0
Ever gracious and respectful in defeat....
28 October 2010
Where most unseated incumbents took their defeat in stride and wished the successful candidates well, not so Sonny Foley.
In an article in this week's Collingwood Connection, Foley lambastes the public, the mayor-elect, Councillor Edwards, and me. He calls we three returning incumbents, "the three worst councillors," and comments on how our re-election is "disturbing" to him. Doesn't say why we're the "worst" or why our return disturbs him, however.
Mayor-elect Sandra Cooper came in for his biggest verbal assault. Foley blasted her as the wrong person for the job with a stinging insult: "There is no way Sandra has the capability to be a competent mayor."
Sowing the seeds of discontent even before he's finished at the table. The story is also online on the Connection's Web site.
Not a hint of suggestion that he wished the new council well, let alone that perhaps some of his decisions were not the most popular and might have been the cause of his downfall. In fact, he actually said the rest of the public should have shared his views, rather than the other way around: "I've never voted for anything that I felt wasn't best for the community. I believe to the bottom of my heart that's where they should be for everybody."
I never doubted Sonny's passion or his dedication to what he truly believes is the best for the community. But he's myopic when it comes to any other viewpoint and simply cannot see any alternatives to his own vision. The word compromise is probably not in his vocabulary. Still, until I read his story, I had a fair amount of respect and tolerance for him. That pretty much evaporated.
A few days before the election, Councillor Foley approached me at my work, and said much the same sort of thing. He said that having Ricky Lloyd and Sandra win seats together was "the worst thing that could happen to this town." He commented grumpily on Sandra's ability - or rather his perception of her inability - to be mayor, and stated that Mayor Carrier was, "the best mayor this town has ever had."
That latter opinion is shared by precious few in the community, and I'd say from the results that a very large number of voters think Sandra can do the job quite well.
He also shared some very harsh words about the former mayor, which do not deserve repetition, except to note that they were even more caustic than what he said about the mayor-elect.
Sonny is never lost for an unkind word, it seems. Now while that may be tolerated privately, it's not becoming of an elected official to make those kind of personal comments in public. It casts aspersions not on the targets of his ire, but on the man who made the comments himself.
Foley reiterated to me his oft-stated belief that the public was much too focused on the patio issue, and not on what he thought the truly relevant issues were. Unfortunately for him, he did not present his ideas well to the electorate this campaign - choosing to recycle last election's brochure and instead of making a formal speech at the all-candidates' meeting, chose to ramble over issues extemporaneously, until the moderator cut him off for using his alloted time.
The public, Foley told the paper, was "shallow minded" to make an issue of the patios. That's reminiscent of Councillor McNabb's comment that the public wouldn't understand questions about a ward system in a referendum, a comment that came back as a heckle in the all-candidates' meeting.
I don't think Councillor Foley really appreciated the point of the patio issue and why it became so prominent. It was not that patios themselves were at the heart of the problem: it was the refusal of five members of council to listen to the people, their refusal to listen to the arguments about liability, cost and licensing problems from the owners. These five shrugged off public comment and an 1,100-plus-name petition not to move the patios, in favour of their own vision.
Patios were only the latest symptom of a much deeper problem.
The Admiral Collingwood development had similar issues: the majority of council shrugged off public concerns and comment, waving away a 2,500-name petition asking or the building to be allowed to proceed. This set the tone from early on in this term: many people said to me that council just wouldn't listen.
Add to that the number of in camera meetings this term during which your tax dollars were spent out of public sight.
The mayor recently blamed me in a newspaper story for causing much of the "dissent" at council this term. Yet it was Councillor Foley - often described as the mayor's political mentor - he had to reprimand several times, including asking him to leave the table for calling council "stupid" for making decisions he disagreed with. There were rumours of Foley quitting over that rebuke, but he came back.
As a farewell, these are not the words I would want to be remembered by, or to have committed to the public record for anyone to read years from now - say in 2014 should he decide to run again.
