Vote Dick Carpani for Mayor
  Sarnia Ontario Canada

Honeymoon over?

Well, it looks like the honeymoon's over. It's been seven months since city council acquired five new faces and the mayor pledged to work with them as a team.

Sarnians told him during the election campaign they were tired of the in-fighting among councillors, and they wanted a council that worked harmoniously.

"They want policy debate, not personal debate," Bradley said on election night.

Presumably that meant he would do everything in his power to ensure each and every councillor felt like a member of the-team. When there's a split on council, the real business of the day gets forgotten in the fray. Presumably Bradley's intent was to ensure communication between administration and council would be strong. After all, as the man at the helm of the city, he's got the most opportunity to keep the lines of communication flowing smoothly. I

But last week, it became apparent that there's been a major communication breakdown.

Coun. Joe Murray learned -.' through a leaked document that city staff have been working " on a major development proposal for The Point Lands. That's the same parcel of waterfront where he and his committee have been trying to establish historical Port Sarnia.

Staff's major proposal dealt with a youth activities centre, a project that the mayor has been championing for the last several years.

Bradley knew senior staff were working on the youth activities centre proposal. He was at the meeting when staff was directed to write the proposal. The mayor says, "This type of stuff happens all the time."

But if he genuinely wanted Murray and the rest of council to feel that all of council was working as a team, he would have told them about the second waterfront proposal.

At the very least, he could have given Murray a courtesy call.