I don't normally read the Mayor's column. I suspect a ghost writer. Err I confide my suspicion I decided to read it one more time.
Yup. I think so.
A paragraph in the middle confirms my doubts.
It says the Mayor has "never subscribed to the notion of making an investment decision without a business case"
Goodness Gracious ! Great Balls of Fire! That is just not so !
No business case was made to buy real estate for a heritage theme park. The Mayor's name complete with title was first on the list of VIPs supporting that airy-fairy boondoggle.
Procedure was twisted into a pretzel to reverse Council's decision to require the proponent to provide a business plan.
A business case for creation of a Board to manage a culture centre was successfully sabotaged. Seed money on a reducing scale was to lead to self-sufficiency. Said seed money morphed into increased and permanent funding under the Mayor's selective oversight.
The intention to gift $11 million to entice York University to locate a campus in our town was not accompanied by a business plan.
A few more can be named:
Fab Lab .
Thirty year lease of property costing assessment revenue and jobs.
$514,000 to buy back a corner of the town park complete with a contaminated building and contaminated soil from a government that used and abused it for a hundred and forty years in exchange for one thin dime of comparative value.
A clear bag garbage initiative.
$1 million salt removal treatment facility where there was no salt.
$26million joint works and parks facility with most cost in remediation of a bad site in a worse location hardly qualifies
as a business plan.
Referenced in the column is a tax on current residents for fire protection needed for homes not yet built. Hardly business advantage to taxpayers already carrying the full burden for current service.
Contradictions galore confirm suspicion the column is not authentic. This partial list of innovations and initiatives that bombed in the past four years had no business plans and simply do not accord with the written declaration.
Not only do I believe the column is ghost written,I surmise the ghost writer works offshore at a considerable distance from the real world.
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10 comments:
Cattiness is so unseemly.
"a business case" is just a slogan so widely used to fit every situation it no longer has much meaning. If you try to obtain some facts used to support the business case you will be met with resistance at town hall.
I think, in at the least the case of the new public works garage, the nine or so people who showed for an open house were proof positive of a good business case. I think one of the nine opposed but the others had their hot dogs and showed no visible opposition. Public support makes for a good business case. Case closed.
It is definitely the work of a small committee. Very small and well paid.
If it is a ghost I would suggest one of two from the Network.
Maybe that is what the Communications does ?
I guess he made an oops!
Without concepts, thoughts and ideas there would be no future.
So possibly the Mayor is simply thinking out loud, hoping for a tooth fairy to come swooping in with bags of undelivered dollars.
We have to be able to dream, but such activity is not necessarily businesslike.
I think he might have written some during his first year that got him into trouble. Since then the columns have been very careful and probably disingenuous.
17:09
May I please disagree . Those on his campaign told him to basically shut up...... and it worked quite well.
He's definitely taken a page or two from Regional Council. They all sound the same. The debt will soon start here mirroring quite a few towns in the Region already. The Region is at 2.7 Billion in debt. How the hell did those mayors and Regional councillors get re-elected with their Towns in debt and contributed to the Regions debt is beyond me. But then again...The Liberals won with a majority government, and Chris Ballard is an MPP!
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