Here’s my, uh, rather ‘brief’ recap of last night’s Friends of Central Park meeting. And here’s just a few of my other thoughts:
Thumb’s Up: Acting-CAO Ed Houghton gets a lot of props in my book; he walked into a n0-win situation and… um, well, I don’t know if he ‘won’, per se, but he held his own in the face of withering opposition. At the very least, when it came down to it, last night Ed fared better than Obama did…
As Norm Minnikin stated at one point, “the wrong person is sitting up there… it should be council. Council members, it should be noted, weren’t in attendance; I do know a couple of them had other commitments or were otherwise engaged (Ian Chadwick had a BIA meeting, and Keith Hull was home, sick with the kids). I’ve always been of the opinion that municipal staff should never be put in the line of fire — they make the recommendations, they follow the policies as set by council, but they don’t make the decisions…
Thumb’s Down: Some in the crowd started to shout down Ed as he was trying to get through a presentation on the history of council’s decision-making. Wait a minute — I thought you wanted the facts?
Fun with Facts: Both ‘sides’ get a bit of a thumb’s down in my opinion. Prior to the meeting, a ‘fact sheet’ was distributed stating the town’s procurement policy was not followed — when, as I’ve demonstrated many, many times, it has been. But on the other side, another ‘fact sheet’ handed out (not by the town, it should be noted) indicated the Central Park report identified only 26 users for a warm-water pool versus 200 users of a competitive swimming facility — yet it was appearing that competitive swimming would be the loser in a Central Park facility. However, that doesn’t take into account the Central Park report also identified another 120 users for Aqua-fit and Aqua-Zumba — programs that would take place in a warm-water pool…
