ALL ABOUT SWINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS AND THE FUN STUFF

Ever-righteous Toronto Mayor Tory lectures that Councillor  Ford should "set an example" 

The Councillor acknowledged driving in HOV lanes when he needed to get somewhere in a hurry. 

A news video showed a highway with two packed lanes inching forward and not a single car in the HOV Lane.

Toronto Police says  the Councillor could be charged. 

Right.... If they catch him. 

The media are  in an ever-so- temporary tizzy with this bad boy. 

Councillor Ford  may have a better understanding of how people think  than either John Tory or the media. 

Last week  Toronto Council  passed a bylaw to reduce speed limits on residential streets. 

Little will change. 

Police will not issue tickets for speeds less than that understood by drivers as the urban standard.

Drivers will continue to drive at  speed learned from the  provincial driving manual.

Councillors can posture to heart's content.

The police will assess what it takes to keep streets safe and proceed accordingly. 

If the Police Chief is asked ,his answer will be discreet. "We will do what needs to be done to keep the city safe" 

Because  in fact  that is the authority of the police department. 

Th city's only obligation is to pay 100% of the cost.  

The bylaw will be all it can be. Window dressing. 

In the meantime giant sink holes open up on busy routes  because  the city doesn't maintain infrastructure properly..

Property taxes are less than ours but that's not the point of this post. 

Thousands of gallons of water were lost in a cavity big enough to swallow a car recently. It happens regularly. Iron pipes are a hundred years old and corroded. 

A few years ago,Aurora Treasurer and Director of I&E  informed Council water rate increases were due in part to water loss which had increased 12% in a year. I asked for a list of the water breaks to show 

how water loss had increased. I never got that information. 

Now then....York Region is buying water from Toronto . Do the rates we pay for that water include the cost of  their water loss because they do not maintain infrastructure properly .

Our Mayor informed us, when he was still like a deer in the headlights,water is the best bargain we get.

 

Really. 

Why are we taking only 25%  from aquifers under our feet and buying 75% from Toronto and the Region of Peel. The cost must recover the cost of water loss caused by failure to maintain infrastructure.

We pay  higher taxes to maintain our infrastructure and then pay higher water rates because our water supplier does not maintain theirs. They have lower property taxes. 

We cannot deny residential development as long as we can provide hard services.

 Water is a hard service. 

If we didn't buy water from Toronto and Peel, would we have enough for new development?

Could  we say NO ?

I think maybe so. 

WHERE YOU'VE BEEN HELPS DECIDE WHERE YOU'RE GOING

P"The current out-going CAO, in contrast to his predecessor, made all things possible for she who hired him." This is the crux of your latest series of posts. Your perception of him and his former mayoral association colours your view. Your antipathy is personal; plain and simple, you're biased. You can't separate him from her. on KEEP THE FACTS STRAIGHT AND IN ORDER.

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Another lofty comment this morning notes having  "moved on from the issue a long time ago because it's not healthy to dwell on it for so long."  It continued " For some it's just a reason to get up in the morning" 

This type of comment gives me pause. They illustrate a level of engagement. 

With anonymity, certainty of degree cannot be established. 

This week a couple of comments came through  about the Highlands Development.  

I did not post on the issue . It's too tedious. Over the years, the arguments have been repeated time  and time again.  I could recite them with eyes closed.

One or two residents claim expertise and fire up the crowd and everybody is off to the races.

Several meetings have been scheduled to be sure all will be heard. 

The same few will try to simulate the whole.  

The  dance is familiar. Developers will pirrouette and bow to politicians  and residents alike, knowing by the level of determination,unshakability and audience flush with financial resources,the matter will assuredly be decided by the O.M.B

The only uncertainty is how much the current flock  are prepared to shovel from town coffers into a futile endeavor. 

A blog is nothing without exchange. I often ponder the merits of  anonymity. 

Chris Watts requires I.D.   Anna does too.  Newspapers insist letter-writers identify themselves. 

I think maybe that's a good  thing.

An inordinate amount of piffle comes from unidentified sources. 

People squabble amongst themselves ....call each other names...they don't even know each other.

Sometimes It seems a waste to be posting background and details on town hall shenanigans 

for such a miniscule response. 

