So now we know the cost of George Rust D'Eye's "investigation" into the infamous "leak" that informed the community of the decision to refuse an offer by York Regional Police to purchase, at the appraised value, land we had for sale for the purpose of building a multi-million dollar Regional Police Headquarters which would have brought eight-hundred of the highest paid jobs in the Region to funnel into the economy of the Town of Aurora.
A story to that effect had appeared in The Auroran in mid-November. It was assumed there had been "a leak" from an in-camera meeting held early September. THREE MONTHS BEFORE.
The Mayor called a Meeting to deal with the urgency of the matter and to retain the services of Mr.George Rust D"Eye's a renowned municipal solicitor. The Mayor refused to say why Nor do I recall the terms of reference being shared with council.
I do declare,I think our Mayor believes when she was elected she was endowed with The Divine Right of Kings.
Mr Rust D'Eye completed his work before the year's end.
Before starting, the gentleman informed me,myself,alone, that he had read letters to the editor, emails and Blogs written by myself. He enquired had I retained legal counsel , floated the idea of Conflict of Interest and indicated it was a serious offence with severe penalties.
At no time was I asked about the" leak" Nor I understand ,was the editor and publisher of The Auroran.
A written report with a verbal presentation was made at an in-camera meeting before the year's end. The document was collected back from councillors immediately .We were informed the material must remain confidential.
Nothing has been heard of the matter since.
The cost of the exercise was $16,200. What we got for it I cannot tell.The rules must be obeyed.
Regulations require that matters dealt with behind closed doors must be reported out in public when completed. There is no time limit as to when the reporting should happen. The taxpaeyers may never know Unless there's a leak
Think of that:
Sixteen thousand , two hundred smackeroos collected in taxation. . Filched from taxpayers' pockets and spent will-nilly on something they are not even allowed to know about.
So much for much trumpeted Openness and Transparency.
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
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1 comment:
If the taxpayers paid for the bill why are they not allowed to know what they PAID for! Why and how is that justified. If council had paid from their own pockets I could understand that, but when WE the taxpayers paid WE should know EXACTLY what we paid for. As you say so much for "TRANSPARENCY"! Secrets is more like it. If it has political gain people should know about it otherswise KEEP IT A SECRET. When is this council going to learn that politics is not about picking ang choosing what looks good on CAMPAIGN LITERATURE. The election finished nearly two years ago and is not coming again for another two years. Making decisions that are RIGHT for the town NOW are what we want. Stopping spending our money on lawyers and start looking after the town as a whole not as indiviual agendas on what will get you re-elected!
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