Dear Editor:
The Morrin Council report was very well done. I have had comments from residents how you hit the nail on the head showing how petty and unreasonable the CAO and Council are by not providing free copies of the agenda and the previous months minutes for the residents attending council meetings.
I checked at a retail store and found a box of paper is just over $30 for 5000 sheets making the cost per page .0061 cents.
I would think that the CAO likely purchases paper at a better rate than the retail price I found.
The CAO and council are simply being unreasonable in not taking one second to touch the nine button instead of the four button on the photocopy machine so that we all could receive a copy of the agenda and minutes to follow along with the meeting.
The cost to us as residents and ratepayers who attended the meeting would be nine cents. By doing this it would provide all five people in the gallery at the last meeting in July a copy of the agenda and the two pages of the previous months unapproved minutes. This would go a long way in showing us that we count and that we matter.
The CAO and council’s original policy that charged $55 for the first page and a $1 for every page after that has since been rescinded because of a backlash from residents.
Also refusing to allow the recording of the minutes so that accurate reporting could be done demonstrates that council and the CAO for some reason don’t want any outside scrutiny or interference with council meetings.
When this council and CAO start to realize how petty their actions appear to outsiders, perhaps they will begin to try and help us be a part of the process instead of continually putting up unreasonable road blocks for residents to participate in the political process.
John Siemens
Morrin, Ab.
