To Market To Market To Buy A Fat Pig

Last Wednesday I went to the park to enjoy the concert. The 48th Highlanders were playing. The park was packed. M&M Meat Shop was there, barbecuing hot dogs and hamburgers, popping corn and selling ice cream bars. It was a beautiful evening - the kind that makes for happy memories.

The special events co-ordinator of the town has organized these evenings for years. They plan the programs and find the sponsors. Home Hardware was the sponsor last week. People are able to enjoy quality entertainment and it doesn't cost them a cent.

Staff salaries of course are paid out of taxes, but year round there are fun things going on for the entertainment of people of all generations. Sometimes, we need to remind ourselves of the good things happening and the people who work for us with energy and enthusiasm.

This year we did not have a July 1st Parade. On the other hand, the celebration at Lambert Wilson Park gets better every year. The parents and children who flock to the park leave no doubt the events are well received.

Still, the lament for the Parade was loud and bitter. Considering the glory days of the July 1st Parade were due entirely to community volunteers and an entire year of hard work, commitment and ingenious planning by literally dozens if not hundreds of people, I find it hard to understand the sharpness and the target of the criticism.

If the volunteers are not there to throw heart and soul into the enormous undertaking of a successful parade, just who is it who has the right to stand on the sidelines and shout recriminations?

I do not consider The Farmers' Market in the class of a July 1st Celebration or a summer concert in the park. But If some people are charmed by the opportunity to shop for fresh produce from a stall on a Saturday morning, that's fine with me.

If entrepreneurs want the opportunity to ply their wares at a stall on a Saturday morning, I find nothing objectionable about that either.

What I do not understand is why I should be expected to jump at the chance to put my hand in someone else's pocket for money so others can enjoy shopping at a market?


Neither do I understand why all the checks and balances in place to ensure accountability in public spending should be set aside, so that some or any politician can set himself up as a heroic figure of famers market enterprise. Any day now ,I expect to see a statue in the Temperance Street parking lot of a man in a toga wearing a laurel wreath on his head.

If I wanted to indulge myself as a rip-roaring critic of any person thus far involved with The Aurora Market, the only thing stopping me is my own discipline. Thus far, I have confined myself to simple disagreement that the town's taxpayers should be required to contribute anything at all towards the success of what I perceive to be a commercial endeavour.

The Market has been in place four years. Every year, vendors return. That has to be taken as a sign of success. Why else would a farmer from Uxbridge drive to Aurora every Saturday to peddle his wares? Why would he imagine he has a right to demand taxpayers of Aurora should dig into their pockets to help finance his endeavour?

I do not agree with colleagues who apparently fancy they are presiding over the burgeoning treasury of a Charitable Foundation, a Service Club or a Philanthropic Organization. They scatter money about like flower petals on a Path of Righteousness. I don't do that with my own resources. I am not about to do it with money belonging to people who trusted me not to.

Choose Your Weapons

We are nine months into the current term of council. In the last term, a fairly efficient campaign was waged in the community to convince residents that I alone was responsible for the lacklustre performance of the last council. I stayed the course however and I was re-elected

.Character assassination is not an unusual gambit in politics.. I tend to discount its effectiveness.
Particularly if I am not in a contest for one particular office. But it was effective and it is continuing now, only more openly. A sequence of letters in The Auroran repeat the same phrases; " small- minded , mean-spirited" and deplore the fact there were people who marked a cross beside my name on the ballot." One writer suggested I won votes only because my name was first on the ballot.

Virulent letters tell more about the writer than they do about the target. Yet I know from experience if something is repeated often enough without challenge, it is eventually accepted as fact. Heretofore I have accepted there is not much one can do to counteract the attacks. So I have given my detractors the back of my hand. But things are different now. We have the internet.

So... what to do what to do. How does one defend oneself against an insidious campaign of hate mail? Should one even try? To engage on its level is unlikely to be effective. How would one do that anyway?

"You are small-minded."
"Am Not. "
"You are mean-spirited."
"You are."
"You should never have been elected."
"You neither."

My critical blog correspondent rose to my challenge this morning. She still did not reveal her identity. But she did specify a list of my sins.

• political e-mails

• blame-finding for water shortage

• Aurora Farmers' Market attitude

• refusal to honor the ideas of others

• refusal to embrace the concept of co-operation.

