This October has five Tuesdays .
The regular schedule has two Council meetings and two Committee meetings.
I find organization of the agenda a bit of a puzzlement.
Tuesday's Council had little of substance to deal with other than the four motions I presented.
In May June July and August, going into and throughout the sumer recess, agendas were jammed with issues .
We dealt with half at each meting though we worked until midnight,
Many important issues got short shrift as a consequence.
Presentations and awards got priority and delegations took huge blocks of he time allocated for town business.
Motions by Councillors waited months not weeks to be heard. It was hardly worthwhile under the circumstances.
Months ago Councillor Abel put forward a motion without notice ,to direct the director of Parks and Recreation, to do a small study and report back on "feasibility " of the idea of the town buying a block of land with Yonge Street frontage for a "Heritage Park"
That was after Council had informed the proponent of the scheme , Bill Albino and a real estate agent owner of one of the properties they should prepare a business plan before coming back and after they'd gone to the Heritage Committee angling for a recommendation from them to Council.
I asked the Director several weeks ago ,how was that feasibility report coming along ?how was he doing it ? and how much time was he spending on it ?
Turned out ,none at all, the task had been taken from him.
I think he said it had been given to the heretofore planner , now a special projects manager in the CAOs department.
I have since heard from two sources, the second being Chris Watts that $25,000 is being spent on it.
I know nothing about that. But it's possible because the CAO has authority to spend far more than that without Council approval.
All of which leads me to believe there's very little respect for the role of Council and transparency goes by the board.
Last Tuesday the Mayor reported the town had made it to the short list of some institute of excellence as one of the top hundred employers in Canada.
The application was prepared by the town's manager of communications
Who does stuff like that ?
When the town won the Prince Charles Award for something or other, I tried to find out who we were our competitors. Who did we beat out?
It was a secret.
Could be we were the only ones who nominated ourselves.
I concluded there weren't enough towns with enough staff with enough time on their hands to be messing about with stuff like that .
The prize might not mean anything at all.
Sunday, 27 October 2013
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11 comments:
It's like scholarships for universities. There are all sorts of them that don't get awarded because no one knows they exist. Kids or their folks now spend hours on their computers searching for the missing money link. It does sound like the town has assigned someone to do nothing else but apply for grants from all possible sources. That's OK but they could hire a student or retired resident to do it from home for a heck of a lot less.
That Heritage pipe-dream never had any feasibility. One of its promoters threatened that one property would be sold if the town didn't move quickly. That didn't happen. No one else wants any part of the deal.
The Stronach Park was real. Where in blazes did it go ?
The Stronach Park if it is to move forward to the Town, needs an environmental study done. An extensive one at that.
11:25
Why ? It is a Stronach project on Stronach land with Stronach money. He will have done the necessary research. If Aurora gets petty, he can just throw up a bunch of houses.
To 11:25.I see the concern if it was to be turned over to the town.If there is a transfer it should be checked out first.
@11:25
Your strings are showing.
The Mayor of Buffalo has been on TV recently reporting on all the good things it is doing - one of them is a 15% reduction in residential tax rates.
Please tell our Mayor to tell the CAO to tell his special project man to find out how Buffalo is doing it. Lets see if we can do it. That would be worthy of an award.
Then ask Aurorans if they'd rather live in Buffalo.
14:31
There was no mention of turning anything over to the town. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Frank Stronach's intelligence.
@18:10
What does a comparison in tax rates have to do with where people might prefer to live. We are getting hosed here. There has just been a study showing we pay more in service than comparable towns. There is no excuse for such an anomaly.
To 14:56
You have not a clue so why are you grasping at straws?
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