Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Dragon Is Smouldering":
8:25 PM
You can have a look right here in Aurora. The Bellamy Inquiry identified ' donations to charitable events sponsored by PUBLIC OFFICE HOLDERS as ' problematic
corporate benefits' because they ' erode public trust'. If
Ballard's Ranger Gala solicitation of donations for the auction and flogging tickets to corporations such as Magna doesn't break the rules, show me why not.
****************
This is reflects another one of those changes that happened over the years that is definitely not a change for the better.
Time was when the tax collecting bodykept itself separate from the voluntary fundraising community.
The United Appeal was the classic example.With one hand,they solicited voluntary donations in the community. With the other, they regularly appeared before Councils and requested contributions out of tax revenues.They didn't get it.
They asked for employees to be encouraged to have automatic deductions from salaries. They didn't get that either.
It was an example of double-dipping in the clearest of terms. The aggressive nature of the United Appeal was not lost on the community.
In those days, we had few developers,consultants,big legal firms, road builders etc. to be coerced into contributing to fundraisers.
I have never felt comfortable with the decision-makers asking for contributions from companies likely to be affected by the decisions.
The practice is widespread. It doesn't stand up to the test.
A voluntary group fund-raising for a particular project and having no influence on decisions to be made is different.
A corporation deciding of their own will to provide
financial support for a project is something else.
In my view, there is an inescapable element of coercion when politicians do it. And an inescapable expectation of favourable consideration on the part of the contributor.
There, I am glad to have had the opportunity to say that finally without it sounding like a gratuitous attack on a colleague.
Thursday, 15 March 2012
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
5 comments:
Last year Mayor Dawe and councillors tripped over each other to help Ballard's $300 ticket event. We'll see if anything has been learned. In the meantime, if Ballard persists,, we will have a good look at that Belamy Inquiry as we cut our cheque for the Food Pantry instead of purchasing a ticket. There are several REAL fund-risers with decent ticket costs in the same time frame. Including one which provides a meal and entertainment..
"You can have a look right here in Aurora. The Bellamy Inquiry identified ' donations to charitable events sponsored by PUBLIC OFFICE HOLDERS as ' problematic
corporate benefits' because they ' erode public trust'. If
Ballard's Ranger Gala solicitation of donations for the auction and flogging tickets to corporations such as Magna doesn't break the rules, show me why not. "
mmmmm I don't know.
Ballard did not sponsor the event. He had been a member of the QYRA prior to being a councillor. The event was sponsored by the QYRA. Semantics maybe, but I have given him a pass.
I see elected officials being involved in fund raising enterprises all of the time. Not as sponsors. I think their involvement may lead to some legitimacy to the event, and perhaps that is a good thing.
Speaking hypothetically as there is some reading to be done, I think it might be difficult for Balard to convince a Municipal Court judge that the Gala hasn't been his own personal project from the beginning.His Blog probably would show how it developed. He definitely used his Councillor role in soliticiting donations and ticket sales. Hope he figures this out and we don't have to bother.
Having recently finished watching Alison's "Our Town" on the Auroran site, it occurs to me that we are guaranteed freedom of expression under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
It would be somehow appropriate considering the juvenile manner in which our municipal Council conducts itself and its meetings if the word "intelligent" were inserted before the word "expression."
This would cleanse the room of the trio of morons named Ballard, Gaertner and Gallo, who constantly interrupt and disrupt the attempts by other members of Council and staff to conduct the affairs of the town and its taxpayers, the ostensible reason for these meetings in the first place.
If this trio had to pay $10 per wasted minute caused by them individually and $25 per wasted minute caused by them collectively, meetings would end on time and the town's treasury might have a few thousand dollars more to spend on worthwhile projects.
3:50 PM
Semantics perhaps. But Ballard was the Sponsor and spokesman for his Gala. His team to get donations included Morris and Marshall; those in attendance at the poorly attended event were influenced by his elected position rather than by the cause itself. He cannot claim it was a town-based evening.
Post a Comment