If the Athabasca town councillors who stopped last Tuesday night’s meeting from proceeding were trying to make a point, they succeeded.
They made it clear that they believe their personal frustrations, schedules and issues are more important that those of their citizens.
How meeting agendas are assembled is an almost trivial matter. As embarrassing as it is that council cannot seem to agree on the process, the fact that an entire meeting’s worth of important town business was sacrificed as a result, is better described as shameful and selfish.
Dysfunctional? This council is now worse than that — as of Tuesday night, they’ve become non-functional.
This council needs to get its house in order, and quickly. If they haven’t got the resources or the will to do it themselves, a call to Municipal Affairs will hook them up with Municipal Dispute Resolution Services to help clean up the mess.
Postponing important town business for the sake of a procedural disagreement is simply unacceptable.
