NO LONGER AN RDA
In four hours and forty-three minutes SWSDA will cease to exist as an RDA ... and cease collecting funding support from municipal, provincial and federal governments for its core funding and Mr. Anderson's salary. On the dole for fifteen years, the only question left is will SWSDA fade into the night with a whimper or a bang.....
Now that the walls of this dysfunctional rogue organization have been breeched, all that remains to be seen is whether politicians and civil servants have gotten the message and whether they will give themselves and taxpayers a chance at a fresh start .... by relaunching socio-economic development that is truly community-based, open, transparent and accountable..... under the aegis of accountable people and bodies.
I firmly believe that ..... ANYTHING LESS is doomed to failure and will perpetuate the misery generated by the present management and power base of the organization.
I will leave this site up in case anyone needs to refresh their memory of the things that were wrong with SWSDA.... However, it is not my intention to post anything additional to this site. The purpose of this posting and related activities has been achieved as evidenced by.... the following.
1. The Supreme Court has stated clearly that RDA's are public bodies and their files are to be open to the public under the Freedom of Information act. Mr. Anderson told his Board on more than one occassion that he would not lose that battle... he did.
2. The Ombudsman has issued a scathing report and I understand is pursuing further investigations of SWSDA and initiating new ones as requested by the Municipality of Barrington. Mr. Anderson has apparently not been very cooperative with the Ombudsman... that's a battle he will lose.
3. The Department of Economic Development is shutting down SWSDA as an RDA by requiring all RDA's to fall under the RDA Act. Mr. Anderson and his Yarmouth gang thought they could jsut play a shell game again and maintain the status quo .... The Province has not minced words with SWSDA or Mr. Anderson. ... Change has arrived.
4. The municipalities of Shelburne County are now struggling to regain control of their own socio-economic development agenda and asserting their rights ... and building solid relationships with Provincial and Federal agencies at the same time.... something Mr. Annderson had heretofore convinced them they couldn't do on their own.
GIVES ONE A WARM GLOWING FEELING THAT CITIZENS CAN STILL BRING ABOUT CHANGE.... GREAT FEELING!!
And..... remember my faithful readers that the Ombudsman's investigators found much about SWSDA's operations that were of sufficient concern to ask the Province to dramatically alter the legislation respecting RDA's, their accountability and their management.
REMEMBER ... the Ombudsman has asked both SWSDA and the Province to agree to three new audits and recommended four additional investigations of SWSDA's dealings... IN ADDITION, the Ombudsman (a former Assistant Superintendent of the RCMP) referred the sale of the Boys School (another SWSDA project that ended in such a blinding success NOT) to the RCMP. Hopefully, one or more of the audits requested by the Ombudsman will generate the additional evidence needed by the RCMP to proceed.
FINALLY ... we haven't seen the last of the Boys School money issue!!! That's because the Ombudsman found that neither Mr. Anderson nor his hand-picked SWSDA Executive had ANY authority to spend maintenance funds or proceeds of the sale without the approval of Team Shelburne ..... !! Moreover, the Ombudsman has directed that those funds be returned by SWSDA to Team Shelburne!
AND
SWSDA (read Frank Anderson) has refused to return the hundreds of thousands of dollars owed to the taxpayers of Shelburne County. One would hope that steps will be taken to return that money to its rightful owners .... Shelburne County residents.
Remember, you can search the archives ot take a look at documents or Mr. Anderson's expenses simply by doing elective searches or going back into the archives.
Thank you for reading my blog.
