An e-mail circulated yesterday to Councillors alerted to the
Release on Thursday's edition on the Town's web site of "Council Highlights" from Tuesday's meeting.
Support of a resolution from King Council was cited as a highlight. King was in support of a resolution of York Regional Council to request the Province to add five new members to York Regional Council;one for Vaughan because of the increase in population and four for Northern Municipalities because we only have one each
No Councillor's name was credited with the initiative at either the Region or King Council.
The second highlight from Tuesday's meeting was Council's endorsation of a motion by Mayor Geoffrey Dawe to support efforts by the Province of Ontario to address the manufacture and supply of contraband tobacco.
Citing "contraband tobacco provides unrestricted access to minors and can negatively affect small businesses" , the motion calls for "Chair of York Regional Council to write a letter to the Minister of Finance in support of the province's efforts to eradicate contraband tobacco through increased fines, strengthened legal authority for enforcement officials and collaboration with the federal government"
I guess Council messing around and around with Target's plans to promote their business with a sign that staff spent time studying and found acceptable on all counts, didn't count as a highlight.of the meeting.
Two meetings, lord knows how much staff time, a staff report in support, delegation of two by business involved, in support of the staff recommendtion for approval , all kinds of expense, public and private and nothing accomplished at the end of it all didn't merit a mention.
It certainly wasn't a highlight.
None of that was worth a comment. No Highlight there.
But Mayor Geoffrey Dawe's resolution on contraband tobacco accompanied by his rationale was Cause Celebre .
I referred to the item yesterday. I said strategy, if there was one,
might soon be revealed.
Well, who'd have thunk it. A day later, there it is.For all to see.
Council Highlight on the web site. The corporate communication division ever ready at hand ,to promote the Mayor's concerns. .
Never mind that contraband tobacco is entirely the responsibility of senior levels of government and they are apparently on top of it.
Never mind the municipality isn't too swift at attending to resolutions dealing with our own affairs.
Heigh Ho! Off we go !
Finding windmills to tilt at .
Using the corporate communications division to promote the image.
Three people are employed in the division.
It's a sample of what we get for our money. .
.
Friday 16 November 2012
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13 comments:
Well, as far as it goes, I suppose this one is slightly more high-minded than clotheslines.
"Right to Dry" vs. "Right to save little Johnny/Janie from the perils of ill-gotten tobacco".
Ugh.
Yup. And we were all supposed to use clothes lines- even in winter- while the tanning business were closed down. Now it is illicit tobacco . I guess local politicians do not understand how to prioritize.
IT IS THE BUDGET, STUPID !
Let me see if I've got this right. Aurora's mayor & Staff are going to help the Federal Government and the Province cut down on illegal tobacco so they can collect more taxes. Because aurora is such a hot-bed of illicit drugs? Say what?
There is just one wee problem with this grand plan. An audit of the town's web-site will quickly discover that no one uses it for anything except checking on Council activities and meetings. An enormous waste of time and effort. No one visits Aurora's web-site. The Auroran and the Blogs provide the news. Sorry, mate.
Out-dated concept. Teenagers are not interested in smoking tobacco. The Mayor is going after the wrong leafy plant.
It will likely all blow over. The Birthday party was of great interest for one council meeting. Until staff said they would not have time for planning one & Council voted against hiring a high-priced planner. Then he handed it over to a bunch of volunteers who are doing all the heavy lifting. Passing fancies as the golf season ends.
This is most bizarre. May I humbly suggest that the Mayor take a carload of kids to a concert and breath the air ? Not tobacco.
Did Council authorize the cost of those meetings and the public relations stuff on the web-site? We simply do not need any more meetings that end up costing taxpayer dollars.
It strikes me that a Council approaching the half-way mark in its term of office would be more ably led by Mayor Dawe.
It is preposterous for him and Council to deal with matters that have nothing whatsoever to do with our town, matters that our town has absolutely no jurisdiction over.
Perhaps he was high on another tobacco product.
And then to read about this on Council Highlights as written by the Corporate Communications Department, is plain and simple nonsense.
You would think Aurora is a multi-billion dollar multi-national. Think Magna for comparison.
And for Council to discuss all sorts of rather stupid options regarding a Target sign is another symptom of incompetence. The matter was the subject of a staff report and concerns a very significant new member of our business community. To diddle and daddle away about painted signs and glow and on and on and on....this is mediocre.
I don't entirely agree with you, 11:21 PM, but the 'mediocre' tag does fit this council. It's much better than the previous one (how could it be worse?!), but right now, there's only two of the nine that I'd re-elect.
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.
9:01 AM
I have your 2 possibles to re-elect but am vacillating on a 3rd, Councillor Thompson. The memory of that flip over the Centre is proving to be a speed-bump.
10:53 AM, Cllr Thompson is one of my two, with Mayor Dawe as the other. We're best rid of the rest.
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