I know What I Know

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Trail Continues":

Evelyn,
I have no idea who you might be 'talking' to but it appears that we need a human body to go to Georgina's Town Hall with a FOI Request early in the week to determine how long the law firm representing Grossi has been working for the town. There may be other requests that someone like Paul Sesto could suggest.

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Just phone the Clerk and ask if the law firm representing  Grossi  is retained by the town. If you need to file a request under  Freedom of Information,  the clerk  will tell you. It's your Town Hall.   In your service. You have a right to know just about everything they know.

Council  didn't make this decision in secret. There's a public record of  their culpability.I don't pretend to understand why they did it but there's no denying they did.

I  have no idea who you think I might have been talking to or needed to talk to but after a person has served as  Councillor,Reeve , County Councillor , Mayor and  Regional Councillor and back again as Councillor, actually in office  for twenty five  years over a span of forty five  of political involvement in Aurora and York Region's affairs, a person with any common sense, acquires an understanding of the rules. Sometimes  rules change but basic rules remain the same.

Then there are recorded  minutes of the  committee of the whole that morphed into a closed door meeting that rolled right into a Special Meeting without proper notice of an agenda circulated to inform  the public  of matters being contemplated and decided by their council, that somebody sent me from Georgina last week.

The agenda for the special meeting like all Council agendas, called for declarations of pecuniary interest.


It's the first thing on any agenda.  What could be more of a  blatant pecuniary interest than  a decision for the municipality to pay legal costs for a personal matter involving the Mayor.

Yet ,the minutes do not  record the Mayor declared a pecuniary interest . No indication he absented himself from the  in camera meeting, debate in the Special meeting,  or the final vote

Unless the person who forwarded a copy of those minutes, forged the document, then those are  the facts we have to go with.

There is no rule anywhere to stop Georgina residents from requesting delegate status at  Council and making  their opposition to Council's decision clear and succinct. Nothing to stop  anyone from calling Councillors and demanding the decision be re-considered and rescinded.

There may have to be a vote to waive the procedure bylaw to allow  the  question to be re-considered within six months. But there is nothing to stop the request from being made.

If there is  sufficient opposition to the Mayor's legal bills being paid by the municipality, it had better be heard. The Mayor  has every right to  pursue whatever legal action he chooses. He just doesn't have the right to have his bills paid by the taxpayer, In  particular by the taxpayer he is suing.

I know that from reading the news  from Toronto. They tried  it down there ,in the face of contrary advice from the city solicitor. That decision had to be reversed.

One  bill was paid .but if I re-call correctly ,the Councillor involved was serving as Speaker of the Council.The role placed  her in a different category.

The City of Toronto Act allows Council to appoint a Speaker. The Mayor  is free participate in  debates and votes without have to pretend  to be or in fact be impartial.

There's another thing I just thought of. Normally , when everything is kosher, direction from Council is to prepare a Bylaw. Bylaws are not normally  prepared ready for a resolution for the Mayor and Clerk to sign.

A Bylaw has to be given three readings. It used to be  first two reading would be read or taken as read. Third reading would be given at a future meeting.

Those were the days when the public's  right to know what Council was proposing to sign into law was a given. 

I don't know when that  changed or why. But I can guess.

Probably some aggressive  Councillor  or Councillors with private business  experience, thought the  idea people should or would  want to have a say, was just  a silly waste of  time and the legislative imperative should  be junked.

Oddly enough the process at the senior levels, government bills still require separate readings.

Anyway, there's always some jackass  ready to suggest that I don't really write this blog. That I can't possibly know all I know and write about.

Most of the time I pay no attention. But now and then  it p-s me off.