Last week, I outlined  how $15,000. was spent on a Schulich School of Business Management 
Certficate for the outgoing CAO.

Another item of $8,000 was listed with the same institution. Neither identified the recipient. 

The Town Treasurer's clumsy attempt to withhold information from Council by misrepresenting time and effort to produce the figures was noted. It was seen on T.V. Reported in the media. 

The Town's Mayor supported the Treasurer's initial efforts at concealment by voting against 

a Council motion to disclose. 

Funds  were not reimbursed by the  departing CAO.,and certainly were  used without benefit to the municipality. Reason being, there is no policy for return. 

What rot. 

By all known standards, the  municipal interest has been exploited  by the very people appointed and elected to  serve and protect.

Some might describe that in harsher terms. 

What is the reaction?

*************

Ho Hum . 

No more than one might expect. 

My perception is biased.

It's not healthy to dwell upon unpleasantness. 

No integrity anywhere. 

******************

We know ours is a small circle.

Smaller still , if the trolls would take the hint. 

But really,when facts are as plain as the nose on one's face , what more  does it take for scandal to be  recognized? 

Anna says I should keep writing the blog.

I am happy to do so as long as the story is mine to tell. 

I think of the new Councilors, at least two I believe intending to do what people expect of them.

No worthwhile guidance emanates from this Mayor or Deputy. 

Professional advice, as we have seen, is sporadic at best and at worst .

They need all the help they can get. 

Whether welcome or not....is a decision for them to make .

For my part, well...I can at least share my thoughts. 

KEEP THE FACTS STRAIGHT AND IN ORDER

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "THE CRUCIAL QUESTION !":

13:32 you maybe right, however that is usually the case IF the fees were re-imbursed and IF there was a written policy that describes what happens of you were to leave. 

Given the "old town" way Aurora works, I doubt either happened. The former CAO received training on the Town's dime and moved on. 

Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 6 July 2015 at 14:14

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Let me tell  you about the former CAO, the one before last. 

As a solicitor he  practiced family law in the Town of Newmarket. 

He served several terms as Mayor of Georgina and left without knowing defeat. 

He represented Georgina  on Regional Council. 

Subsequent to retirement from politics, the Town of East Gwillimbury engaged his services as CAO. 

In the last months of  Mayor Jones tenure, following  failure to recruit, an interim appointment of CAO was made to complete the sale of Aurora Hydro and help fill the vacant office of CAO. 

Scott Somerville had decades of experience, provincial and municipal and many contacts throughout the municipal sector. Not unlike the Interim CAO appointed by the current Council.He made the contact with the East Gwillimbury CAO  who was in turn invited to a meeting with Aurora Council. 

He did not apply for the position during the recruitment process. Had no interest. No plans to leave the Town of East Gwillimbury.

He was PERSUADED to do so.  Several Aurora Councollors were enthusiastic about the prospect of obtaining his services. 

He took care to ensure a contract that covered exigencies. 

If the agreement no longer suited the parties, compensation would be provided for whatever time remained in the contract. 

It was a wise precaution. 

An election was held. There were changes.  

A new Mayor with a  majority slate and her own ideas about  power of the office. The  term kicked-off with a legal witch hunt that continued for two years. God knows  how many lawyers consulted and discarded iin the effort to  find one to prove wrongdoing against the previous Mayor.

Costs were never disclosed. 

The CAO and Clerk brought it to an end in a closed  meeting when the last solicitor retained was brought in to advise the whole Council. 

He was surprised Council had been kept entirely in the dark about the proceedings. 

The conclusion to discontinue  the matter that evening was beginning of the end for the CAO.

Humiliation and degradation was his consistent lot in public from that day onward. 

The obvious intent being to compel him to quit and thereby negate the need to honour the contract. 

The shameful episode was neither first nor last in the bedlam that continued throughout that four year term that ended with three citizens being litigated for daring to permit criticism of the Exalted One ...

Mayor of the Town. 

Replacement of Public Works Director, CAO, Town Solicitor, Treasurer, Planning Director and Municipal 

Clerk and briefly -employed manager of communications who served his purpose and was quickly gone, followed in succession. 

The current out-going CAO, in contrast to his predecessor, made all things possible for she who must be obeyed. Including  the straw that broke the camel's back .... litigation against three citizens was made possible under his authority.

