A former mayor of Belleville minced no words when it came to expressing his opinion on CJBQ’s Lorne Brooker Show today (Monday).
Ross McDougall disagreed vehemently with highly controversial decision By Mayor Panciuk to organize an ad-hoc committee to recommend a person to fill the late councillor Pat Culhane’s seat.
McDougall said council should have simply appointed the person who finished just out of the running in the last local election, Tyler Allsopp.
“I don’t think you should appoint Tyler or the next in line because of tradition. I think what it shows is that the tradition actually makes sense and you should do it because it makes sense and because the electors voted for Tyler.”
McDougall told listeners that he believed council made a bad error and believes the decision to set up an ad-hoc committee was made because a couple of people on council simply did not like Tyler Allsopp.
“It’s a red herring to say well no this is about women’s rights or this is about inclusivity. This is about following the wishes of the electorate. This is democracy we’re talking about. It’s not about anything other than that and it really is quite simple to do the right thing!”
The former mayor, who served in council’s top job from 1994 to 2000, said he’d never seen such public backlash against a council decision and has yet to meet a person who supports council’s decision.
That sentiment was echoed by Councillor Chris Malette who was also guesting on the Lorne Brooker Show.
“I started covering city hall full-time in 1989 and I’ve seen some crazy blow-ups between councillors but I’ve never seen the community react like this!”
Malette worked with The Intelligencer newspaper before retiring a few years ago.
