It never ceases to amaze me that ad hominem (shoot the messenger while totally disregarding the message) and unnecessary pontifications have replaced substantive rebuttals. Bob Russell as an elected official, who is responsible to the people informed us of a critical policy failure. David Merritt”s letter in the Jan. 2 issue of the Gazette neither counters or rebuts the substance of Russell’s letter.
After chastising Coun. Russell for being critical of both administration and council, Merritt proceeds to go on his own partisan rant. His allegation that Russell breached a Code of Ethics is a highly dubious assertion. The code of ethics in question seems to preclude council from naming specific members of administration and charging them with unsatisfactory work. In contrast, Coun. Russell has pointed to a “serious” policy failure which has occurred over the last few years and which should have been rectified.
I am of course referring to the Project 9 Sanitary Sewage Service to South Riel. As I understand the cost of this project has doubled to $40 million. Holding people responsible/accountable should not be a bad thing. Thank you Councillor for bringing this to our attention.
I think that the city’s priorities need fine tuning. Project 9 should be at the top of the list. But instead we see a $5-million road to nowhere being built, painting of invisible bricks on the pedestrian bridge over St. Albert Trail for $70,000, painting roads, restoring an airplane cockpit for $80,000 when it will be 15 feet in the air and other non-essential wants. Let’s look after our needs first.
L. Hennigar, St. Albert
