When I first read the article, in the Citizen, that some astute person or people within our city's government hired a consultant from the states to explain to our city fathers how to keep our streets clear of snow, I was amazed.
My first thought was "the newspaper made a mistake, not even our civic politicians or staff could have that much air between their ears."
My second thought was "are they throwing money away so they can tax me out of my home? If not, why are they throwing my tax money away?"
The next thought was "why didn't they consult someone locally? We have people within our community, who have kept our main industry alive, every winter, by keeping the hundreds of miles of logging roads clear, and in good shape. I can imagine one of them would be glad to help the people in City Hall out, with some expertise."
I was also thinking "how come every time our city hires a consultant, it cost us money for them to explain to our city fathers how to spend our money."
I think that if we hire people to run our city, we should make sure they are aware of our problems in the north and not because they come with an arm full of qualifications, accumulated in the south.
Then, over a cup of coffee the other morning it was explained to me. I should have recognized it, politicians use it all the time, and it's called 'Passing the Buck'. Our elected politicians, the ones we put into power, apparently don't have enough confidence in their own judgment to make a decision, so they hire consultants and then when things don't work out, they can sit back and point to the report from the consultant and say, "It wasn't my idea, it was the professionals."
Within our community, we have people who have the experience and the qualifications to administer and make decisions pertaining to our northern community. Why then do we have to go outside of our community to find people to do these jobs?
Mel McConaghy
Prince George
