"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 17 February 2013

A Tale of Whoa,Whoa,Whoa

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "There's a Funny Side":

To 5:02 PM
A follow-up to your comment, please.
Rather than wondering how Lucid proposes to generate their profit, I would really like to know if you have any idea how much the Jazz Gang were bringing in per year. I am not familiar with all the details but would expect that adding concession permits and percentages from vendors as well as controlling all food and drink sales and admission costs would run into high numbers. Then some musicians might even have paid to participate for the exposure. I apologize if those numbers were made available. Just have never heard a ' true tally'. That might explain the fury with which they are opposing Lucid ??


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The lst figures I saw were $145,000 or thereabouts. I think $6000 were donated to a couple of charities and  about $5,000  left over after all expenses were paid. 

The first year they reeived a sponsorship from the town of $2,500.
That was in 2010 .. A town manager gave it to them on the basis it was  economic development  Council wasn't consulted. 

I  learned last week, the town paid for the fencing in the first year.  I did not know that. Band shell fees were waived but it's never been clear if the sponsorship funds were supposed to cover that.

No fees were charged for  use of the park But they solicited vendors and charged them fees.

The first year of this term, they received another sponsorship. Councillor Ballard argued  to give it to them so that they could get a Trillium grant.of $25,000.How would it look if they were applying for a grant and didn't even get one from the municipality?

The next year they were offered $3,000 by the town. They came  and said it wasn't enough. So they got $5,000. 

Of course  that's peanuts in comparison to all the other money we give away. We were suppoosed to be getting  publicity for the town in return for the money and  use of our facilities.

The year we  stopped giving them money because it  seemed they were doing quite well without town funds, was the year they gave us all the bad publicity.The Association of Festivals of Ontario weighed in with their criticism as well.

In 2012   they did not receive any money from the town. That year they had a list of very important invited guests at a ceremony that didn't include the Mayor of the Town.

Councillor Ballard was one of the V.I.P.s . I believe they said they wanted to have someone they could trust. 

Other nasty things were said  that year  in letters to the editor after we  decided to open the opportunity up to other organisations  who might be interested 

Even  last week, a letter from Steven Falk appeared in The Auroran  saying  how wicked we  are to treat  people that way  who have done so much for our town.

The  financial statement would be a  part of the town's records late in 2011.
It was asked for and received. 
It was a tidy sum. 
That was the year the Optimists and the Rotary Club opted out of the operation after being asked to surrender their earnings to the festival group.        

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

They lost money this year with the rain out.

Anonymous said...

Macleans.ca
JulieSmith
" London, Ont. councillors honour themselves with Diamond Jubilee medals in off-camera vote. "

Anonymous said...

Perhaps that is correct, 11:26 AM. But, since Aurora was never included in the good years, it is difficult to empathize if that was a bad one. Forgive the skepticism but I suspect " Management " was well paid up front.

Anonymous said...

London has the ward system so it is easy to identify your own personal villain. All the names & wards are now listed in the comments on that Macleans' item. Sounds like small potatoes to people from Aurora who got really ripped off by a Council back in the day.

Anonymous said...

A morning question, please
Is there any sort of un-written rule that you cannot occupy your hands while listening to presentations at a meeting? There appear to be several long delegation talks coming up next week and I do know that some councillors have used their twitty things during a meeting Would it break the Code of Conduct if you had some knitting?