Official Dum, Official Dee!

Is Government administration in a mess?
Who is calling the shots?

Is it the Minister in charge of Departments, or is it the Officials who are in these Departments and in many cases, have been there before the Ministers, and will be there after the Ministers move on?

We are all watching the episodes of the Cancer (Cameron) inquiry.
There were certainly problems in the Department of Health. Information did not always get to the Minister. It was blocked at some point in Officialdom.

We now have the officials from the Premier's Office testifying. They all seem to have no memories! Why would officials with no memories be hired in the Premier's Office? Certainly, one would think that an Official in that capacity would have a sense of what is significant and what is not significant and would deal with the significant information differently from the insignificant information, and would remember the significant information later or would have earmarked it at the time so that it could be recalled later.

Now we have the Department of Municipal Affairs. A Town Councilor wrote a letter to the Minister on a rather serious topic in the Town. Later he received a record of an e-mail which showed that an Official had sent this correspondence to the Deputy Minister with a note: "For your reading enjoyment!" We can only assume the Minister never saw the correspondence. Whether or not the Deputy Minister enjoyed it, is not known!

The Deputy Chief of Staff in the Premier's Office wrote a Town Councilor regarding correspondence the Councilor was forwarding to the Premier's Office. The Official wrote: "... all further correspondence from you to the Premier's Office on these matters will be forwarded unopened to the Department of Municipal Affairs. Please be advised that no further responses will be forthcoming from this office." One piece of correspondence the Councilor sent to the Premier was a request to investigate the Department of Municipal Affairs on a number of matters. Imagine, the Official is not going to let the Premier see this but forward this to the Department of Municipal Affairs? Official-dum! Official-dee?

And now an MHA says of the Department of Transportation that at least two Officials should go. He says they are ignorant.

Is there enough evidence here to raise questions about the role and power of Officials in Government? Are these Officials creating a bottleneck in Government Departments in terms of the people trying to get to the Government Ministers and Premier? Are Government Departments becoming dysfunctional in terms of lines of communication?

Do we need Ministers at all? Perhaps all we need is a Chief Official in each Department (the Land of Official-dum). At least that person at the top, the Chief Official, will likely be the informed one!
RLE/2008

Municipal Affairs - Who Runs it?

On November 5, 2007 Minister Dave Denine wrote me in response to earlier correspondence and

stated: "If you have further questions regarding the (Ken Kelly) report please contact Eastern Regional

Manager Dan Noseworthy at 729-7390. On November 21, 2007, I wrote Mr. Noseworthy and outlined ten

(10) questions re the Ken Kelly Report. On December 19, Mr. Noseworthy replied but did not answer the

questions. I again wrote Mr. Noseworthy and later wrote the Premier and Minister Denine with copies to Mr.

Noseworthy, to all Cabinet Ministers and eventually to all PC Caucus members. Of all that group the only

ones who acknowledged my correspondence were Elizabeth Marshall, MHA, Topsail, Ed Buckingham, MHA,

St. John's East, and Steve Kent, MHA, Mount Pearl North. There has been more response among

backbenchers than from cabinet ministers. It makes me wonder if Steve Kent, a former Mount Pearl Mayor,

had been appointed Minister of Municipal Affairs, if information would have been more forthcoming?

The credibility of any government can be measured by the respect it shows for people. As an MHA,

Dave Denine represents the people of Mount Pearl South; as a cabinet minister, Mr. Denine represents the

people of the province. When he writes a resident to direct questions to a civil servant, then he should

ensure that the questions are answered. Since they were not answered, then it brings into question who is

running the Department of Municipal Affairs? I raised 10 questions about the Ken Kelly report which had

been commissioned by former Minister, Jack Byrne, to investigate matters in the town of Portugal Cove-St.

Philip's. The people of Portugal Cove-St. Philip's were charged $12,000.00 for this report. There has been

negative feedback regarding this report, and one councilor has done a critical analysis of the portion of the

report on Working Relations. One of my questions to Mr. Noseworthy was who influenced the writing of the

report? It is important that my questions be answered.

But where do I go to get them answered? Mr. Denine, the Minister passes me off to a civil servant

and he does not answer. That makes me think he has more power than the Minister! My letters to the

Premier, Cabinet Ministers do not make any difference. This not only raises the question of who is running

the Department of Municipal Affairs, but how arrogant the Government is, in terms of not responding to

residents.

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No Tape Recorders Allowed Says Mayor!

Apparently the town has passed motions that forbid the recording of public town council meetings. Imagine - one cannot record the activities of a public meeting because some council members and the mayor said they don't want meetings recorded.

We say that if council does not want their words recorded, what are they hiding (afraid of)? IF they cannot trust their mouths out of fear of their skullduggery, then they should step down. When councillors took an oath to represent the people, that was the responsibility they agreed to undertake - what is said is public knowledge. Lets remind council that this is not the free masons club!

Poor Roads in Town

There are quite a few roads in the town that are well beyond a safe condition. Particularly Portugal Cove road around Windsor Lake, to which St. John's maintains. This was originally put in place in 1826 by hand. Upgraded in the 1960's, and taken over by the City of SJ's in 1984.

A recent meeting in the town by residents, highlighted the issues of safety, the environment and accountability of St. John's to Diane Whalen who was in attendance,