Sonny contributed a lot of good during his terms on council, but unfortunately he will probably be remembered for his intolerant scolding of others when someone disagreed. As Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar, "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones..."
In an article in this week's Collingwood Connection, Foley lambastes the public, the mayor-elect, Councillor Edwards, and me. He calls we three returning incumbents, "the three worst councillors," and comments on how our re-election is "disturbing" to him. Doesn't say why we're the "worst" or why our return disturbs him, however.
Mayor-elect Sandra Cooper came in for his biggest verbal assault. Foley blasted her as the wrong person for the job with a stinging insult: "There is no way Sandra has the capability to be a competent mayor."
Sowing the seeds of discontent even before he's finished at the table. The story is also online on the Connection's Web site.
Not a hint of suggestion that he wished the new council well, let alone that perhaps some of his decisions were not the most popular and might have been the cause of his downfall. In fact, he actually said the rest of the public should have shared his views, rather than the other way around: "I've never voted for anything that I felt wasn't best for the community. I believe to the bottom of my heart that's where they should be for everybody."
I never doubted Sonny's passion or his dedication to what he truly believes is the best for the community. But he's myopic when it comes to any other viewpoint and simply cannot see any alternatives to his own vision. The word compromise is probably not in his vocabulary. Still, until I read his story, I had a fair amount of respect and tolerance for him. That pretty much evaporated.
A few days before the election, Councillor Foley approached me at my work, and said much the same sort of thing. He said that having Ricky Lloyd and Sandra win seats together was "the worst thing that could happen to this town." He commented grumpily on Sandra's ability - or rather his perception of her inability - to be mayor, and stated that Mayor Carrier was, "the best mayor this town has ever had."
That latter opinion is shared by precious few in the community, and I'd say from the results that a very large number of voters think Sandra can do the job quite well.
He also shared some very harsh words about the former mayor, which do not deserve repetition, except to note that they were even more caustic than what he said about the mayor-elect.
Sonny is never lost for an unkind word, it seems. Now while that may be tolerated privately, it's not becoming of an elected official to make those kind of personal comments in public. It casts aspersions not on the targets of his ire, but on the man who made the comments himself.
Foley reiterated to me his oft-stated belief that the public was much too focused on the patio issue, and not on what he thought the truly relevant issues were. Unfortunately for him, he did not present his ideas well to the electorate this campaign - choosing to recycle last election's brochure and instead of making a formal speech at the all-candidates' meeting, chose to ramble over issues extemporaneously, until the moderator cut him off for using his alloted time.
The public, Foley told the paper, was "shallow minded" to make an issue of the patios. That's reminiscent of Councillor McNabb's comment that the public wouldn't understand questions about a ward system in a referendum, a comment that came back as a heckle in the all-candidates' meeting.
I don't think Councillor Foley really appreciated the point of the patio issue and why it became so prominent. It was not that patios themselves were at the heart of the problem: it was the refusal of five members of council to listen to the people, their refusal to listen to the arguments about liability, cost and licensing problems from the owners. These five shrugged off public comment and an 1,100-plus-name petition not to move the patios, in favour of their own vision.
Patios were only the latest symptom of a much deeper problem.
The Admiral Collingwood development had similar issues: the majority of council shrugged off public concerns and comment, waving away a 2,500-name petition asking or the building to be allowed to proceed. This set the tone from early on in this term: many people said to me that council just wouldn't listen.
Add to that the number of in camera meetings this term during which your tax dollars were spent out of public sight.
The mayor recently blamed me in a newspaper story for causing much of the "dissent" at council this term. Yet it was Councillor Foley - often described as the mayor's political mentor - he had to reprimand several times, including asking him to leave the table for calling council "stupid" for making decisions he disagreed with. There were rumours of Foley quitting over that rebuke, but he came back.
As a farewell, these are not the words I would want to be remembered by, or to have committed to the public record for anyone to read years from now - say in 2014 should he decide to run again.
Sonny contributed a lot of good during his terms on council, but unfortunately he will probably be remembered for his intolerant scolding of others when someone disagreed. As Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar, "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones..."
