Ben’s Bits

By Ben Burd

Apologies for not posting for the last two meetings but the Town’s much-vaunted attempt to post meetings to youtube failed. Three weeks ago a system failure which merited attention by the complete IT team and last week the operator forgot to flip a switch to turn the audio on. For another report on this meeting click here to read “Council News” from 89.7 radio. They cover the topics glossed over in this one. March 19th Regular Council meeting, all except the rumoured non-candidates in the next elections – Cllrs McCarthy and Rowden both absent. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Ben's Bits, Politics

Observations: No Mayor present, Deputy in Chair. Nothing really unusual as the topics on the agenda were discussed last week in the committee of the whole. But one issue did spark a bit of discussion that never happened last week. The motion to appoint an Ad-Hoc committee to investigate Council pay brought out a letter from a local resident, a familiar name – Emily Chorley, who pointed out that all of the named appointees were male. “On a committee of seven why cannot we have one female?” she wrote. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Ben's Bits, Politics

By Ben Burd

One hour 43 minutes and a few moments:

The first part of the meeting was a joint presentation to a combined hockey team that had succeeded in the season. In the remarks from both presenters – the two Mayors of Port Hope and Cobourg, the dreaded “A” word surfaced. Mayor Brocanier uttered, “Amalgamation (for the hockey teams of both Towns)is a success!” Ashley Purdey, the Communications Officer, made a presentation explaining the viral video that came from the Marina security cameras. This video, an interaction between a fox and an owl, was put up on social media to generate positive publicity for the Town and has generated inquiries from the world. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Ben's Bits, Politics

Mayor opened the meeting and said, “Welcome to the first meeting of a new year. And at the time of 4 p.m., hopefully, this will be beneficial to all maybe we can get away from long night meetings! Deputy Mayor John Henderson introduced a Notice of Motion – wants to set up an ad hoc committee to study council pay. The last time this happened was when Deputy Mayor Bob Spooner appointed his pals from the Dutch Oven breakfast club to do the same. Never happened; too much public opposition. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Ben's Bits, Politics