CambridgeToday received the following letter from reader Rande Keffer regarding a recent Cambridge council meeting.
Last evening, March 15, 2022, I was listening to the special council meeting which I am sure many residents of Cambridge as well as residents in the neighbouring cities of Kitchener and Waterloo were as well.
One thing during the presentation by the delegates that really stood out to me was the fact that more than once, delegates stated in their presentations that they did send emails to this council and even to their ward councillor and they did not receive a reply to their concerns. One delegate said he had sent more than 20 email and did not get one reply.
These are residents of the community who took the time to send emails because of their concern regarding issues they feel important to them and they deserve to be given answers wherever possible. By not responding to these concerns, it makes the resident fell that the concern does not matter enough to their ward councillor, Cambridge council, or even our mayor.
Situations like this make the writers of these emails feel their voice, their questions, their concerns and even their suggestions are not important enough to afford any correspondence.
Let me ask the question, if these residents would have called on the phone to address their concern or query, would you hang up on them? Common courtesy to answer all emails sent to this council, ward councillor and mayor deserve to be replied to even if it is not an answer that a resident might want to hear.
There needs to be more interaction between this council and our mayor. Maybe when a resident voices a concern an personal meeting might be just what is needed to make the resident feel that their voice is important to this council and even our mayor.
Every member of this council needs to remember that not only are the residents of Cambridge watching Cambridge City Council meetings on YouTube, there are also residents from the surrounding areas that are viewing this as well and what they hear from delegations has a lasting impression on the City of Cambridge and its leaders.
- Rande Keffer
(P.S. Remember 2022 is the year of the municipal election.)