The list opens a host of opportunities for discussion.

I assume my critic is a council member because I do use the internet to correspond with colleagues.in open dialogue.The most recent exchange was my response to an e-mail sent to staff from Mayor Morris. Councillors received a copy.

The Mayor notified staff that in her absence at a conference, she had appointed Councillor McEachern to the position of Deputy-Mayor. Councillor McRoberts was also attending the conference.

I informed the Mayor, with respect, the authority to appoint a Councillor to the position of Deputy -Mayor rests with the council. The Mayor responded thanking me for the information. She stated had she thought of it, she would have made the recommendation at the previous council meeting.

I responded I was glad that had not happened. I would have been unable to support the recommendation and I would not have relished giving my reasons in a public forum. I did however provide them in an e-mail circulated to councillors including the Mayor. It was a blunt statement of facts as I see them.

. Mayor Morris has made no secret of her alliance with Councillor McEachern from the beginning of the term. Impartiality from the chair is non-existent. The clerk has been removed from his place at the left hand of the Chair and the CAO from the right .. The Mayor and Councillor McEachern are openly in control They frequently engage in private dialogue. There are no rules, save the ones the Mayor chooses to exercise.

There is no respect for the essential principle of debate. . No recognition that council is composed of nine members. With control of five votes, there is no need for full and respectful consideration of input from every councillor. . It even seems like some decisions are made before they come to the table.

As a councillor with a substantial background of how things ought to be, I have probably experienced a level of frustration not shared by my colleagues. From time to time, I have reacted. Meetings extending to midnight and beyond have become the rule rather than the exception. There is a total lack of imperative from the chair Because all other efforts have failed and to make a point, I have decided I will not sit past 11 p.m. The hour of adjournment is 10.30p.m.

If anything is being accomplished, I stay. If the meeting has ground to a halt with idle chit-chat from the chair I leave...

As bad as it has been, I do see small signs of improvement . We still have time to discover there is a great deal more satisfaction in working together to accomplish the town's business rather than carrying on the Endless, Pointless , Dance of the Pecking Order.

Four years is a long time to keep butting heads.

Toronto's Exceptionality (contd)

I watched Mayor David Miller on a phone-in show on Saturday. His host had complete empathy with the city's revenue "shortfall".

Questions from callers allowed him to reinforce his arguments: Toronto needs more money. Million dollar programs mandated by the Province and the responsibility of the Province are being paid from property tax.

Cost of security at the provincial courts is charged to the city. Toronto receives a bill for "catastrophic" drug benefits of $140 million. It includes special benefits for the disabled.

What the Mayor did not say was that all municipalities pay the cost of these services. There is a total lack of integrity in these and other programs like ambulance service being charged to municipal government. They are services to people not property. They should be paid from the myriad of relevant taxes collected from people by the Province.

Municipal governments should be making the case together for the people we serve. Toronto would find itself in a more secure position if they chose to align themselves with the rest of us. Over the years however, they have used municipalities around them as the whipping boy when making the case to the Province for relief from this burden. And they have been successful.

For example, each year, for ten years, two hundred million dollars have been siphoned from the pockets of property owners in the GTA and funnelled into Toronto's treasury to pay for social housing and other services inaccessible to non-residents of the city.

There were other revelations during the phone-in program. David Miller served one term as councillor before becoming Mayor of Toronto. He has no experience of how things were. He disclosed City property-owners are getting a good deal on their taxes. He proclaimed with satisfaction they are paying 15% less than any other municipality around them.

It was a startling revelation. It has been known in the hinterlands that people in Toronto pay less tax than the rest of us. In fact, because Toronto refused to adopt market value assessment thirty years ago, propertry taxes within Metro have not been even for decades The fallout from his glib comment about their lower tax rate may yet be felt.

A few weeks ago, The Toronto Star editorialised that Toronto's neighbours should join the city to convince the Province of the inequity of municipal property-owners paying for provincial programs.

If the Province were to stop pandering to the city and the city to stop plundering her neighbours,we might yet arrive at the place where we could stand united and make a difference for the people we serve. All depends on the rediscovery of the dual principles of integrity and equity at Queen's Park versus ignorance and arrogance at Queens Street(City Hall). In this matter,The Toronto Star has not exactly been a beacon of enlightenment.

