"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Wednesday 19 August 2015

APPLES TO KUMQUATS

Apples to Apples has left a new comment on your post "WHEEEEEE": 

Maintenance costs are incurred irrespective of the building's purpose. When discussing the cost to the Town of the Cultural Centre, please confine it to the dollar total of the grant re: the Cultural Services Agreement. (approx. $350,000)

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Well no... not precisely.  Rent is normally calculated with maintenance cost a factor. Profit in the property business is also a consideration.The Culture Board pays no rent. Therefore maintenance is another deficit like everything else associated with the program. 

Municipal Cirporations are expected to be managed as a business with fairness and equity the abiding principles. 

Whatever program revenues the board earns, the board keeps. Secret meetings are the rule. Council members appointed  to represent town interest are obligated to maintain  secrecy. 

It's a breach of legal requirement of elected office to conduct public business in secret. Obviously they participate in decisions. Like how much will we  put the screws on the Town for this year?

In the last term, Mayor and Deputy both served on the Board. No communication ever emanated from the  doughty pair . Nothing at all to indicate they might be  representing the taxpayers interest and urging the board toward self-sufficiency.

Perish the thought.

They certainly enjoyed their culture cheap and cheerful at someone else's expense.  

Other than secret meetings, the  town's current  Purchase of Culture agreement  gives council complete authority to reduce the burden on taxpayers. They  have not chosen that option.,

The Board does not have untrammeled  physical access to the town treasury. 

Each quarter, a financial statement must be submitted to the Chief Financial Advisor.  Other than a rubber stamp, it's not clear the official perceives any role other than to hand over the spoils. 

It's odd. Considering advice on how to avoid the burden came from his predecessor,the  current CFA appears to shoulder no responsibility for financial management in the corporate interest.

Yet not odd considering how little financial management appears to signify overall in town business. 

Council has not chosen to exercise options in the agreement. Other than appoint Councillors who abide by rules to keep decisions under wraps. 

Like Sport Aurora, the board is a regional cultural service. The Aurora Baseball Association is now Aurora/King  Association. Certainly Aurora Youth Soccer Association ,a  multi- million dollar organization.serves a very much wider area on facilities provided by taxpayers of the Town of Aurora. They do pay user fees.

The Big Tent evolution of the Aurora tax burden has been interesting to watch. It continues to march forward unabated.

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Has anything been heard of that Patrick fellow who bought the Provincial Conservative leadership  
by selling the largest number of memberships to New Canadians . An MLA in a safe Conservative riding stepped aside to let the wily one try to win a seat in a byelection in North SImcoe, a rural riding. so that the Little Fox can assume the role of leader from a seat in the House. 

He was a Barrie Councillor when opportunity was seized to become leader of the Provincial party. He is a bachelor with neither chick nor child,, qualified to practice law but apparently never has.

The Honorable Kathleen Wynne is currently out there on federal hustings with no holds barred. 

John Tory didn't do well in a safe riding in a similar situation of needing a seat . Did Tory  ever get to be the Provincial Conservative Leader in a meaningful sense? 

People don't like  support  being taken for granted. Naked presumption does not usually sit well with voters . Bare ass tends to stick to slats.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think Wynne should enjoy the summer chucking around Ontario's farm communities in her red pant suit. As far north as she can go. Her presence elsewhere just muddles already convoluted situations.

Anonymous said...

Ah, and now the Sports outfits, or those willing to be part of the ones at the top, are making a bid for the Hallmark Building. Well, sort of. They are willing to put in a court or two if their ' lease ' is with the town. Those hydro funds keep burning away in the pockets of council.

Anonymous said...

He has been a councillor in Barrie in the past, however he was a sitting MP in Ottawa when he sought the provincial PC leadership.

Anonymous said...

I hope the CFO is keeping an eye on the markets. He is going to have to rein in the expectations of Council. If not, we will be land rich, penny poor with a surplus of unwanted real estate starting with that armory stupidness.

Anonymous said...

The armoury isn't "unwanted," 16:56. Until the full scope of its future uses is established, it is being utilized by the museum.

Anonymous said...

So we're buying more "assets" when we're trying to sell some to pay for the operation center? We have an old library that we don't know what to fo with, we just spent God knows how much for some land that we don't know what do with, that the Town just fought to get. We bought a mold infested building that we have no use for and God knows what that's going to cost to clean up and fix. I guess the motto at the oiwn is...keep buying and spending , we should be able to get one asset right! How people still get to keep there jobs is unbelievable.

Anonymous said...

6:25 Why colour the argument with facts?

Anonymous said...

"until the full scope of its future uses is established "
Like, " until we figure out what to do with the damn thing ? "

Anonymous said...

"How people still get to keep there jobs is unbelievable."

By passing a spelling test, perhaps?