Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Westhill Development Application":
What about all the wasted staff time with the last council? Maybe we don't need all the additional staff now, and therefore we don't need refurbishment of the town hall.
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There is a point to be made. At the same time, I have been behind the scenes in the treasury department.
Just once; to receive instruction for my blackberry.
My impression is a huge amount of space is taken up with filing cabinets. People are squeezed in here and there. It is definitely oppressive.
Staff time was wasted on the Westhill application. Council did not accept planning recommendation for approval in principle with continued work on outstanding matters in March 2008. They did not accept the Region' s comments. They did not accept advice from the Ministry of Environment or the Toronto and Region Conservations Authority or South Lake Simcoe Conservation authority.
I believe they encouraged neighbours to the property to spend resources on a wild goose chase to win a consolidated board hearing.All the while, causing the developer to spend massive resources on legal fees to defend their application.
Resources spent in three years of futile legal processes , to defend the indefensible ,was where the scandalous waste of resources both public and private occurred.
I still maintain the administrative re-organisation created a questionable need for new staff. I believe the purpose was neither efficiency or economy.
I still contend the purpose was in accordance with a pattern established from day one of the last term: to denigrate particular staff members; transfer authority from people with skills to people without; thereby creating the need for additional staff to fill the gap.
But even without additional staff, there is a need to re-organise the space available. The lease of the hydro building to the DND was at least one opportunity lost to better utilise available resources .
I think Council has a monumental task to consider various ramifications of decisions to be made in the near future.Past decisions must be reviewed.
I am hopeful they will not surrender their authority.
I understand that senior managers attended every day of the hearings. That is a significant amount of staff time that was directed to this issue and taken away from others. Did other staff then need to take up the slack? Overtime costs? It really makes you wonder of the REAL cost.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting as you uncover those costs, Councillor Buck.