I Thought of Something Else

The budget for the July 1st Parade was $15,000.Included was a $2,000 allocation for the St.Kitts woman to hire an assistant to assist her.

It was a business meeting like most business meetings, when everything except town business takes priority over town business. The hour of adjournment comes and goes and most of the agenda is still to be dealt with.

Twenty minutes is allocated for public forum. By the time people invited by the Mayor to come and have their say in five minutes, so the Mayor, in ten minutes , can impress all and sundry with a masterly grip of significant matters and awards are presented and official presentations are made, also at the invitation of the presiding member, the clock has steadily moved forward, nothing has been accomplished and Council has once again been used and abused for other than it's proper function.

I may have called the item for discussion. Since I don't believe anything useful is ever accomplished after eleven p.m and if there is no sign of productivity, I generally leave the Council chamber.

The July 1st parade budget was approved as it would have been whether or not I stayed or whether or not I participated in the debate.

A week or so ago, an ad expressing personal appreciation from the St. Kitts woman to every organisation and individual who participated in the parade in any way.Nothing in the ad indicated anyone other than St Kitts was responsible for its placement or payment.

It reminded me of the $2,000 of tax funds provided to provide St Kitts with "an assistant".
It occurred to me to wonder how that was accomplished.

So I asked.

An invoice was submitted to the treasury by St. Kitts.in the amount of $2,000. A cheque for $2,000. was issued to the person named on the invoice by St Kitts.

The town has written and numbered purchasing and hiring policies and procedures written down for staff to follow.

Not for Councillors because Councillors do not do hiring or purchasing on behalf of the town.

So I guess, if you're not a Town of Aurora staff member, written and numbered policies and procedures do not apply.

Go figure...