Paul Sesto has left a new comment on your post "Here's The Thing":
I encourage anyone making comments if they haven't already done so to actually read the Report No. LGL11-011 on its recommendations concerning the ACC and the original agreement.
This is freely available at http://www.town.aurora.on.ca/app/wa/mediaEntry?mediaEntryId=59273
(see page 5 for Item 9 LGL11-011 Church Street School - Cultural Services Agreement Review - if you click on this link you'll be taken to the 18 page pdf report that includes the original signed agreement of June 9, 2009).
This is the report that Councillors Abel & Pirri are acting upon. They are simply following up on the recommendations of the Town Solicitor. Perhaps it may be negligent on the Town’s part not to follow through with the recommendations in order to protect the Town’s interests.
Please see the report. Perhaps if a solicitor (Town Solicitor, Associate Town Solicitor or contracted external legal counsel) was engaged for the writing and/or review of the original agreement in 2009, they would have found the same omissions that Mr. Mar found in his present review prompting their actions.
The ACC may be operating within the guidelines of the agreement but it is the recommendation that it is the agreement that is flawed.
I would hope that the Council would handle any other agreement and disbursement of funds in the same responsible manner be it ACC, sports or the Arboretum.
I am not against the ACC but they have to be responsibly run like any other organization funded by the Town and if the agreement is flawed it should be changed for the better.
From what I can tell in the agreement, there are no predetermined measurements from the Town to determine the ACC’s success. It is perhaps an old & tired saying but “if you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it”- and this is relevant whether it is a business or a non-profit. How does the Town justify the expenditure? How does the ACC show the money has been well spent (and if so ask for more funding)?
I simply encourage anyone who is interested to read the report.
Friday, 17 February 2012
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
5 comments:
Thank you, Mr. Sesto, as usual. There are at least 3 Council seats open and yawning. Please consider us.
If the Center had kept quiet and re-negotiated the contract, none of this garbage would have happened. Instead they appeared at numerous Council meetings shouting abuse, wrote nasty letters to the papers and just kept on spending the money of Aurora taxpayers,There are plenty who could take their place with grace and humour. Patience has finally gone after far too long. You EARN a place in Aurora. You do not TAKE it.
This all has a familiar ring to it. Wasn't there another arts group that received town money with little or no accountability and when challenged acted with indignation ?
I have to wonder how much longer it will take to repair the damage done during the previous council term ?
The previous council sure did not do as well as one would expect for a group that appeared to have an affinity for lawyers. When you look at their effectiveness and success rate from the perspective of the code of conduct, procedures, contracts and lawsuits their performance wasn’t very impressive.
Misinformation or lack of information does not help anyone.
In this weekend's Banner there is an article about the ACC and it also appears on the web at: http://www.yorkregion.com/news/article/1300915--councillors-seek-aurora-cultural-centre-review
I just sent in the following below to the paper for correction:
In regards to the story: Councillors seek cultural centre review by Jeremy Grimaldi - Feb 17/12
In the last paragraph of the story it is stated: "If Mr. Pirri and Mr. Abel get their way, the current agreement will end Feb. 28 and a new agreement will be ushered in by March 1."
It should read that "if they get their way Council will pass a resolution to terminate the current agreement upon 12 months written notice to the Centre so that the agreement will end February 28, 2013 with the intent of a new agreement starting March 1, 2013."
Without the year (2013), it makes it appear that the Centre will close immediately which is misleading to the public.
Mr. Grimaldi needs to refer back to Town's original agreement or the Town of Aurora's General Committee Report No. LGL11-011 which contains the Cultural Services Agreement.
Post a Comment