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 | Guest speaker presentation
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| This is a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. If you do not have PowerPoint on your computer, you can download a free PowerPoint Viewer from Microsoft. Click on this link: PowerPoint Viewer 2007
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|  DeVries presentation 07-4-3.ppt
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 | 2007-4-30 Annual General Meeting
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| Invitation to book launch of Henry Aubin’s latest:
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| English letter to members
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| nominating committee report
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| board members staying on:
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| board members stepping down:
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| First Vice-President - Rosalind Davis
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| Second Vice-President - Wanda Potrykus
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| Corresponding Secretary - Patricia Dumais
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| Memberships Secretary - Francie Montgomery
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| Treasurer - Helen Rainville
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| Last summer and fall, Westmount Municipal Association board members attended every City Council meeting, and came away pleased with the effective functioning of the Council under Mayor Karin Marks and a mix of new and experienced Councillors, bringing to the governance of Westmount a wealth of expertise in a variety of fields. During those months, it became more and more apparent that our common enemies were the dysfunctional Agglomeration Council, the City of Montreal administration for making it dysfunctional, and the provincial government which was totally inert and inept in fixing the problem.
Unfortunately, this tidy situation with the good guys here in Westmount and the bad guys at Montreal City Hall and in Quebec City, soon began to unravel. Westmounters, renowned for their environmental awareness, protested loudly the cutting down of trees in the park underneath the Summit Circle lookout, and were even more up in arms when the city revealed a plan to install artificial turf playing fields on the south side of Westmount Park.
At around the same time, City Council was boycotting the Agglomeration Council, citing the absence of debate in that forum. The irony of this situation was not lost on the Westmount Municipal Association board, which expressed its disappointment over the same absence of public debate at Westmount City Council. The Council seemed to be the Pot calling the kettle Black.
I feel that the absence of public debate in City Council meetings has brought into being the current situation regarding the artificial turf issue, where a group of citizens feels that their concerns are not being taken seriously by City Council. The last Council meeting on 23 April was described by Don Wedge in his Examiner column, as the most unhappy Council meeting he’d ever attended. I agree, and so, probably, does Mayor Marks and the rest of Council.
Where does the Westmount Municipal Association fit into all this? Our mandate is to work toward the good governance of our beloved city. Standoffs between Council and citizens, even polite ones, are evidence of an absence of good governance. So, unfortunately, in these days of ready access to information, is a governing style based on making decisions behind closed doors.
The WMA is busy putting its stuff up on its website, and we have set up a web-based forum where members and other Westmount residents can express their points of view and share information that they have gathered. We feel that the city should be ahead of the WMA in getting all its stuff on its website, and we were gratified to see that the several consultants’ reports on the artificial turf issue have been posted and are available to everyone. Way to go, city hall!
When I was a student in engineering, we learned a generalized approach to arriving at solutions to real-world problems, such as current difficulty the city faces in accommodating the increased demand for soccer playing surfaces. All such solutions are likely to be compromises, but we aim for solutions where neither side feels that they’ve lost. The WMA is ready to work with both sides as well as with any other stakeholders who wish to identify themselves, to improve communications and a respectful reflection of other points of view.
I want to close by quoting from my report to you at last year’s AGM: “I don’t need to remind you that the quality of our lives is intimately tied to how clean, safe, healthy, and attractive our community is. But even more important is the extent to which we have control over those aspects of our environment. We in Westmount are extremely fortunate to have a high quality, efficient, and responsive city administration.”
I continue to believe that this is the case. But I also know that maintaining quality, efficiency, and responsiveness requires constant vigilance, commitment, and hard work.
And that is my challenge to all of us, for us to work together. Thank you.
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| 2007-6-5 minutes rev2.pdf
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