Dear editor,
I am shocked at how disrespectful and closed to new information Courtenay council has become under the leadership of Mayor Jangula.
How is it that Courtenay council could completely abandon the idea of treating all who come before it with the respect fitting of public office?
Unfortunately, the mayor’s supporters on council voted down an apology that is the minimum called for in the face of what was far more than a simple “perceived lack of courtesy”; it was an ill-informed, public affront to the professional credibility of Sandra Hamilton, a widely respected social planner, and a flagrant attack on the very idea of social procurement despite the mayor’s self-confessed ignorance on the topic.
Erik Eriksson stated that “Hamilton, as an experienced business person, is capable of dealing with issues when they arise.”
Eriksson’s comment, in a backhanded way acknowledges the over-the-top behaviour of the mayor before going on to suggest that such behaviour is just fine as long as council is dealing with experienced business people.
Bob Wells’s comment that the (Mayor’s) “questions were…not out of context “ is incomprehensible to any meaningful code of conduct.
I, as a citizen of our community, want to very publicly apologize to these talented professionals and “business people” for the uninformed and ill-mannered verbal abuse they suffered at Courtenay council; a council that is supposed to represent the best of our Valley and very clearly does not.
Norm Reynolds
Courtenay
