To Emphasize the Point

This story , like the Consultant Study on Service Levels has a purpose.

In the last term a situation repeated many times. The Mayor took it upon herself to raise hell in a particular direction.  An employee of eighteen years standing stood his ground.

It  turned out to be  in ground for dismissal.

He walked out the door with a settlement sufficient to pay off his mortgage, buy a new car and then some.  Started a new job the following Monday in another regional municipality for more money than
he was paid in Aurora after eighteen years.

I asked  to be informed of the circumstances. I was refused the information. It was the authority of the administration and not my right to kow.

Of course I kept burrowing and  learned what I have revealed  above.

I told you it was not a solitary incident.

There was never a  separate public accounting of how much tax money was paid out in severance settlements during that time. But there were severl in the  hundreds of thousands range.

Then there were the legal fees. Also contrived to remain a dark and dusty secret.

Except for the $70,000 paid to  the lawyer  to hunt me down like a dog.

The $650,000 it cost for the OMB hearing on the Westhill Development Application. That didn't include all the court  proceedings  and legal costs beforehand  and repeated failure to get a joint  board  environmental hearing .

Phenomenal   waste of  resources  was reflected in the annual spending levy in the previous term.

The election should have meant  an immediate reduction in  the tax levy required to support the profligate  spending.

It  didn't . Each year since  taxes continued to increase.

Assessment growth, new grants from gas tax sharing from senior levels of government , intended to lessen the burden on home-owners, create jobs and stimulate the economy , have not reached our pockets.

Even  the Province  absorbing increases in education taxes for the last ten years  has not provided  intended relief to the property tax burden.

When the Mayor says taxes must rise he believes that's true. He is not  skeptical .

Because it was there when they got there, they think CULTURE  is an essential service .

it should be provided "free"

Picking our  pockets to distribute  largesse to every Tom,Dick and Harry is perfectly acceptable.

To say nothing of pandering  shamefully to every outrageous demand  from the nimby set within our midst.

The pattern  was set by the last lot. It  caused them to be ejected without a parachute.

Unfortunately ,those who replaced them, like Michael Ignatieff thought the election was about them. Not the people.