Anyone following Muskoka Lakes council lately must be rather amused with the sudden about-face councillors have taken when it comes to defending their administration’s spending habits.

Councillors appear to be waging war against their own senior staff members, and for good reason.

The municipality is in a bind like never before, thanks to irresponsible direction from its CAO John Cosgrove.

After doling out hundreds of thousands of dollars to plan for four new fire stations, the township – due to Cosgrove’s miscalculations – has to either abandon the projects and lose its investments or bite the bullet and shell out thousands of dollars more than it planned.

Councillors, faced with this dilemma, are beginning to second guess their unconditional support for staff. Many feel misled by an apparent “bait and switch” sales pitch, and have begun to regularly question the accuracy of Cosgrove’s reports.

It’s not a pretty picture, and hardly the one most councillors envisioned just 10 short months after the election.

Back then, one could hardly breathe through all the positive hot air being spewed by forward-thinking elected officials who couldn’t wait to step into the next term under the direction of their new CAO. Incumbent councillors were eager to see voters separate the wheat from the chaff, and oust the so-called malcontents who expressed concern with the new administration’s “buy now, save later” spending philosophy.

It now appears, however, that the malcontents had a point.

The township’s senior administrative staff has too much control over the municipality’s pocketbook, and not enough accountability to the public or council.

This has become painfully clear with the mistakes made with the fire hall projects.

If councillors or other staff had had more access to the books, and more input into planning such projects, the municipality would not be in the predicament it is now.

We have to wonder how councillor Nancy Thompson feels about the current situation. As the only councillor to warn of this impending disaster, Thompson was frequently berated for disagreeing with council’s overly optimistic forecasts and asking for tighter controls on spending.

Perhaps if other councillors had bothered to listen to her, someone other than Cosgrove would have done a once-over of the budget and put the brakes on this latest spending spree before it was too late.

We hope this is a lesson for councillors on the importance of listening to opposing views, no matter how displeasing or uncomfortable the comments may seem.

Because if there is one message to be taken away from all of this, it is this: where there is smoke, there is definitely fire.

JL