Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The
Best Laid Plans Gang Aft Agley":
No wonder Phyllis' Web-site claims
that she love this town. Aurora paid for her vendetta SLAPP lawsuit and is now
apparently paying while she uses lawyers so as not to return the town's original
money which was miss-spent as the Defamation case was thrown out. Has the world
gone nuts! Don't these insurance people talk to each other?
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The S.L.A P.P was the last vendetta. It was undertaken during the election campaign .
Vendettas started in the first week of a the 2007-2010 term and continued throughout.
Hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars have departed the town treusury.
The "investigation" of myself which amounted listening to tapes of my comments during public meetings,reading the blogs and letters to the editor and interpreting the meaning to suit the purpose as instructed.
Writing the report. And composing the complaint as instructed. That task alone had a price tag of $70,000.
There was the vendetta against the former Mayor that continued for two years. The one against the former CAO.involved the services of John Mascarin and carried on for months.
Several attempts by myself to have figures released were successfully foiled with staff co-operation.
Oh yes and there was the staff operson coerced to file a complaint of harrassment and professional fees expended there as well.
And the second Integrity Commissioner and with his $40 or $5o thousand.to connsdier two complaints against myslf by Councillor Mac Eachern.
Funds expended are undoubtedly in the hundred of thousands.
Add costs of severance for various staff relieved of responsibilities and figures might even reach the scope of a federal sponsorship scandal.
The S.L.A.P.P. action cost least of all because the town's role in was terminated by the election.
But not before we paid Mr. Rust D'Eye $8,500 to advise we should pay $55,000 to the lawyer retained to process the S.L.A,P.P.action..
I didn't agree with asking for that advice or acting on it either.
A severance figure of $186,000 was in addition to that.
The town's 2013 budget has been increased by $36,000 to accommodate the increase in insurance premiums. due to the increase in claims.
Holy Doodle! If they had spent a fraction of that money & effort on just managing the town as they had been elected to do, we would have been in a much better place. But, then, the 'management' part didn't go too well either. West Hill must have cost a bundle as well as the chicanes and that old bug-bear, the Centre.
ReplyDelete"Vendettas started in the first week of a the 2007-2010 term and continued throughout."
ReplyDeleteReally??? Day 1 after the election she woke up and said "I am the Mayor, now it's time to smite those that have pissed me off"?
I really think that you give her too much credit. I think that she got tied up into events and they dragged her down into a spiral that, looking at them as a whole, appear to be a grand plan. I don't think she is that bright to think a plan up like that.
11:06 AM
ReplyDeleteNot on her own she wasn't. It is remarkable that the group of individuals came together to form such a unit. Such a confluence of negative energy does not occur often.
Don't forget former Councillor Grace Marsh. She quit council because of how she was treated and then had her reasoning misrepresented. Grace wrote a letter to the editor in an effort to correct the public record.
ReplyDeleteGrace Marsh should have stated clearly her reasons for quitting at the time of her resignation. Morris then wouldn't have had the opportunity to misrepresent them, and the wider public would have had an insight into the nasty goings-on at Town Hall.
ReplyDeleteTo 9:31 AM.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that Morris knew full well why Grace quit.
As I recall, I think that Grace could not stand being bullied.
Grace Marsh wrote a letter in the April 29, 2008 issue of The Auroran. I think that it’s worth a remembering what happened to her.
ReplyDeleteHere is a quote. “I also expected an atmosphere of respect for others and their opinions, a working atmosphere similar to most business environments where discussion can and [do] take place without anger, threats and insults... I personally felt it was a situation I could no longer tolerate”.
I’m willing to bet that there are a few councillors from the previous term who shared Grace's experience and concerns.
We can only hope that the previous council’s legacy of acrimony speaks for itself as does the lingering effect of some of its remnants and its defenders.
I think that Grace and many other people would agree that the previous council in no way set the standard for freedom of thought and expression. Quite the opposite.