I can think of no-one else with suffiicient clout to bludgeon a town's insurance company to change a negative decision on  liability  to defend an action having nothing whatsoever to do with the function of the Corporation. 

Comments to the blog illustrate how willingly people allow themselves to be bamboozled. 

How willing to swallow the fish whole no matter how slimy and rancid. 

How reluctant to reach terms with the facts of the matter. 

How ever- ready to make misleading and erroneous statements to further add to confusion.  

How cunningly they contrive to obtain exposure for corrupted  reality.

THE CRUCIAL QUESTION !

Following  the markers made for interesting conversation last week.

I believe the flap to hide how the training budget was spent in 2014 is  now exposed for a canard .

The CAO , generously compensated head honcho, took a course in Business Management at the Schulich School of Business at York University  at the expense of Aurora  taxpayers. 

Schulich has a web site. I haven't checked  time requirements for the $15,000. certificate course. Maybe someone can check for me. We will know then whether or when  he was at school or at work. 

Two courses were listed in the report. The second was $8,000.

The two combined were less than several years of membership at $12,000 a pop,in the Institute  of Excellence of Canada . Members submit information of doings and the Institute sends out a Certficate of Excellence. No doubt handy to pack a resume. 

A question though is still outstanding on these items of the 2014 training budget 

Public Service Agencies do fund continuing education for employees ,providing the subject
is relevant to the occupation and useful to the organization. 

The whole  is not always paid.  Nor is any part paid until the course is successfully completed. Pro-
rated repayment is required, if employee leaves the agency within a five year period.

The CAO's Business Management Certificate taken in 2014 was likely approved by Mayor Dawe.

As a member of Council then, I can affirm each year the CAO was evaluated. Council was never informed of a request to take the Schulich Course in Business Management.

It seems the CAO had plans to leave the town's employ. 

Considering period of recruitment, references required and close association between Mayors of Aurora and Richmond Hill, being  seatmates an' all at Regional Council, and prior employment of the 
CAO at the Region,  I think the plans to leave Aurora and join Richmond Hill would  be an unlikely
secret between the trio.

So the obvious  question remains :

Did Aurora recover the investment that created the excellent candidate spoken of so highly by Mayor Barrow with particular reference to the  Schulich Business School Certification.

I asked.

Incredibly, the answer is NO?

The explanation......no policy  exists  for the Town to recover the funds. 

What kind of crazy logic is that?

What a crock of gallon-sized proportion !

Without a policy to recover the funds in the second place ,there could  be no policy to provide them in the first place.

The Chief Financial Officer, Keeper and Guardian of  the Coffers, is responsibile to advise Council

of the  best interest of the munipality.

He whose signature is coupled with the Mayor's on town cheques. 

Methinks much more than bad judgement is at hand in the matter! 

The tangled web woven is in urgent need of being straightened out. 

Q and A

Today A question is asked  about siignatures during the period of  circulating acting-interim -responsibility of CAO in town administration 

I don't believe there's an issue. 

Town cheques bear two signatures; the Mayor's  and Treasurer's. Security is the objective. 

Theoretically, both signatures  guarantee propriety. 

I'm not sure how effective the security if the parties are aligned on the same side of the operation.

For example if  both believe it appropriate for a Mayor to personally retain legal counsel for a purpose having nothing to do with town function and more to do with obsessive compulsion. 

A Treasurer is  a  Statutary  Officer. I  have always understood that to mean legal  authority and responsibility to ensure adherence to Provincial Statutes 

Bylaws and Contracts also require signatures of Mayor and Municipal Clerk. 

The Municipal Clerk and Deputy Clerk  are also Statutory Officers with a wider role and many separate responsibilities including Commissioner of Oaths. 

Unlike Clerk and Treasurer, no Statutary authority attaches to a Chief Administrative Officer . 

I believe I have only seen CAO signature on Reports to Council. 

Reports of Directors bear signatures of the Director and CAO.  Reports form a record. The record is confirmed by By-law at the end of every Council Meeting. 

CAO is not a statutory officer. 

You know, I do not claim  professional status.  My understanding of process comes from 

engagement  in town affairs over a lengthy period . Laws change and sometimes lapse. 

The less collective experience  or common sense exists on a Council, the easier to mislead.

