A NON-ITEM ON ANY AGENDA

Had a short exchange with Councillor  Mrakas on Facebook .Thought  I'd share. Like many stories, it has a beginning, not necessarily an end. 

A recent call to the town took twelve or fifteen rings before an answer, then placed on hold for a further ten minutes. Customer Service attendant was attending to a customer at the desk.

I was not aware of town retail sales initiative. 

The 2015 budget included two additional staff  for  C.S. Department. Council had understood  the program would not require additional personnel. 

Newmarket and Whitchurch-Stouffville were doing it. 

The new facility took forever to build with a new manager's office at the rear. The job of a twenty-six year employee was snatched out from under. Apart from ethics,

the severance would be expensive. 

Purpose of re-organization was to facilitate  access to appropriate town departments. 

A manager permanently appointed from a contract position in charge of accessibility initiative gave the first lie to the statement there would be no additional staff. 

Her  replacement was youth co-ordinator in recreation. Without experience but increased salary.

My first experience with C.S  was a parking problem.. A resident asked for a meeting  after weeks of involvement with the Mayor's office and  C.S.  At the meeting, we learned C.S.manager  had tried personally, earnestly and unsuccessfully to resolve the problem with repeated contact with regional police. She was not aware the town had a traffic engineering division. 

The Russian resident was not fluent in English.  An interpreter was retained at town expense,got stuck in traffic and arrived too late. 

Two weeks before last, reading to the end of Brock Weir's column in The Auroran, I learned the town iis in the retail business of  selling souvenirs at the Customer Service desk in the Town Hall. 

Now to the exchange on Facebook with Councillor Mrakas. 

It seems the item never came before Council. There was no discussion or approval of the enterprise. No reference to the initiative during budget and no indication of cost or anticipated revenues. 

Yesterday I visited the town web site to access street maps. Found no maps. But did find sales promotion of dishes  bearing town logo and such. 

So questions arise:

Whose office did the sales rep visit?

Who was responsibile for making the executive decision to launch into retail  enterprise? 

Who assigned responsibility to Customer Service? 

Who ordered inventory and created accommodation? 

Who directed Communications to promote sales?

What's going on? 

Does Aurora Council accept their phoney- baloney decorative role in the  grand scheme of things? 

I hear during Council meetings the Mayor busies himself with his blackberry when a speaker is of no interest.  Lap tops in front of  Councillor Abel and various Directors are open at pages unrelated to  Council matters  being discussed. 

Time off in-lieu is provided for time spent by dIrectors at meetings.