"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

Saturday 23 July 2016

THE SECOND OLDEST PROFESSION

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "IT STILL DOESN'T WASH CLEAN": 

What's funny is that it was Gallo who started this shit show. But it was Dawe who benefitted. 

Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 22 July 2016 at 23:54

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John Gallo's  alliance with the Mormac regime and what he learned from them no doubt  helped with the votes he received in the last two elections. 

As long as citizens make unreasonable demands, candidates willing to sell their souls will continue to do well in politics. Such voters contribute as much to venality in politics as such lcandidates. 

Gallo was not elected when the Mavrinac development subdivision agreement was signed.he ah no even have been a resident. 

I wasn't on Council either but  I've seen enough to know how it happened. 

A subdivision agreement is standard procedure, the  domain of legal staff and in accordance 
with requirements of the Planning Act. 

In the 2003/6 term I witnessed an aberration. Council sold a small parcel of land once thought to be in developable. It was on the far  side of the Hydro corridor and formerly owned by a group called Old Park  Holdings. Access was not possible  at the time ownership was transferred to the town many years previous.

In the agreement of sale , a Councillor insisted a clause be inserted stipulating ,if the plan for a small  town house complex for seniors did not proceed, the land must be sold back to the town at the 
price paid. It was a conditional sale.

The town's interim solicitor advised against the clause. The Councillor insisted. With one exception
the rest of Council agreed and the  developer signed. 

The Plan proceeded to the point of obtaining mortgage money to finance the development. 

The bank said no . The land title was not clean. 

Back they had to come to the town. The agreement had to be revised. The clause removed.

No doubt the clause requiring the unwanted school site to be sold to the town was inserted
under similar circumstance. The Planning Act does not permit the town to demand more than 
5% of developable land for a park. 

None of the staff were aware of the redundant clause. Gallo would not either without being told
by the former Councillor responsible. 

Even the developer must have signed it unaware of its existence. 

Why would he? The Separate School Board had,years before,  indicated their need for the site. 

So the thing slipped through until the day  came Gallo was able to use it to his advantage. 

Not for long. Dawe and Able and Humfreys and Gaertner were soon on the bandwagon.and funds were provided to fight a legal battle. 

From a developer's standpoint, a legal dispute with a municipality is never to their advantage nor
to the municipality either. The municipality had time on their side and to a builder, time is money.

So politics at its worst proceeded inexorably. 

With politicians and Mavrinac residents  both declaring eminent righteousness of a totally fallacious cause. 


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