"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Sunday 29 January 2012

Saints Preserve Us

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

But should a Georgina resident sue any of them over the breach in the Act, wouldn't it still be our taxes footing their defence through their insurance policies? Isn't that what passing the by-law was about anyway (given that Mayor and council were already financially protected should someone sue them but not the other way around)?

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The Conflict of Interest charges against Aurora's ex-Mayor  have been  filed by a resident. The ex-Mayor will not be indemnified   since she is no longer a member of Council.

It does have to be a citizen who takes the action at his/her own expense. That's how serious the Province is about enforcing Conflict of Interest prohibitions.

They stick us with four year terms of office and  responsibility of private citizens having to enforce their laws.

 Aurora's  gang of six  continue to be indemnified  under another suit, apparently because they were councillors when the action began and even though they started the legal process with their phoney baloney Code of Conduct and a lawyer to contrive a complaint  who was paid a fee of $70,000.

I have been informed  the insurance company initially refused to indemnify. But yet another legal opinion was obtained  at taxpayer's expense to convince them they should.

I have tried to discover the total amount spent on legal fees from the start of  the four year term . Except at the beginning , before the wholesale turnover of staff ,I was stonewalled by staff and politicians. I haven't finished with it yet.

In Aurora, legal costs for the ex-Mayor's last Hurrah  of suing three residents, had not been paid  by the time of the election. . The new council  retained another lawyer at another  fee of $8,000. to tell them what to do. Of course  he advised the  lawyer's  bill should be paid.  So they did. They paid the  $65,000
tab run up by the defeated Mayor up to December 1st..

It seems to be a generational thing. Modern Councillors tend to  believe they are not  obliged to exercise any judgement. They need to be advised every step of the way by their professional superiors.
If the professional says it, it must be right.

It must have something to do with the educational system.

Councillors also willingly make themselves available to lobbyists and let themselves be persuaded to hand over the keys of  the kingdom willy nilly .

It fairly makes a mockery of everything I understand about accountability.

But...what do I know ?

From the extreme of getting rid of all staff who offered a hint of resistance to  the harridans, to the other extreme of  presenting  a soft plushy body to plunder with ultimately the same result:

The taxpayers get hosed.

But I digress.

Municipalities purchase indemnification policies to hedge against insurance claims. Premiums are paid.
If  claim are valid, the insurance company pays.

Indemnification does not provide for politicians or staff to sue people.  

Mayor Grossi's litigation could not be paid by the insurance company. They should not have been paid with  public funds either. Except for Council taking the extraordinary step of passing a bylaw. 

The community needs to see the bylaw. Who signed it ?.  Is the Mayor's signature on the dotted line ?   Is the Clerk's?

The clerk, who allowed Council to roll right on from a Council- in -Committee meeting into a Special Meeting  of Council without public notice or circulation of an agenda to notify the community of what their  Council is about.

Oh My Gawd!!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

E. Who owns the Pefferlaw Newspaper? They are going to be swamped !

Anonymous said...

The offensive and offending former mayor of the town that was supposed to get its aura back should be found by the judge hearing her conflicted-pecuniary case to have been in violation on all charges and ordered to repay the town the $55,000 paid on her behalf for asphalt lawyers, bar her the maximum 7 years from seeking public office, and, of course, reimburse in full the appellant who filed the application.

Please don't wait until 2014.

Let's get this done this year!

Anonymous said...

"The offensive and offending former mayor of the town that was supposed to get its aura back should be found by the judge hearing her conflicted-pecuniary case to have been in violation on all charges and ordered to repay the town the $55,000 paid on her behalf for asphalt lawyers, bar her the maximum 7 years from seeking public office, and, of course, reimburse in full the appellant who filed the application.

Please don't wait until 2014.

Let's get this done this year!"

What I love about this blog is how we tend to dispense with due-process and the highly held idea that someone is innocent until proven guilty. Here we peel back the fabric and see that the necks are very red. NOt only has this poster found the party guilty, he.she has also passed sentence. I don't know why we spend all those tax dollars on judges when we could just use this mentality.

Anonymous said...

8:39 AM
"ignore"

Anonymous said...

To Anonymous 30 January, 2012 8:39 A

Ya right... like Morris waited for due process... you have to be kidding me ! Where have you been all these years ?