We will not hold our breath. As long as people outside the city are ignorant of the reality, provincial politicians have not much to fear from property-owners at large.

The more things change the more they stay the same

TORONTO'S EXCEPTIONALITY

Today is the day the Redoubtable David Miller, Mayor of Toronto will reveal the awful consequences of his council's failure to support his efforts to raise money outside of the property tax to pay Toronto's bills. It is mid-August. Two thirds of the year is past. An obvious question is , how did they pass a budget and approve expenditures without indicating the source of revenues to meet the expenditures? On what basis are they collecting taxes?

Media reports on the melodrama of the city's politics has made for interesting summer reading . In times past. we always knew what was going on in other municipalities. Nowadays we know more about what is happening in Kandahar. Baghdad and Kosovo than we do about happenings on our own doorstep. We have learned more about the new City of Toronto in the last several weeks than we learned in the nine years since the Province amalgamated several boroughs into a single unit for the purpose of saving money.

Media coverage, questions not asked, editorials unwritten and some written have been both revealing and astonishing for their lack of analysis.

We had heard references to the increased power of Toronto's Mayor. We had to wait until now to see how it works. It seems the essence of the Mayor's power is the authority to appoint an executive committee numbering a majority of council. The Mayor is able to hand-pick twenty-three members for his power block. According to media interpretation, a condition of membership is slavish obedience to the Mayor's will.

The power however is apparently illusory. In the current controversy, one member chose to exercise his own judgement and that completely upset the apple cart. Speculation is, the recalcitrant member will be dumped from the power elite. First however he had to be dumped upon by various other members of the power elite. Name calling runs freely in Toronto City Council.

Heretofore , much has been made of Toronto's new power to raise revenues by taxes other than property taxes. The Mayor apparently lobbied for that from the provincial Government. I have never understood why a municipal official would consider that an asset.

But the two "new" taxes recommended are not new at all.They are not even Municipal. The Mayor and his power elite have proposed to double The Land Transfer Tax and the Vehicle Permit Fee . These are Provincial Taxes.

When and how did the Government of Ontario grant Toronto the authority to tap in to Provincial tax programs. . What game is being played here? Who are the players?

There is a game. No doubt about it. The Minister responsible for the Vehicle Permit Fee has been quoted that if city council passed it , there is no guarantee the Ministry would collect double the Vehicle Permit Fee.

The Provincial Treasure has been quoted ,there will be no further bail-out for the city from the Provincial Treasury. Yet doubling two provincial taxes and funnelling funds to the City Treasury certainly would be a bail-out .

The Premier on the other hand, has publicly scolded city councillors who failed to support the Mayor's recommendation for the "new" taxes. Now the question is: Which of these three are speaking for the Province ? And what does this mean for the rest of us?

Another weird angle about doubling the Vehicle Permit Fee is that Ontario residents can obtain their permits from any Ministry of Transportation Office Why buy it in Toronto when it can be bought elsewhere for half the price? . How can the province charge city residents double the fee paid elsewhere in the province based on address alone? Where is the logic ?Where is the equity?

Ninety-eight per cent of Toronto drivers are probably paying little attention to the summer political histrionics going on in their city But if that tax gets approved before the Provincial election , that ought be enough for another fifty nails in the Provincial Liberal Coffin.

The Land Transfer Tax increase is just as questionable.There may not be as many property sales in Toronto as there are car drivers , but vendors will certainly become aware of the inequity; real estate agents, lawyers and developers will make certain of that. Every extra cost is an irritant at the time of such a serious transaction..

There have been other revelations in the course of this public discussion .None has been more disappointing than the belligerent and truculent manner of the August Mayor of Toronto. They haven't had a Mayor with flare in Toronto since Phil Givens held the office for one term in the late sixties.

But perhaps the most significant revelation is that the city has finally been brought into step with the rest of the province in the assessment of property at current value. It is thirty-five years since the Province took over assessment from the municipalities. The purpose was to bring equity to the assessment process. The Province had been providing support to municipalities based on their assessment wealth. If there was no common measurement,there was no equity in support. Municipalities had been known to fudge.

