All Is Revealed

Well probably not all. But more time will tell more.

Council agendas have become noticeably thinner over the past year. There's a sense of something missing.

You can't say; you are not being informed when you don't know that which you are not being informed of.

This week's agenda was thin again.

One item was an Interim Bylaw . We have never had one of those before. It had to do with a lane between houses fronting on Yonge Street and houses fronting on Temperance Street. The streets run parallel, north and south in the old part of town

Months ago, an old run-down semi-detached two storey house on Yonge Street sold. It had been on the market for decades. Signs of construction were soon apparent. Then.....nothing. Windows were covered with skewed massive sheets of plywood held on with slanted lengths of two by four. What was shabby before became a total blight.

E-mail messages came from residents of Temperance Street. The plan for the old house was for a Montessori school for 152 students. There would be more than a hundred cars using what I thought was a private lane serving residential property.

Turns out, over months, all kinds of stuff has been going on between the planning department, the building department, residents on Temperance Street, the new owner of the old house on Yonge Street, the Chief Administrative Officer. the town solicitor and the Mayor.

Everybody it seems was in on the action except Council.

First we hear of it is an Interim Bylaw on the table before us.

Normal process is reporting from staff outlining details of a problem and the need for Council action.Sometimes there can be several in-depth reports updating information along the way.

In last night's meeting ,members had to dig for every iota of information. It was like pulling teeth.

We got it and more.

Seems the Mayor has been keeping things from Council. Keeping them to herself.

Trees were cut down. Unlawfully.

No charges were laid. Deliberately.

Later in the same meeting, I raised the issue of a horrifying episode on Easter Sunday. A small dog was killed by a large dog, off leash. The little dog's owner was severely bitten.Police were called and an ambulance

The incident was witnessed by a neighbour who called me before the Council meeting in a state of outrage. The attack dog is still in the neighbourhood. My caller owns two small dogs. It is my neighbourhood and I knew nothing of the matter.

I claimed Councillors should be kept fully informed of such matters by staff so that they can respond to residents' concerns with up-to-date information.

Turns out the Mayor was fully informed. To the last detail. There was nothing about the incident, the Mayor did not know .The status of the killer dog. The role of the Humane Society.
The injured dog.owner has received visits from the Mayor.

Staff apparently knew everything as well. Only Council was kept in the dark.

Aha, I thought. Now we know why agendas are thin. It's all part of a plan. .

At the beginning of the term, I advised colleagues Council was being disrespected. In their lack of experience, they were not convinced.I guess they thought it was only myself and that didn't seem to bother them too much.

The message may finally be getting through.

Yesterday, we had to learn of the sudden termination of a long-term employee in the media.

We are still not informed of particulars.

I have heard of two others, union members, who were terminated and had to be re-hired.

We were never informed about that either.

Last night, I raised the issue of Neighbourhood Network's plan, in co-operation with Lake Simcoe Conservation Authority, to plant trees with a volunteer army of high school students in parks in Aurora and Newmarket on April 24th

It's a go in Newmarket.

Not in Aurora.

It's the Mayor's Anti-Litter Day

The Mayor responded she was not aware a request had been made.

"Does that mean Madame Mayor," I asked " if there had been a request, the tree planting would have happened"

As often happens, there was no clarity in the response.

People such as Boy Scouts and Adopt- a- park volunteers have been planting trees in the parks forever without having to ask for Council approval.

I heard of a conference between Former Mayor of Newmarket protagonist for Neighbourhood Network Tom Taylor, with Mayor Morris and others, for the purpose of clarifying the tree-
planting event. Seems he did ask for permission.

And was refused anyway.