Yes, we know its municipal election season, and sure there are likely circumstances where some of the brouhaha is largely motivated by pure politics, but seriously folks if you are living in a public fishbowl (called public life) you have to know that there will be more eyes are on you than you care to imagine!

Well, apparently someone didn’t tell that to some of the elected officials who are starting to feel the wrath of their colleagues (not intended to mean friends) and the media.

The real “Judgement Day” (October 27, 2014) is fast approaching in Ontario communities. And yes, the proverbial municipal election-day looms large for those who may have forgotten the real reasons they claim to have entered political life in the first place.

Ummmm…. Hello…… That would be serving the public!

I recall a time in my municipal career when the respected City Manager/CAO reminding his Council early in their term of office (and same reminder generally every six months or so to the city’s management team) to ensure they didn’t show up on the front page of the local paper for all of the wrong reasons.

This wise bureaucrat would ask the group to think about what their personal reaction, and the reactions of their families, colleagues and constituents might be if the circumstances for that headline and front-page story was not about the terrific work they had done but for some bonehead incident that stung them in the ass because they failed to consider the consequences of their action or activity.

The second question was rather rhetorical by nature but he would ask the group to think about the prospects of how likely they would be to recover from such an incident and maintain the public’s trust in their current role? (I thought highly of that CM!)

That being said for the most part that organization and its elected officials never made the front page of the local newspaper for the wrong reasons. I’m not sure that I would give the City Manager all the credit but clearly the fact that he raised it with them spoke volumes about the very tone at the top of that organization.

Today, we hear the rumblings of understandable condemnation of having “big brother” (aka the Province of Ontario) proposing to task the Provincial Ombudsman with a further oversight role for municipalities via the beefed up accountability legislation.

Frankly, the horse may be out of the barn on that one as many electors, taxpayers, business leaders and media outlets might make a strong case that this type of oversight is long overdue.

Allegations and very real examples of inappropriate activity, including some obvious failure on the part of municipal officials to comply with their own rules and policies continue to splash daily news from across the province and country.

OK, let’s be fair.

It isn’t just the local elected and appointed officials who are failing to meet the grade. It’s our provincial and federal elected and yes appointed senators, who continue to lower the standard of appropriate behaviour for the offices they hold.

Seems in this day and age that the personal or moral compass that should be a prerequisite for those aspiring to higher office seems has given way to pure entitlement and personal aspirations.

Have any of them heard of, “Taking an Oath of Office” or the term, “Fiduciary Responsibility”?

Oh well maybe we can blame that polar vortex we experienced this past winter for mind-numbing our brains?

As a society I would think that we should continue to expect more from those we elect and who run our communities.

Could it be that we are we simply asking too much?

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