IS THIS SOMETHING?

A thread has spun its length when comments are sufficiently convoluted as to be unintelligible. 

Mike Duffy's trial is interesting. Intimate personal details  from a daily journal could be left out but that's not going to happen. The Media frenzy has begun. 

Yesterday squishy rules for senate expenses were exposed.

PMO demands on a senator for party political events is unlikely to confound the enemy but public reaction to the underbelly of politics is never a given. 

 I have discovered a similar obscurity in Regional  rules on
payments to Councillors.

Something on Wikipedia caught my attention months ago. 

Former Georgina Mayor ,chair of South Lake Simcoe Conservation Authority, was charged by the Authority  

for illegal dumping. Media noted SLSCA suspended the Chair from his position and  remuneration.

A couple of things about the story resonated.

Although elected  by authority members to the chair, Grossi would have been appointed to the Authority  by the Region. SLSCA  members would not therefore have authority to suspend.

The second  dingdong related to remuneration. 

Salaries of Regional Councillors cover responsibilities assigned. No additional payments are due for service on

various Regional Boards and Commissions. 

I called SLSCA  for clarification. Sure enough,regional members are being paid $60. per diem for meetings. An annual honorarium of $10,000. Is paid to the chair. Conference allowance and mileage expenses  are also paid.

Members  participating in meetings by telephone conference
are paid half the per diem rate.

No provision is made  in the Municipal Act for telephone conferencing. 

I called the Region to discover .when or if the policy to prevent  double-dipping had  been reversed.

The search was lengthy. My experience was forty-three years past.

No policy was discovered . A resolution attached to a particular appointment noted no remuneration to be paid. 

York  Police Services Board has  regional representation. A Regional rep  has been Chair since early nineteen nineties. Police board members are not paid. Regional salaries are obviously. deemed to cover the service. 

In the last term,former Vaughan Regional Councillor Deb Shulte did not accept pay from Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. 

York Rehion requires both Conservation Authorities to submit statements showing members being paid and how much.

Statements  are attached to the Regional Report  on Members salaries and expenses.

Like revealing double-dipping and makes double-dipping O.K.