That they might be misled by StatutRy Officers  is unthinkable but it happens.

When it happens, it is inexcusable. 

Public servants are not immune to bad judgement. 

If I put a fact forward in a blog it can be challenged. Corrections will be published. 

If I make conjecture or offer opinion, readers may disagree. 

The conjecture or opinion is mine to offer and the blog is also mine.  

THE MENTALIST

Finally... an official  Mayoralty announcement of  the CAO's departure. 

Weeks after a media statement the CAO was looking forward to the challenge of being at the  helm of Richmond Hill's administration. 

At the time of which Aurora's  Mayor stated  "no official statement at this time."

At or about the time of a Council query about staff training and conference budget of $199,000.

with a view to reducing same in 2015. 

Such a palaver ensued. 

The CAO vehemently argued against cutting the  training budget. 

The Treasurer argued details  of  2014 spending would take a long time to gather.

The Mayor and one other argued against a motion to direct staff to gather it  anyway. 

Despite the Treasurer's specious argument,figures were produced in a week. 

In the last of several pages ,two figures stood out from all the others.

AHA...I thought.  Herein lies a clue.  

$15,000 and  $8,000 for two courses at Schulich Business School of York University. 

I  queried a Councillor for names. He was unable to say.  Staff had informed Councillors if names were released, employees would be discouraged from taking courses. 

What a crock!

No media account of this exchange.  We may assume therefore it did not happen in public. 

The plot thickens.

First, vehement opposition by  outgoing CAO to reduction of a  budget because of advantage of encouraging  staff initiative for benefit of the municipality.

No evidence of said advantage. 

The crock runneth over.

The CAO had already made the decision to leave Aurora. 

Why the need to distract Council's focus from that specific budget?

What purpose the Treasurer's  fallacious argument against producing the figures?

Elements  of panic and desperation? But why?

Figures were produced, clearly in orderly and efficient composition within days.

Why did the Mayor enjoin staff and oppose the motion to direct figures  be produced?

Just as he opposed four years previously, a motion to direct the solicitor to review the nefarious Purchase  of Culture Agreement after he had attended board meetings for a year without Council's knowledge. 

Said agreement by the way, proved to be entirely to the disadvantage of the municipal corporation. 

Mayors of Richmond Hill and Aurora are colleagues at Regional Council. 

What chance no communication about Aurora's  CAO  departure to join Richmond Hill Administration? 

Remote, I'd say.

A recent public statement by Richmond Hill Mayor notes the incoming CAO  has a Master's Certification in Municipal Management from York University Schulich School of Management. 

So, who paid for that I wonder? And who authorized the expenditure?

So...we may be closer to the truth of it.

The need for obfuscation, prevarication, secrecy and flat -out misrepresentation?

Well....Let me guess   ....like there's a chance I won't. 

The two largest expenditures in the 2014 conference and training budget were courses taken at the Schulich Business School in York University .

Was that successor planning? think not. 

In his public reference to the separation, Mayor Dawe made an illuminating reference to his reliance on this CAO when he and others "were like deer in the headlights " after the 2010 election. 

We may take it as admission that every step he took ,every word he uttered, was guided. 

The blind leading the blind on a path well-trodden. 

In each of two years after the 2009 appointment,the  CAO's budget ,as I re-call,  included $75,000 for "training" . 

The CAO came to Aurora from the office of the Regional CAO, where he was manager of data base something -or -other. Before which he was manager of community planning.these were cited in the Riichmond Hill Mayor's statement as leadership positions. 

 Nowhere did his profile , prior to Aurora, note experience in managing a municipal corporation. 

During the time since, bad things happened in this little town that I have loved so much. 

Public resources were used to retain external legal counsel to sue three residents on spurious grounds  for political purpose as  ultimately decided by the Judge.

The town solicitor, under authority of the CAO,provided the only affidavit in the case. 

He was found by a judge to have evaded questions and lied.

Cooked-up Code of Conduct and Harassment complaints against a veteran sitting member of Council

(Moi) were hatched and implemented with legal assistance at exorbitant cost and collateral damage.

A Municipal Clerk ,with a freshly signed five year contract abruptly left the town's employment. 

An Deputy -clerk went on stress leave for months. 

