{"id":5129,"date":"2014-01-08T14:29:30","date_gmt":"2014-01-08T19:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=5129"},"modified":"2014-02-12T14:35:39","modified_gmt":"2014-02-12T19:35:39","slug":"vote-2014-public-service-is-a-very-worthwhile-endeavour-buck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/vote-2014-public-service-is-a-very-worthwhile-endeavour-buck\/","title":{"rendered":"VOTE 2014 — Public service is a \u201cvery worthwhile endeavour”: Buck"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Councillor Evelyn Buck looks back on her decades in public service, she says she feels people have come to \u201ctrust her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Serving in multiple capacities since her first successful election in Canada\u2019s Centennial Year, including two stints as Aurora\u2019s mayor, Councillor Buck says it is always gratifying when people come to her with the sense that she can get things done. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t make promises when I am a candidate for office,\u201d she says. \u201cAll I ask is for people to trust me to do what I think is in their interest and whatever issue needs to be dealt with. I come forward with issues I think have a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

As such, she says she believes her work is far from over and intends to once again seek re-election this year for the 2014-2018 term of Council.
\n\u201cAt my age, I always think of that George Burns line that \u2018at my age, I don\u2019t buy green bananas\u2019,\u201d she says with a laugh. \u201cI take it day by day and that has been my habit, but by September 12, I believe my name will be on that candidates\u2019 list.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes me come back for more is I believe that people like to have me there and it means a lot to them. I recognize that I am very often a solitary voice, but I believe it means a lot to people in Aurora to have that voice. As long as I am able, I will do it because I enjoy doing it. Never mind about \u2018like\u2019 it. Like is a very trivial word. I think this is a very worthwhile endeavour.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, Councillor Buck questions how some people discount the civic process and the freedom residents\u2019 have to govern themselves. In her role as Councillor, she says she wants people to \u201cunderstand how precious [the process] is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking back at the last three years or so of the incumbent Council, Councillor Buck expresses a degree of disappointment. There was much to achieve, she says, but it didn\u2019t quite hit the mark. Considering the previous Council, there was, from her perspective, much to undo, and although they made some headway, too much was left undone. A particular issue, she says, is Council not flexing its collective muscle as strongly as she believes it should. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think this Council understands, and I don\u2019t think the last Council understood that they are the authority,\u201d she says, noting she believes too much is being left in the hands of municipal staff. \u201cThey have repeatedly made themselves subject to the administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional concerns she noted include the planned Joint Operations Centre on Industrial Parkway North, the location of which she says is a poor choice due to the traffic coming in and out of the building onto a busy traffic artery on a bend in the road, Aurora\u2019s fledgling new Customer Service Strategy, and her ongoing opposition to the Aurora Cultural Centre\u2019s operations, along with Council\u2019s new role in sitting on the board. <\/p>\n

The fact that the Aurora Cultural Board can still discuss things behind closed doors under their new agreement with the Town still rankles, but she counts the new agreement as one of the positives of this Council. <\/p>\n

\u201c[The agreement] is still not what it should be, but it is better than what it was,\u201d she said. \u201cThat took a lot of effort on staff\u2019s part to get it there. It is still a problem for me that they can make decisions behind closed doors.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, as the Centre is largely funded by tax dollars, she says she believes everything should be discussed out in the open. Were they funded privately or completely through their own fundraising, things would be different as far as she is concerned. <\/p>\n

The new agreement between the Town and the Board also enshrines the use of the second floor Aurora Room as exhibit space for the Aurora Collection, another plus in her book. <\/p>\n

As she looks ahead to the next 10 months of Council before the October 27 Municipal Election will determine just who will be sitting at that table, Councillor Buck says she looks forward to seeing that museum through. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am glad that we have a foot in the door with the museum and have established ownership of the collection,\u201d she says, adding that there still needs to me more done in allocating resources to provide \u201cstewardship\u201d of the artefacts. \u201cIt is not quite the space that was envisaged, but we\u2019re moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, when she looks at the rest of her goals for the remainder of this term, it loops back to the issue of trust and underscoring the importance of civic engagement as well as ensuring tax payers get the best bang for their, if you pardon the expression, buck. <\/p>\n

\u201cParticipation is a highly worthwhile endeavour and hopefully after this new election, we will have maybe a little bit more [engagement],\u201d she says. \u201cMaybe someone else of a similar mind to myself will be elected and there will be a little more support for my ideas. I continue to believe my ideas are on a solid base for good government in a small town like Aurora.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next week, The Auroran checks in with Councillors Sandra Humfryes and Paul Pirri.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Councillor Evelyn Buck looks back on her decades in public service, she says she feels people have come to \u201ctrust her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Serving in multiple capacities since her first successful election in Canada\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vote-2014"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1kJ","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 23:38:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}