WHAT STARTED THIS......OR WHO ???? AND WHY

At the time of applying for a residential renovation permit for the one room in my building, the Municipality had a CAO who was running by the seat of his pants. He was responsible for many problems and now many lawsuits and Council and the Mayor let him have full run of the Municipality. Okay I just sugar coated that and I must be honest, he was doing alot of things illegally and if it was not for the people that stood up to him, he would still be here. He was a piece of work. And unfortunately he was given the golden handshake by the Municipality and moved on to another community where he lasted 14 weeks and was given the boot. That community caught on quickly.
When I received the huge price for my permit I contacted all Council Members, the Mayor and then I foolishly put my faith in this CAO and trusted him when he said he would take my issue to council and fix the problem. This CAO must have thought "I was just a girl" because this started the big farce and my 5 year learning experience. I requested information from him which he either never gave me or gave me information that was not correct. He never took my issue to council to correct, he wanted to make sure that he could extort the permit money out of me. A meeting was arranged and it took place in my store with the Mayor, the Clerk, a Council Member and the not invited Building Inspector. The Building Inspector was told his presence was not welcome, but he was allowed in anyway. I foolishly assumed this meeting would be the way to get this problem fixed. It was not. The Building Inspector tried to say I had changed the Zoning on my property when I had it reassessed. No one appeared to know anything about Development Charges and although minutes of the meeting were taken by the Clerk, they are still unavailable to this day. At least to me. When I received the reply letter from the Municpality about the meeting I was confused and called the municipality for an explanation. The meeting was for an exemption from development charges,something I never requested.I always new development charges did NOT apply to a one room residential renovation.My next step was to contact the Ontario Municipal Board.
I wanted to be able to use my rights and be able to bring my issue in front of council myself, which is procedure. I was not allowed to speak about my issue but was requested at 5:45 on a Friday to speak in front of council the following Monday night on how development charges related to my community as a whole. I did take the chance to speak in front of council only to let them know I am not an expert on the development charges as they relate to my community as a whole.I was pretty angry at this point after listening to council joke about putting $700,000.00 in to fill pot holes when our community needed sewers. Again the CAO used this to continue to cover his tracts and would not be doing a review of residential development charges. Something I never request and my speach was not about that. When the Clerk was confronted she said she was just told to get me there. I then firmly stated I would be filing with the Ontario Municpal Board and I paid the fee and filed it myself. Within 2 weeks the Buildiing Inspector, the By Law Officer and a Police Officer show up at my store with a customer inside to execute a search warrant on me to see if any renovations had been done. None had been, but a few days later on the front door of the store was a Stop Work order and and Order to Comply. This all because a town employe saw a Bell Technician putting in the second phone line for the buidling. It was at this point that I new this was going to be bigger and I was right. It is now 5 years later and I have paid dearly for standing up for what is right. Would I do it again???? Yes, in a heart beat. IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO..........