“Whereas Council believes we are at a moment in the Municipality's history that we may be able to put a difficult and divisive period related to Meaford Hall behind us and move forward more successfully together;
Be it hereby resolved that Council takes this opportunity to sincerely apologize for the manner in which the Municipality treated a number of its citizens who were executives, staff, volunteers, supporters and friends of the Georgian Theatre Festival and Meaford Hall before, during and following the physical renovation of the Hall.
While there were errors of judgement made during this unfortunate period in our community life, Council offers this unequivocal apology for its way of dealing with other views at the time, and vows to be more respectful of the range of views of its citizens in the future.
Council does so in the hope that forgiveness can now take the place of animosity and that all citizens, including those involved the the Georgian Theatre Festival and Meaford Hall reconstruction, will feel welcome and become a part of Meaford Hall's success, and the Municipality's success going forward.”
This was the apology read by Meaford Mayor Francis Richardson at the opening of the Monday March 8th meeting of council.
Richardson advised prior to reading the statement that there would be no comment after the apology was read, and there would be no questions relating to the statement.In spite of his declaration, Richardson did field two questions. One asking for a copy of the statement, which the clerk had printed and available, and the other asking why the municipality hadn't issued invitations to those concerned to ensure that all affected had the opportunity to attend.
Richardson explained that the municipality did extend invitations to many local residents who had been involved with Meaford Hall or the Georgian Theatre Festival, and his hope was that word would have spread from there.
Mayor Richardson then immediately moved directly into the agenda for the Committee of the Whole meeting.
