The elected leader of St. Catharines declared a state of emergency after the Big Soak. So did the mayor of Lincoln. But the unelected ruler of NOTL, civic employee Nick Ruller, did not.

Maybe the decision by the chief administrative officer was correct. Maybe not. If your house, business or farm was trashed by the storm you probably think reaching for provincial disaster money would be a good thing.

Ruller said it was not technically necessary. But as the self-appointed town czar after the rain crisis, his obligation was to reassure citizens, not lecture them on protocol.

Why not declare a state of emergency as other municipalities that were equally affected? Because Nick Ruller thinks he knows better, based on his first responder experience. It was about him, not us.

In any case, he acted unilaterally. As he did when he initially banned town staff (including himself) from talking to me.

The point is not the storm. It’s how we’re governed.

Development site plans — essential to knowing exactly what impact a building, subdivision or new hotel will have on the surroundings — are reviewed and approved by staff. Not the person you elect.

Construction plans, trucking routes, road closures — like with the major Royal George complex in Old Town — are okayed by a staffer. Elected reps never even see them. Signature trees are removed and cell towers approved upon the nod of employees. No politician.

I’m not judging. That’s just the way it is. And part-time, compliant, busy or distracted local politicians let it happen. They facilitate it. Before long, the inevitable occurs. A major community crisis hits and it’s a bureaucrat, not an elected person, at the microphone. Making the video. Writing the policy. Telling you what matters.

Democracy takes a hit when the one assuming that role refuses to speak on the record, be interviewed, or allow underlings to comment. After all, where was the mayor when your basement was a swimming pool, your crops were drowned and illegal pumping from construction sites was overwhelming the sewer pipes?

This brings us to the election.

In October, we get to choose the members of a smaller council to supposedly run the place. (Without public input or debate, the current guys reduced the number of elected people, chipping away at the notion of representative government.)

The job is no plum. Lots of work and responsibility. Tons of reading and understanding. Listening to constituents, going to meetings, being pilloried on Facebook. All for 20 grand a year. So it takes a special, engaged person to do it.

The mayor’s job is even worse, since he/she will be our sole rep at the regional level, where oodles of tax dollars go. It pays only $54,000 for what is now a full-time gig.

At the moment there are six contenders for council. Four of them are part of a group that has approved seriously big development projects and seek re-election.

Of the three candidates for lord mayor, two are sitting local politicians. So, of nine names, only three belong to outsiders. It will be a struggle for voters to find a change in direction unless others step forward.

But Mr. Ruller will still be there. Regardless of who you choose. (He used to be a councillor but is now permanent, and the job pays more than all the elected people combined.)

Now, back to the Soak — and what happened. Apparently nobody we elected knows how much water was shoved into the pipes from major construction sites, or the role that played in backing up the system, flooding basements.

In fact, it’s been left to residents to try and find out what effect 24/7 pumping from the holes at Parliament Oak and Royal George is doing.

Four months ago the NOTL Residents Association filed a freedom-of-information request to find out. No answer yet. Town staff know, but they won’t release that information to us, the citizens. Seriously.

Ron Simkus is an engineer by training, and a director of the NOTLRA.

“I suspect that we just watched Solmar (Parliament Oak hotel developer) pump a million gallons of stormwater into the sanitary sewer in non-compliance with their permit and simply got away with it,” he says. “In the meantime, nearby residents watched their basements backed up with sewage and wondered why?”

Just don’t call it an emergency. Nick said so.

Garth Turner is a NOTL resident, journalist, author, wealth manager and former federal MP and minister. garth@garth.ca