It takes a certain degree of humility to admit one’s made a mistake. There’s always the worry of losing face and suffering embarrassment. But the alternative is even more daunting – not rectifying the mistake can have a multiplying effect.
City council made a mistake in July of 2014, and rectifying that mistake is long overdue. At the time, councillors emerged from a closed door meeting with their city manager, Patrick Draper, and announced they’d support Draper in his pursuit of legal action against the authors of the Third Floor News – an anonymous blog claiming to know the real inner workings of city hall, which Draper considered to be derogatory and damaging to his reputation.
Shortly after council’s decision to fund Draper’s lawsuit with taxpayers’ dollars, the Gazette opined that the Third Floor News was not worthy of the city’s attention nor the money it would cost in an attempt to out some anonymous, petty blogger. Some 15 months later, we still hold that same opinion, with additional observations.
Every councillor who voted at that July 14, 2014 council meeting shares responsibility for the consequences of supporting Draper’s lawsuit. Indeed, councillors Sheena Hughes and Cam MacKay did not support the city’s financial backing of the lawsuit, but they, along with the rest of the councillors, did support Draper in filing the lawsuit. Hughes and MacKay can’t have it both ways. If they weren’t prepared to fund the lawsuit they should have opposed backing it in the first place.
Today, we have MacKay leading the charge to place a cap of $20,000 on legal costs incurred, essentially admitting it was a mistake to proceed in the first place. Effectively what MacKay is saying is that the lawsuit should be brought to an end. We agree. Council’s primary responsibility is to the taxpayers of this city. It has no business authorizing the funding of a lawsuit launched by an employee.
The time has come for council to admit it made a mistake and refuse to pay one more dime in legal fees. It doesn’t take a legal expert to foresee the gain versus costs of this case was by no means assured. Not only is there the matter of trying to identify the blogger, there is also the matter of proving what is and is not fair comment. Weighed against the insignificant actual damages this inane, ridiculous blog could have possibly caused, it was a losing bet.
Project 9. Tax relief. Economic development. Twinning Ray Gibbon Drive. These are the topics that should be dominating council chambers and can truly benefit the citizens of St. Albert. Let’s get on with it.