An Integrity Commissioner had to retain legal  counsel to protect his own reputation. 

Loyal and competent employees had jobs spirited out from under them. 

A Director of Legislative Services with relatively short service was paid off with a substantial severance package for no apparent benefit to the municipality. 

The town's insurance company changed a decision to deny liability which led to $850,000  and -counting expenditure resulting in 41% increase in town premiums for protection in the following year

And forever thereafter.

Destructive and horrendous personal damage was enabled during the time since 2009. 

In my judgement, the community has not been well served and still has no reason to be complacent. 

Oh Woe

I am at a disadvantage. 

Initially e-mail was delivered  by Rogers. Then service was interrupted. Communication with someone in New Brunswick indicated the problem was not  technical and not at our end. The problem was Rogers.

Service  was transferred  to Yahoo. It did not work the same way. Small differences are huge  to someone not born to technology. My first language is English. 

Periodically a request  comes through to rate Yahoo  with a query if I wish return  to Rogers. 

I never state a preference for Yahoo. Always indicate my wish to return to Rogers. 

It never happens. 

Then sign in was required  by Yahoo with user name and password.

I have never had a user name and password for Yahoo that I know of. 

I did not choose to use it. 

Itwas foisted upon me. 

Access required me to create an account. A mobile number had to be provided to complete the process. 

I do not have a cell phone therefore no mobile number.The process could not be completed. 

I discovered comments could be accessed  and moderated through the Blogspot. 

That worked for a while except all I accessed were comments to blogs and spam. No e-mails.

I wrote blogs and published  them with a blogger icon. 

Soon I was writing blogs and publishing comments without Yahoo  service. 

Then a grandchild brought back Yahoo. 

Yeah.

Suddenly, with no explanation,  Blogger needed sign-in. User name and password were discovered. 

Then Yahoo would not publish comments without sign -in to Blogpost. 

Now I can write and publish posts. 

I can read comments. 

I cannot moderate comments. 

For a while I could not cut and copy comments as lead- ins to posts. Then I learned how. 

Now I have comments waiting to be moderated. 

Please be patient and keep them coming. 

My  second cataract surgery is healing nicely. 

My Go Go scooter  has developed a hiccup. 

Lights come on ...it's fully charged ...But Go Go  won't go. 

Ah Woe is me.

FIrst ADDENDUM TO THE LAST POST ON JUDGEMENT CONSPICUOUS IN ABSENCE

In 2013  a consultant study reported on town service levels and the relationship to higher than average tax levels. 

The conclusion intended was to prove high taxes were attributable to a high services levels. Questionable  municipal comparators were used to prove the argument. 

At the end, as if tossed in as an afterthought, the consultant advised savings could be 

achieved by reducing  by one the number of directors on the management team. 

Without further ado ,the  Director of Legislative Services  was chosen to be the one expendable. 

As required by the Municipal  Act, the director was replaced by a municipal clerk, placed under the authority of the Municipal Solicitor now Director of  Legal and Legislative Services. 

I did ask once about savings realised. 

With friend and protector in the chair and remarkably uncurious Councillors in support, awkward questions from a lone,vintage Councillor were not required to be answered. 

Now we learn of a budget overrun in 2014  of close to half a million dollars. Savings were obviously not  reflected in that circumstance. 

Which prompts  the question....what  really determined redundancy of the position of Director of Legislative Services the week before Christmas in 2013 ?

Y'know , for eight years, town budgets failed to win my support. 

Hundreds of thousands of dollars transferred to a non-elected  body to spend as they pleased ,and a continued grant of $70,000 to five  or six people on the Historical Society were ancillary reasons.  

The over- riding concern was  lack of confidence in the integrity of the process . 

The budget is the most significant function of any municipal council.

Nothing matters more. 

 It determines the burden Imposed on weary taxpayers. 

For eight years, I was unable to provide assurance the system was working as it should. 

Expenditures having nothing whatsoever to do with municipal function were paid from 

public resources. There were no checks or balances. 

Funds collected  legally for a specific purpose were used for a different  purpose. 

The Treasurer's statement to Council, as reported in the June 24th edition of The Auroran, reveals revenue realized from development charges were used to cover an operating budget deficit, simply confirms my long-held concern town resources were not being properly managed. 

The community interest is not well-served.