A FOOL'S ERRAND

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Strategy Revealed In Short Order":

Pray tell. Where is the report on disposition of the land Aurora owns around the Old Library site? Where is the promised space for youth? Where is the Museum?etc etc etc.
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Well you may ask. No report has been forthcoming on the surplus  property owned by the town on Victoria Street

Despite a resolution unanimously passed by Council well nigh a year ago.

Instead we have two items in the capital construction budget for roof covering and an HVAC system in the old library; nos. 72151.72152  in the 1st draft at an estimated cost of $75.000 and $125,000 respectively.
  
 The draft budget has already been scrutinized  and culled twice  by the Executive Leadership Team and signed off  by the CAO and CFO.

 I received an e-mail from a citizen  about the time of the resolution, informing  me of  construction activity in the old library . Nothing  about that was ever reported to Council.

Can't help feeling your Council doesn't count for much in a Mayor Geoffrey Dawe  administration.

The same Council  that  recently directed  the CAO and  staff person responsible for retention and expansion of industrial and commercial development, to  work at  bringing  a post-secondary educational institution  to the Town of Aurora

Two members of the Economic Development Committee will be added to the team which  will  no doubt include the Mayor. The plan has a  few shortcomings.
There are no parameters on staff time or expenditure.Both could be completely occupied in the exercise.
The Mayor's time costs a fraction of theirs. When he's doing that he's not doing anything else. Committee members are volunteers.  Their time is at no cost to taxpayers.
But the CAO and the economic development afficionado are being paid  for a specific  purpose and it's not  chasing around the country after will o'-the- wisps. 
Think about it: The Province is responsible for post-secondary institutions. The Province is in debt to the tune of trillions  Cutting  back on expenditures is de rigeur. 
Municipalities are already feeling the impact .
Seneca College sits  on a beautiful, estate on Dufferin Street  with ample room for expansion .
Georgian College in Barrie, provides some university programs.  Seneca could do that too. 
York University and the Finch campus of Seneca  are within commuting distance.
Toronto University, Ryerson, graduated to a University, George Brown are all popular choices for  young people in our communities.
The Mayor and his little team will certainly be granted audiences  with Cabinet Ministers and College dignitaries. Like U;S  Army generals, it's how these people occupy their time. 
Travel expenses, lunches and puffed up feelings of purpose for the team will all be experienced  at public expense.
Chances of success  however are zero to nil.
I can hear the complaints now. There she goes shooting down every initiative. Always negative. Never positive. 
In the mean time, work awaits at the town hall .  Like the report pending ,on disposition of two surplus buildings  one for twelve years, the other for seven. And a move to accomplish something with  a ready resource and within our authority passes us by for a lack of something or other.Could  that  be iniative  
Mayor Dawe likes to speak to me in Council like a wayward child and  his the senior authority of a wise Chief Magistrate.
I can be wayward .
But hardly a child.
Pushing  and harrying  forward on a fool's errand,  using public resources,  is unlikely to succeed anywhere,save   the rarified controlled atmosphere  of  the  Council  Chamber.
It is no longer the only forum available.