They had the borough council meeting for my area last night. I skipped that sucker. My borough includes Cote des Neiges, it's ridiculously huge and it makes no sense. They alternate between putting it in NDG and CDN. Last night the meeting was held at 6767 Cote des Neiges, 7.1 kilometers from my house.
They claim to allow questions but in fact they don't get to many of them. Usually up to a couple of hundred people show up and something like 30 or 40 want to ask questions, about eight or so actually get the chance. The politicians get rid of the pesky citizens by taking questions for an hour and then voting to do their official business and returning to the questions after that is done. These people had already waited around three or so hours to get the mike they're not going to wait another three hours just to ask a question, so this sneaky approach clears the hall.
Michele Senecal, Saulie Zajdel and Marcel Tremblay all support this sneakiness, but I believe that Allmand and Rotrand voted against this snaggle-toothed deception. Obviously they should let everybody ask their question until they're done.
They don't really publicize who asked what either, you've got to nose around the pdfs to find out. It's in French only. Here's my translation of the September 5, 2006 citizen questions that got asked. It's the most recent I could find. They clearly don't want these questions publicized, so that's what I'm doing.
• Micheline Bélanger - Requests a minute of silence in memory of the Al Akhrass family who recently died in Lebanon. (I believe this is the request that the mayor gaudily refused, even though he's participated in pro-Israel rallies).
• Pierre Brisset shows correspondence sent to the Minister of Transport and the city asking how the city could start construction of a highway that doesn't meet the Canadian Geometric road standards, he complains about the McGill University Health Complex road plan.
• Claude Casgrain asks why council meetings are not held in a variety of areas within the borough.
• Peter McQueen deposits a document proposing an alternative traffic plan for the MUHC hospital. He asks what's the best method of communicating the citizens input on the MUHC road plan.
• Richard Tremblay - A choreographer asks Madame Senecale, who is responsible for culture, to give her a guarantee of $5 million that was asked of her to use the Benny skateboard park for an artistic project. According to her insurance agent say that $2 million would be more enough to meet the needs of a dance company.
• Dominique Sorel - Deposits documents concerning traffic calming measures for Monkland block. She describes measures to improve visibility of intersections in this area and says that the citizens she consulted approve of her project.
• Diane Grimard who lives on Addington Street between Sherbrooke and DeMaisonneuve deposits a 45 signature petition asking to install a speed bump to reduce excessive speeding and to protect small children and the elderly.
• Elizabeth Prescesky - Fears that the construction work in front of her home on Addington endangers her daughters, increases traffic and trucks. She deposits photographs of trucks going down the street even when prohibited.
• Wissam Moussa - Deposits a letter which he wants to read in the name of little Sara who died in the Lebanon conflict. The family lived in the borough.
• Howard Szalavetz - Reminds the councilors that hte sent a letter to Mr. Deschamps and Lewis concerning the dirtiness of the lane way where he lives on Girouard, as well as illegal parking. He deposits a document and photographs illustrating the istuation. He deplores that his neighbour has a permit allowing him to toss construction refuse in the lane way.
• Léa Okouneff - Condemns the excessive costs of the parking on Mouint Royal which, unlike downtown is not well served by public transit.
• Alain Mignot - Asks the conclusions of the survey concerning the anti-noise barrier on the Decarie Expresssway.
They claim to allow questions but in fact they don't get to many of them. Usually up to a couple of hundred people show up and something like 30 or 40 want to ask questions, about eight or so actually get the chance. The politicians get rid of the pesky citizens by taking questions for an hour and then voting to do their official business and returning to the questions after that is done. These people had already waited around three or so hours to get the mike they're not going to wait another three hours just to ask a question, so this sneaky approach clears the hall.
Michele Senecal, Saulie Zajdel and Marcel Tremblay all support this sneakiness, but I believe that Allmand and Rotrand voted against this snaggle-toothed deception. Obviously they should let everybody ask their question until they're done.
They don't really publicize who asked what either, you've got to nose around the pdfs to find out. It's in French only. Here's my translation of the September 5, 2006 citizen questions that got asked. It's the most recent I could find. They clearly don't want these questions publicized, so that's what I'm doing.
• Micheline Bélanger - Requests a minute of silence in memory of the Al Akhrass family who recently died in Lebanon. (I believe this is the request that the mayor gaudily refused, even though he's participated in pro-Israel rallies).
• Pierre Brisset shows correspondence sent to the Minister of Transport and the city asking how the city could start construction of a highway that doesn't meet the Canadian Geometric road standards, he complains about the McGill University Health Complex road plan.
• Claude Casgrain asks why council meetings are not held in a variety of areas within the borough.
• Peter McQueen deposits a document proposing an alternative traffic plan for the MUHC hospital. He asks what's the best method of communicating the citizens input on the MUHC road plan.
• Richard Tremblay - A choreographer asks Madame Senecale, who is responsible for culture, to give her a guarantee of $5 million that was asked of her to use the Benny skateboard park for an artistic project. According to her insurance agent say that $2 million would be more enough to meet the needs of a dance company.
• Dominique Sorel - Deposits documents concerning traffic calming measures for Monkland block. She describes measures to improve visibility of intersections in this area and says that the citizens she consulted approve of her project.
• Diane Grimard who lives on Addington Street between Sherbrooke and DeMaisonneuve deposits a 45 signature petition asking to install a speed bump to reduce excessive speeding and to protect small children and the elderly.
• Elizabeth Prescesky - Fears that the construction work in front of her home on Addington endangers her daughters, increases traffic and trucks. She deposits photographs of trucks going down the street even when prohibited.
• Wissam Moussa - Deposits a letter which he wants to read in the name of little Sara who died in the Lebanon conflict. The family lived in the borough.
• Howard Szalavetz - Reminds the councilors that hte sent a letter to Mr. Deschamps and Lewis concerning the dirtiness of the lane way where he lives on Girouard, as well as illegal parking. He deposits a document and photographs illustrating the istuation. He deplores that his neighbour has a permit allowing him to toss construction refuse in the lane way.
• Léa Okouneff - Condemns the excessive costs of the parking on Mouint Royal which, unlike downtown is not well served by public transit.
• Alain Mignot - Asks the conclusions of the survey concerning the anti-noise barrier on the Decarie Expresssway.
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