I have been having a conversation with Councillor Turner about mail-in voting and about his treatment of certain residents.  I posted the conversation to this blog because I thought readers would be interested in knowing how one sitting TSBP council member (and possible candidate) treats residents who challenge or criticize a council or staff action.  Warning: some readers might find the conversation petty.

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 Mr. Turner:

 Thank you for your response of February 8, which is included below.

 To try to get above the sniping, I will confine my comments in this letter to only the following issues:

 1.     Your responsibility to apologize to good residents John Strachan and Doug Jordan,

2.     Your allegations of me chasing people through parking lots and accosting them on the streets,

3.     My promise not to raid the treasury if I am elected to council.

 I will address other issues from your letter, including your comments on the town as corporation, in another forum.

Apology

I say again that no council member is authorized to berate any resident, and no member should berate any resident, no matter what they believe that resident has done.  You owe John Strachan and Doug Jordan an apology for your comments to them or about them regarding voting-by-mail.

Allegations of chasing and accosting

 Once again you have made allegations that I have “chased people through parking lots and accosted people on the streets”. The allegations are false and unsubstantiated.  The allegations are malicious.  The allegations are getting rather tiresome.  Please stop.

 My promise regarding legal costs

Your hypothetical situation of a deranged person suing a council member on a groundless claim has not happened, is not going to happen, and is not useful.  If, while I am mayor, or deputy, or councillor, I am sued for defamation, I will consider it a private matter, and I will not bring harm to the residents by raiding the treasury to cover either my private matter legal fees or settlement costs. That is a promise.

Craig

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From: JET <jet@bmts.com>
To: ‘CRAIG GAMMIE’ <cgammie@rogers.com>
Cc: ‘Jay Kirkland’ <jaybeck@bellnet.ca>; ‘Matthew Standen’ <matt.sixtwenty@gmail.com>; ‘Janice Jackson’ <janicejackson92@gmail.com>; ‘Paul McKenzie’ <paulwmckenzie@bmts.com>; ‘Marilyn Bowman’ <marilyn.bowman@southbrucepeninsula.com>; ‘Karen Klages’ <kklages@bmts.com>; ‘Chris Thomas’ <cthomasbroker@gmail.com>; ‘John Close’ <John.Close@southbrucepeninsula.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 8, 2014 2:17:36 AM
Subject: RE: Voting by mail

Mr. Gammie

It would be very easy to respond that you just don’t get it but you would surely consider that “pompous, bombastic, arrogant, condescending, scolding behaviour”!

My problem is twofold in that that I have no assurance that my emails to you are not edited then forwarded to anyone you choose and that I feel, not that you’re too stupid to get, it but that you choose not to get it for reasons unknown. The former dictates no further communication with you and the latter suggests I’m wasting my time with someone who can’t recognise the difference between serving and representing. If you care to learn the difference I suggest you ask the next waiter or waitress you encounter what their job is.

I will answer your “misconception” argument in the event you are passing this on unedited and because it’s so simple even you should have to agree.

“The Town” is not “the residents”! Neither is it the staff or the council.

“The town” is a corporate entity with audited income and expense statements, a board of directors, a CEO, and responsibilities to its governing authority (the Province) and all its shareholders equally. As a director of that corporate entity I share with my fellow councillors the duty to see that it runs efficiently and fulfills its responsibilities. So I repeat I serve the town!

Residents are the shareholders of the town. They elect councillors to represent them at board meetings (held on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month) and to inform and assist them in solving any difficulties they have with the town.

You may not see the critical difference between serve the town and represent the residents Craig, but council can’t serve you and serve a resident whose needs are in conflict with yours at the same time. In spite of your contention that you are always right and we have to do things your way to be right, there is seldom one right answer and most often there are 3 or 4. The best we can do is represent the concerns of both sides at a meeting and decide what best serves the town.

You previously ran for council and I believe you have indicated your desire to run again, which I fully support although I wouldn’t consider voting for you. If you’re successful this time, you’ll find there are a few people out there like you who can’t be told to go to Hell without giving them written directions and remembering the standards you’ve set for the job, I have to ask if you really want to end up as a waiter serving people you’re afraid to tell the truth to because you might be accused of “pompous, bombastic, arrogant, condescending, scolding behaviour”?

And don’t tell me that would never happen Mr. G. You’ve told us that you are never wrong, all evidence and court decisions to the contrary, that covers pompous.

When things do go wrong and you blame everyone but yourself, that would be arrogant.

Chasing people through parking lots and accosting them on the streets qualifies as bombastic.

Claiming you’re smarter than the rest of us, once again all evidence to the contrary, because of your level of education is certainly condescending.

Dare I equate suing people with scolding people!

Why Craig, I believe you’re qualified to be as bad a councillor as you say I am!

As for your final claim that council is at fault for your lawsuits costing the taxpayers all that money, let’s pretend you actually win a seat at the table. Then some resident you say you were elected to serve decides she doesn’t like the service. She goes off her meds and takes a notion to sue Councillor Gammie on some meaningless, trumped up charge that rings up a legal bill of over $50,000 for the town in your defence. Should I expect you as the councillor elected to serve the residents no matter how obnoxious their behaviour, to remember what you said in your email and tell council: “NO, no, fellow councillors, even though I did nothing wrong and the one who sued me for doing nothing wrong is as crazy as a bedbug, I demand that you ignore town policy and bylaws and remind me that to best serve the taxpayers I must pay the $50,000 from my own pocket”?    

Yeah, right!

The rest of your letter is so off the wall and weak it isn’t worthy of comment and only the chance to show people the depth of your ignorance keeps me typing.

That said Craig, I will not respond further to any of your “letters”. I don’t care to give you a forum to bash people or help you boost the readership of your blog.

Bruceonthebruce found itself a Martian and readership quadrupled.  Find one of your own – you don’t get me!