lot of people are now really talking about this situation. It doesn't look good!

The Mystery Sale

This is the Daves No Frills flyer that whizzed through the mail slot yesterday. What could this sale be? And whatever it is saves you $50.00. So armed with a huge sense of curiosity I walked up the store. Joined the other twelve people waiting to get in (last sale there were fifty people waiting but I guess advertised turkeys were more than a come-on than a big question mark) and entered when open.

So you ask yourself what was the sale item, the piece worth lining up for and if bought will save $50? Looking in all the usual bargains bins I flailed around until the obvious hit me - a skid of B&D Toasters was standing where the knocked down toilet paper usually stood. These black, trimmed with chrome double bagel toasters were it! Remembering the words of the love of my life, "Have you got $20.00 if you find out what it is, it has to be worth $20 and useful!" So wondering if this item fell into that category I wandered off home knowing that Dave wouldn't be moving two skids of these things before we got back. Will we buy one? Maybe. The $9.00 Wallymart one we use is due for replacement but I don't know if we can go upscale just yet!

First post of the day

The beat goes on. Did Bob Spooner vote Yea or Nay. The audience and the tallyman heard what they though to be Nay but that does sound an awful lot like a nasal Nyay. Anyway that doesn't matter because he told the tallyman to change the result and he committed himself on the Yea side. All he has to do is live with himself!

A very local comment with national perspective.

Dave Chomitz, a friend of mine in the Real Estate industry sent me an email today with some really interesting implications, if you are a statistician. lookee here:

click on the pic to enlarge

This is a graph showing the listings to the sellings for the last three months. You can draw all kinds of conclusions from it It could be said that sales improved 25% over the month before ..... (January 31 - February 39) ... things are going great !!! while that would be accurate mathematically it would also be misleading. But listings are up and sales are down over the year and year to year sales 07-08 were down 43%. But the the telling stat was about inventory. The inventory balance is 5.5 months at the moment the inventory is 17.4 ahead. Now let the house builders say that there is a demand!

But the most interesting part of the email was the link to his web TV show The Real-Ality-Show a professional commentary purportedly about real Estate, but he does wander look at it!

A unanimous vote?

The vote of censure that was reported to be unanimous has been questioned by people at the meeting and watchers of Cogeco. Some observers claim that Councillor, I really am too old for this bulls**t, Spooner voted Nay thus making the final vote 5 to 2. But confusion reigns and until BS speaks up we won't know.

But the BurdReport has obtained an email from M Mutton between her and the Manager of Legislative Services (the tallyman for the votes) this email states the reason for changing the vote count from 5-2 to 6-1:

Subject: Re: vote tally

Councillor Mutton:

Councillor Spooner informed me that I had made an error and that he had voted 'yea' and not 'nay' which was what I had heard and in response I advised the press accordingly of Councillor Spooner's correction to me. I would ask that you speak directly with Councillor Spooner in regards to this matter. The original record showed that the vote was 5-2 regarding the motion. I met with Councillor Spooner this morning and he confirmed same and he will contact you as well.

- Lorraine Brace

But a person that I spoke to this morning told me that BS had told him/her on Monday evening, after the meeting, that he had indeed voted NO. So what gives?

Only the shadow knows!! Until we all view the tape.

Chrysler threatens to take its ball away from the playground

Chrysler, in this report here,threatens to close up shop in Canada and transfer its 25% of overall production to the States if it doesn't get what it wants. Hey Mr LaSorda nobody is getting what it wants. Besides let 'em go and then we can really apply people power and boycott Chrysler products. Does he really want to put the weak link in the auto chain out of business? We could easily put all the Chrysler dealerships ouot of business by refusing to buy any more Chrysler products. Mr LaSorda wants to threaten why don't we take his bluff!!

Time for one post

If you thought the airwaves turned blue every time the Con war room cranked up in the last eighteen months you ain't see nuthin' yet. I refer to the obscene amount of money that is being spent and more to come in the fight over the "Employees Fair Choice Act (EFCA) in the USA. Both Congress and the Senate introduced the bill yesterday and the opposition has gone berserk.

What is the EFCA? It is a bill that proposes change to the Union Organising rules in the States. At the moment only 13% of workers are unionised. Critics say that is because rules make it very hard for a worker to get a union. The biggest complaint is that it takes too long for supervised votes to take place. During that time workers will be coerced, intimidated and in some cases threatened if they maintain their membership and don't vote the union out.

For a good description of the problem read this. If you live anywhere the US airwaves exist be prepared for some rabid advertisements. I bet both the Libs and Cons are watching very carefully.

A busy day for me but a guest link instead

For the second day in a row I am pleased to link to Wally K's site to push traffic (isn't that what the internet is all about - sharing the airwaves) to display his latest column. Well illustrated he outlines his opinion in prose that the MSM will not publish - hurray for brave cyberspace.


Click here to read the full piece

An invitation from Wally K

Hello Cobourgerers

This emailing marks a new milestone. The BCC list now contains over 100 subscribers. My mail distribution program requires me to package the list in two blocs. Thank you for forwarding my email to other interested parties, who are welcome to become part of the list.

Today's emailing is an invitation to a blog entry in COBOURG OF ALL THINGS. Just click here. It consists of a few short videos of poetry readings -- I especially want to draw your attention to one woman poet, Vanessa Hidary. I've performed at several venues in Canada, mostly Toronto, and they are all too often bloated with banality and piety. My good friend, Robert Priest, gives great performance. But Vanessa Hidary is head and bare shoulders a babe with blast. Click on the videos, and see that poetry is not an arcane art form consisting of pious tut-tuts drinking tea with white gloves & raised pinkies.

For a bit of visual poetry, click here to see the latest news on the development of a new drug called WRITE AWAY, a decongestant to break writer's blockade. Below it is the first advertisement, and below that is the transportation system and highway system. Stay tuned for further developments from the Imagine Nation of the Peoples Republic of Poetry.

Enjoy.

All good things
Wally Keeler

Another Council on the lighter side!

A fart interrupts the show. This reminds me of the occasions when a former councillor and later to be Deputy Reeve couldn't stop giggling whenever the phrase "cause to be erected," or the single word "erection(s)" was read into bylaws.