"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

Sunday 27 October 2013

Extra October Tuesday

This October has five Tuesdays .

The  regular schedule has two Council meetings and  two  Committee meetings.

I find  organization of the agenda a bit of a puzzlement.

Tuesday's Council  had little of substance to deal  with  other than the four motions I presented.

In May June July and August, going into and throughout the sumer recess, agendas were jammed with issues .

We dealt with half  at each meting though we worked until midnight,

Many important  issues  got short shrift  as a consequence.

Presentations and  awards got priority and  delegations took huge blocks of  he time allocated for town business.

Motions by Councillors  waited months not weeks to be  heard. It was hardly  worthwhile under  the circumstances.

Months ago Councillor Abel put  forward  a motion without notice ,to direct the director of Parks and Recreation, to do a  small study and report back on  "feasibility " of  the  idea of the town buying a block of land with Yonge Street frontage for a "Heritage Park"

That was after Council  had informed the proponent of the scheme , Bill Albino and a real estate agent owner of one of the properties  they should  prepare a business plan before coming back  and after they'd gone  to the Heritage Committee  angling for a recommendation from them to Council.

I asked the Director several weeks ago ,how was that feasibility report coming along ?how was he doing it ? and how much time was he spending on it ?

Turned out ,none at all, the task had been taken from him. 

I think he said it  had been given to the heretofore planner , now a special projects manager in the  CAOs  department.

I have since heard  from two sources,  the second being Chris Watts that $25,000 is being spent on it. 

I know nothing about that. But it's possible because the CAO has authority to spend far more than that without Council approval.

All of which leads me to believe there's very little respect for the role of Council and transparency goes by the board.

Last Tuesday the Mayor reported  the town had made it to  the short list of some institute of excellence  as one of  the top hundred  employers in Canada. 

The application was prepared by the  town's manager of communications

Who does stuff like that ?

When the town won the Prince Charles Award for something or other, I tried to find out who we were  our competitors. Who did we beat out?

It was a secret.

Could be we were the only ones who nominated ourselves.


I  concluded there weren't enough towns with enough staff with  enough time on their hands to be messing about with  stuff like that .

The  prize  might not mean anything at all. 




11 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's like scholarships for universities. There are all sorts of them that don't get awarded because no one knows they exist. Kids or their folks now spend hours on their computers searching for the missing money link. It does sound like the town has assigned someone to do nothing else but apply for grants from all possible sources. That's OK but they could hire a student or retired resident to do it from home for a heck of a lot less.

Anonymous said...

That Heritage pipe-dream never had any feasibility. One of its promoters threatened that one property would be sold if the town didn't move quickly. That didn't happen. No one else wants any part of the deal.

The Stronach Park was real. Where in blazes did it go ?

Anonymous said...

The Stronach Park if it is to move forward to the Town, needs an environmental study done. An extensive one at that.

Anonymous said...

11:25
Why ? It is a Stronach project on Stronach land with Stronach money. He will have done the necessary research. If Aurora gets petty, he can just throw up a bunch of houses.

Anonymous said...

To 11:25.I see the concern if it was to be turned over to the town.If there is a transfer it should be checked out first.

Anonymous said...

@11:25
Your strings are showing.

Anonymous said...


The Mayor of Buffalo has been on TV recently reporting on all the good things it is doing - one of them is a 15% reduction in residential tax rates.

Please tell our Mayor to tell the CAO to tell his special project man to find out how Buffalo is doing it. Lets see if we can do it. That would be worthy of an award.

Not Bloody Likely said...

Then ask Aurorans if they'd rather live in Buffalo.

Anonymous said...

14:31
There was no mention of turning anything over to the town. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Frank Stronach's intelligence.

Anonymous said...

@18:10
What does a comparison in tax rates have to do with where people might prefer to live. We are getting hosed here. There has just been a study showing we pay more in service than comparable towns. There is no excuse for such an anomaly.

Charles D. said...

To 14:56

You have not a clue so why are you grasping at straws?