The week celebrates the achievements and the concept of that level of government that is closest to the people, local government, with the emphasis on “local.”

It is therefore disappointing to reflect on your front page story last Monday (July 27) where you were quick to highlight the failure of a major development to proceed and were equally quick to support the proposition of Peter Mylonas that “it was all Council’s fault.”

I am not in a position to illuminate your readers on all the detail regarding the financial capacity of the proponent, or all the detail regarding the scale of the contributions required by Council.

I can advise that the ultimate scale of the proposed development was significantly greater than the original proposal, which then necessitated a review of the appropriate level of contributions. To suggest that Council was greedy or reckless in determining the level of contributions required, is plainly a nonsense.

The point of this letter is not to argue the toss about these matters, but merely to ask members of the community to resist the obvious temptation to “blame the Council” as a strategy of first resort.

As you know, I have only occupied a Councillor’s chair for a little over a month and I am determined to involve myself in issues that were central to the concerns of those that elected me.

For example, I can advise that Council’s Surplus Funds Investment strategy is now “conservative” in nature and related to the Federal Government’s Deposit Guarantee policy.

At the July council meeting, my first, I publicly acknowledged the timely and frank responses to my questions from Council’s Finance Director, Brendan Hollands.

Additionally, I had occasion to publicly acknowledge Director of Engineering, Terry Cooper and Director of Planning, Chris Stewart, for their timely and professional responses to representations made by me on behalf of constituents.