Positive presumptions

Aug 22, 2007

It's a brave new world in Magnetawan.

This past fall people there — or at least those who visit and pay taxes — voted for change on ballots that ensured it would come. Surprise, surprise it did.

And last week the new council made its biggest change of all. Its members eliminated Brenda Fraser from the clerk's position and started down a new road.

In getting to this point the elected body has been, to say the least, clumsy, slow and and, at times, inept appearing.

Frustration and criticism about a number of measures approved without debate come readily when looking back at the last/first eight months of council's term.

Whether it has been the disbanding of the Magnetawan Community Development Committee, the souring of relations with employees which prompted unionization or the unauthorized spending of thousands of dollars on a lawyer to terminate the clerk, questions and doubts about council's motivations and competency are easy to come by.

And the same could be said about measures undertaken over the past two weeks that have seen Fraser replaced by some fellow from southern Ontario without the position ever having been posted.

The process to get here was an ugly one. Fraser herself is to be admired for the manner in which she composed herself while council took eight months to swing the axe.

But as offensive as it was for some to witness, there are other avenues for remedy. Many people are let go from jobs every day for many reasons. Fraser's position just happened to be one in the public eye.

For this page's purposes we will look forward.

The elephant has been released from the council chamber and everyone in Magnetawan can find some degree of relief in that.

Perhaps now council meetings will become forums of open debate. Perhaps now those who attend those meetings will walk away feeling they have an understanding of the proceedings. Perhaps now councillors can concentrate on initiatives that will benefit all in the community.

There are reasons to be hopeful that these things will happen.

The acting clerk arrives with a resume that says he should be competent to assume the duties entrusted to him. Mayor Dick Smith, from cursory evidence, has started a dialogue with him. And while the last points are nothing but presumptions, we believe they are valid nonetheless. Every single member of council was in Magnetawan during the periods that rifts grew in the community over the past five years.

It can only be presumed that all members of council want to avoid the ugly circumstances that accompanied the resignation of Sandy Coombs from the head of council in 2003, the swearing in of Sam Dunnett in her place, the municipal review conducted by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing on unsubstantiated allegations, and all the petty disputes in between.

To not believe this presumption means politics in Magnetawan will once again do a disservice to what is really a great community.

Council members will themselves need to be brave in the new world they have created and show they have the community's best interest at heart.