Brock Vodden Accuses Ombudsman Of False Advertising and Conflict of Interest
Source: WFP
Date: 2014-03-05 11:32:08
insulting anyone to garner a headline. If you watch the council meetings, you will see that Brock Vodden tries to get in a comment on every issue, many believe he really enjoys the sound of his own voice. At the last council meeting (18Feb2014), Brock Vodden called the Ministry of Environment cowards.
During Monday's (02Mar2014) council meeting, Brock Vodden claimed the Ontario Ombudsman is guilty of false advertising. To further insult the Ontario Ombudsman, Brock claimed the Ombudsman is in a conflict of interest, because the Ombudsman is trying to sell their service (which is free).
North Huron councillor Brock Vodden stated that he knew some of the people at LAS, and how much he admired them. Vodden was strongly in favor of keeping the Ombudsman away, by paying his "friends" at LAS a $330 retainer, and $225/hour. Instead of using the FREE Ontario Ombudsman.
This is how the "Old Boys Club" works. They are consumed by
self interest and greed. If a by-law was passed to make
Councillor/Reeve unpaid positions, there is no doubt they would
scurry away like cockroaches when the light is turned on. If
this current regime cared even a tiny bit about our community, they
wouldn't force children and pedestrians to walk in the streets, our
infrastructure wouldn't be rotting, we would have reserves, roofs
wouldn't still be leaking, buildings would be up to fire code,
Heritage Theater could re-open (only if we could find $30,000
somewhere), asphalt surfaces would be maintained, etc. etc.
The Public is strongly encouraged to attend council meetings on the
first and third Mondays every month. You don't need to ask a
question, you just need to see council in action for yourself.
Several people have contacted WFP believing that we have edited the
audio on council meetings, as they simply can't believe what they
hear and how Brock Vodden behaves. After attending their first
council meeting, several members of the Public have expressed shock
as reality slaps them in the face when they see for themselves how
horribly dysfunctional our council is, and the priorities they set.
Click
here to see Brock Vodden's comment on YouTube, or read
the transcript below.
I would just like to say that I did a lot of my own investigation on
this initially I thought it was a no brainier, to choose the
ombudsman because it is a free service, uh, but uh, in getting
feedback from a number of communities ah there are some drawbacks,
that people have experienced uh, I think my biggest objection to
the ombudsman approach to this is what I consider false
advertising, that almost every publication that uh, comes out
of the office with regard to uh uh, closed meeting, uh,
investigation he indicates that all of the communities in Ontario
that don't use their services are just shipping uh, shopping for a
easy way out, and that is absolutely false, uh, we, uh, more than
happy with the uh, lower tier municipalities in Ontario use LAS
service I don't know how many use other services that are available
as we did prior to uh this past year.
Uh, the other comment that that I have, this is from a number of
sources. Let me go back a little bit. When there is a complaint
lodged on the basis of the use of closed meetings sometimes there is
no violation, sometimes there are some minor procedures that are,
are have been overlooked by the group and they get that corrected,
and sometimes they've been deliberately going behind doors in order
to do business without people knowing about it, which is criminal.
but there is a very, very ah, strong feeling amongst many
communities that even when they not guilty of anything terrible
obstruction or mismanagement of the closed meeting privilege, uh,
there seems to be a lot of publicity drawn out by, particularity by
the ombudsman's office, I think they are trying to sell their
services, and I think that in a sense that gives them, almost a
conflict of interest, in terms of, so, that's why I voted
to ah, use LAS, because I am familiar with, with ah some of the
people in the organization that set up to do their closed meeting
investigations and uh, they are absolutely honest, and very
direct, they are not going to give any community a free ride, in
terms of investigation, they are as reliable, honest, objective, as
the ombudsman's office. They are not a second rate outfit, and I
think uh, the $330/year is a small price to pay, and we don't intend
to ever slip up and have a closed meeting violation ever. we have
never had one so far, and we don't intend to get into them, if we
can avoid them.