Piling On

The headline from The Telegram pretty well sums up what transpired in St. John’s council chambers on Monday night – “Council hammers Hanlon”. Did they ever. But in the process the councillors – Tom Hann in particular - made themselves look bad, which is ironic since all were complaining about how bad Hanlon made them look last week. (All complainging except Gerry Colbert who was MIA - again.) If you recall, Hanlon mused about the idea of full-time councillors and questioned the remuneration - this on the heels of her disclosure of personal bankruptcy. From the Tely: Several councillors agreed the public outcry over Hanlon’s idea throughout the last week has left them humiliated and generated a pile of nasty comments, phones calls and emails.

While she did take a lot of flack from many people (from this blog too), the display of the city councillors was nothing short of egregious. I felt embarrassed for some of them. I guess many hadn’t thought through the public reaction to what they said. Judging by the comments at the Telegram and CBC websites, it wasn’t well received – and that’s an understatement. They are the ones now getting hammed. Hanlon included. Most of the “speeches” were self-serving tripe claiming how hard they worked, how difficult it is to be a councillor and how they take calls at all hours. Hello! That’s part of your job. They claimed they loved their job, loved the city and felt it was an honour to serve, but stated that the amount of work can be overwhelming. They talked about the 13 or 14 committees they were on, chairing some and how hectic the schedule is. Undoubtedly it is. But in the same breathe; they lambasted Hanlon for calling for a review of how things are run.

Listen guys and gals, if you can’t handle the heat (and apparently most can’t) get out of the kitchen. As some stated, they knew what they were in for when they signed on. I think BruceTilley even had the gall to say he didn’t know what the pay was for serving as a councillor until after he was elected. How noble. Puuuuulease. Take about self-serving.

Bottom line – if you want to serve there are other things you can do. Volunteering is one way. Something you can quietly do, out of the public eye, without sounding like a self-serving marytar.