Wonder why they took that stupid green roof/floor off the list for the building? Where they worried about over bugeting? LMAO! And why does government justify the spending of tax payers money for Gold,Silver or bronze Leeds designations? So that they can all pat themselves on the back for a certificate the they can frame and put on a wall? Does the average tax payers really give a shit about that crap? I wonder what the tax payer would say if a bugeting was given for a Leeds designation and one without, which would they choose?
Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 9 February 2017 at 00:33
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Government competence is a project completed on time, at or under budget.
It's no small feat.
Town-owned land development on Leslie Street was completed at the contract price on time.
The Seniors' Centre was similarly successful.
Church Street School renovation was satisfactorily completed on time and at budget.
Stronach recreation facility on Wellington Street was efficiently effected on time and if memory serves me correctly , slightly under budget.
Leslie Street land development was a public works project; roads, contours and land division,underground services and lighting were all engineered butthe task was assigned to the Director of Recreation.
The foregoing projects were all supervised by the same director. Also the longest serving director
on the town's payroll and the only line with institutional history.
Within weeks of his own appointment , the former CAO , re-organized the management team. He wasn't on the job long enough to understand howthe town functioned let alone
how it might be improved. It was not.
He did what he was hired to do by the Mayor of the day.
Authority was shifted from Municipal Clerk and Director of Leisure Services to others,with no
more credentials for new responsibilities than they had for their original.
Re-organization was repeated regularly to sort out the mess, without ever recognizing the hopelessness of the cause.
The joint Centre financial debacle is only the project that has finally hit the fan.
By the time the CAO took his leave for greener field, problems would already be
apparent. He had previously assigned the Director of Recreation to the industrial park project
onLeslie Street. He obviously recognized who was capable of doing it.
I have heard the Chief Financial Officer left. That information is not correct.
Against regulation, he was appointed without Council authority . He informed colleagues he was
hired a coffee in Tim Horton's.
Human Resources manager was doing the hiring for a significant period. He was fired eventually. .
Communications manager, joined the town "on loan" from the region. He's gone.
The position of Director of Corporate Affairs was eliminated for "economy"
Responsibility for the clerk's department was assigned to the town solicitor.
Two solicitors were required in the legal department because there was too much work for one.
But not so much apparently that the solicitor could handle supervision of the municipal clerk's
division as well as his own responsibility.
Traditionally and still in many municipalities, the municipal clerk is certified ,appointed by bylaw,sworn into office and manages the entire administration.
Remember the multi-million dollar asset give-away of the hydro building on a thirty year lease and forfeiture of property tax:
A WAMS software package waspurchased at $400,000 ,without consultation with the IT department to determine compatibility with service already in use:
Eighteen months later, it was still not up and running:
A million dollar treatment facility to remove salt from snow? Hundreds of thousands spent before cancellation:
Remember the refusal of the Works Director and Treasurer to respond to questions about water and sewer rates?
A communication division budget was increased tenfold without notable improvement.
And the contract with a self appointed Culture Centre Board with annual hand-out increases of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The curators and museum program was created , in addition to ,not in place of, close to a hundred thousand dollar grant to the Historical Society?
Then half a million dollars was paid for a contaminated shack to the federal government.
We are not talking about thousands down the drain my friends. We are talking millions.
Not stolen.
No cheating that I know.
Just given away, filched from the people, by the people,elected to prevent that from happening.
With nary a sound word of professional advice or caution from those paid in full to provide it.
Posts
4 comments:
And yet, all the incumbents who ran in the last municipal election were re-elected. Oh, wait ... ALL BUT ONE.
19:11
Yeah...pretty sad for the residents of Aurora, and ever since then we clearly don't have anyone that has been looking after our money.
What saddens you, 09:53, can be another's cause for celebration.
14:35
True. It's great for the few when the council of the day can use taxpayers money however they want with little to no resistance.
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