ron's blog

Despite the protests of some online commenters, who claim to be sick and tired of hearing about the OPP costing issue, I must indulge my inner wonk on this question of procedure.

So Councillor Jeff Earle's political math did not prove to be quite accurate.

City council's vote last night on his motion to halt the OPP costing process ended up with a five-four split in favour, rather than the six-four result Earle had anticipated.

Predicting the exact outcome of city council votes is not something I've done up to date. Since party whips and agendas are not involved at the local level, one has to get into people's heads.

I have no qualms doing it, however, when someone else is doing the predicting.

On paper, Brockville's revised noise bylaw has enough in it to get people worked up.

That's evident in the online responses to our story, and the lopsided (if unscientific) poll results.

Later this month, city councillors will debate a motion to reduce the size of council by one.

As I've said before, the idea of reducing a 10-member council by only one is likely to generate a certain “Meh” response from the public.

It's hard to dispute Councillor Mary Jean McFall's intentions when she argues for city funding of the YMCA pool.

McFall, who co-chairs this year's big YMCA fundraising campaign, known as the Strong Kids Campaign, with her husband, Ian, clearly cares about the local Y.

What was arguably the most pertinent comment arising from city council's regional policing debate last night came from Councillor Mary Jean McFall.

One could feel a certain sense of relief from the gallery, and a sense of frustration from the contact committee table, when discussion at Monday's meeting turned to the prospect of a moratorium on OPP costings.

I had one of those “What-The” moments last night.

“Perfunctory” is one of those words we no longer use enough in conversation.

As in: “One would expect Brockville's study on regional policing would be a perfunctory affair.”