The Corporation of Hamilton swaggered out of the Last Chance Saloon years ago. Successive administrations pledged reforms but never delivered on those basic promises. Now, events have caught up with the Corporation and the Government is preparing to make big changes.

The Corporation could have avoided this outcome if it had seen the political ground shifting under its feet. Blinded by their own closed door process, the conservative members blocked liberal members' reform ideas.

Election promises were soon broken promises as the Corporation retreated back into the Mayor's parlour and closed meetings. Public accountability subsided along with press scrutiny and old habits continued.

A closed process never serves the public interest. Instead, it is fertile ground for unethical behaviour, conflicts of interest and questionable financial decisions. The present Municipalities Act that underpins this process does not specify that the process should be closed.

The practice of sitting members blindly following the past is all that prevents meetings from being open. The Municipalities Act itself is an antique that continues to assure the advantage of the business community over city residents.

If you look at the true figures of the last election, it was no big success in voter turn out or democracy. There about 1,600 taxpayers in the city, of whom only about 450 were registered to vote for the 2009 City elections. Only about 360 voted, which is not even a third of the potential vote under the existing system.

The concept of a team was a clever election ploy but the ploy destroyed any experience in the new Corporation and ran over the very members who had finally started the reform movement in City Hall. Soon, the new team cut meetings back to a monthly basis and, other than the Mayor, have been invisible. The team continue meeting behind closed doors and have not signed up any new voters to the roll.

They have announced a town-hall meeting but so far there has been no action on open meetings or signing up new voters. The suggested reforms to the Act were rubber stamped by them but the truth is that Councillor Gibbons and the Legislative Committee under Mayor Madeiros did all the work in the previous Corporation.

I had managed to convince Mayor Bluck to re-establish the committee but it was Kathryn Gibbons who really did the important work. The final report was presented this year and circulated widely to city voters and the Government. In my opinion, there was only one significant flaw that was flat wrong and that was the attempt to continue to allow the Nominee vote in city elections.

In most modern cities it is the residents that elect city councils. The resident Bermudian vote in the city is about 1,200 and climbing. There are more than enough voters in the city from which to choose nine candidates and have an open and fair election.

None of the present members live in town. It would be very good for Hamilton to be finally represented fairly by people who actually live in all sectors of the city.

Why is this important? If you look at the example of how poorly Northeast Hamilton has been treated over a large chunk of time, you start to understand how the system has always been gamed for Front Street and Reid Street and business. Mayor Boyle drew up a Report for the 21st Century for Hamilton and all the action items including better street lighting for North Hamilton remain undone.

Just walk up Court Street today and you can see the beheaded light poles with no lights.

Government recognised this rotten neglect and formed the N.E. Hamilton Empowerment Zone to take action where the City government has been wilfully negligent. Government intervention in city matters should have been a wake up call for the Corporation but things drifted on. Government is now looking at the governance of the whole city and they are correct to do so as the Corporation sat on its hands.

Relations with Government remained frosty under Mayor Madeiros, with public fights with Government on the Cruise ship policy and Hamilton security. It would have been better for the city to be having relevant meetings with Ministers of Government than producing big headlines for the Royal Gazette.

Things were drifting in City Government; the Mayor was going outside the process rather then dealing with opposition from sitting members. Fight Club the movie was entertainment, but in City Hall it was burning through a lot of talent. There was significant stalling on the Waterfront with two Mayor's Commissions placed in the way as a diversion.

Work on the first phase of the transportation centre should have been well under way by now. Instead, we have bathrooms on Front Street for the viewing pleasure for the staff at the new HSBC building.

The New Team looks like UBP 'lite" or maybe a pretty flock of swans. The Mayor was recently in the paper talking about replacing the city hall stage because termites have eaten it beyond repair. There seems to be good evidence that the termites have also been at work on the Corporation of Hamilton too.

We must make sure when we replace the Corporation that it is an open democratic process elected by the Bermudian residents of Hamilton that should make it termite proof.