The problem was, the City of Toronto for decades , refused to agree to re-assessment.Only Toronto the Powerful could get away with that.Tiny Perfect David Crombie was in charge at that time. William Grenville Davis was the premier.

A quoted remark by a city councillor in response to published criticism by some Mississauga Councillors has revealed the City is finally having to deal with the adoption of current value assessment. The Councillor apparently had no idea the rest of the province had weathered that storm thirty-five years ago.

The greatest impact of course is on wealthy and elite old established neighbourhoods . They have not been paying their fair share for decades.Apparently, they are currently dealing with 8% tax increases quite separate from any impact the 2007 budget might cause.

And therein I suspect lies the real reason Toronto dare not raise property taxes to meet the real cost of their expenditures and risk the ire of prominent homeowners and businesses in the city. For thirty-five years, they have dodged the bullet one way or another . The attempt at doubling two provincial taxes, with the apparent support of Premier Dalton McGuinty ,is just the latest dodge. It has not
gone smoothly.

But the game is still being played and we are more than just onlookers.

CHARLOTTETOWN IN THE MID-SEVENTIES

People are happy to talk to visitors about their town. It was no different in Charlottetown. I had a thousand questions and they cheerfully chatted.

I wondered why the Conference Centre, a concrete block building, was built up against the small hundred year old jewel of the Parliament Building. The Liberals told me it had been a bitter controversy and a few more salacious tales besides.

The concrete flower boxes outside the building had at some time split apart and were bolted together with iron bars. The earth they held had not been disturbed for some time. Dandelions were the only thing blooming. There were thousands of delegates from all over Canada at that conference. The Queen was making a visit two or three days after we left.

In my walks to and from the centre, I noticed several piles of unidentifiable material at the side of the roads. Cigarette butts were prominent. It turned out they were the sweepings from the street. The piles were periodically removed.

A hairdresser told me she was looking forward to going to her cottage at the week-end. I asked about city beaches. She said they were unuseable. The ocean was polluted by city sewage.

I noticed many old mansions lining the beautiful wide sweep that was the the main street. Where there should have been lawns and gardens, there was hard-packed dirt and scattered strollers and bicycles. They were being used as multiple rentals.

If there is such a thing among us as National Pride. If towns and cities hold the key, Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa and Banff are eminent examples of the value we place on our history and heritage. They are magnificent.

Yet Charlottetown, where the Fathers of Confederation met and hammered out the terms of agreement. They walked those streets, stayed at that hotel, vsited and no doubt consulted with the residents of those old mansions and they accomplished something which had been tried and failed repeatedly. They created the nation whiich every one of us is privileged to share. Charlottetown in the mid-seventies, several years after the wonderfully successful national celebration of Canada's Centennial, Charlottetown languished in shabby and shameful neglect.

It was with a mixture of sadness and anger I wrote a subsequent column.

Some Aurora residents expressed surprise that I did not enjoy Prince Edward Island. I had obviously failed to make my point.

I remember nothing of the merits of the conference. But I remember Charlottetown.

COUNCILLOR'S TRAVELS

I remember attending the annual conference of the Canadian Conference of Mayors and Municipalities in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in the early seventies. I had heard much about the Province. It was a popular vacation destination with Aurora residents.

I stayed in a motel at the opposite end of the main street from the Conference Centre. I walked to and from the Centre more than twice some days. Alma Walker, a regional councillor from Markham had a room in the beautiful vintage hotel across the street from the Centre. She invited a bunch of regional councillors to her room one evening.

There was a reception at the former home and gardens of a Lieutenant Governor. It was a lovely old colonial mansion. Margaret Britnell, Mayor of King, was at the conference. Margaret was a prominent Liberal and made contact with Liberals wherever she went in Canada. I was invited along to the home of Charlottetown Liberals for a pleasant evening of conversation. Of course it was political... and mostly local.

There was a bus tour of the Island for delegates, a lobster fest, and an ocean ferry trip. If the objective was to familiarise the delegates from cities across Canada to the charms of Prince
Edward Island, it was eminently successful.

Charlottetown has a substantial Lebanese community. They seemd like Greeks to me. Generous in hospitality, with a love of life and laughter and a passion for politics.

David Crombie, Mayor of Toronto, was at the Conference staying at the same motel as myself. He never seemed to attend any of the sessions. He held court at the motel swimming pool. People had audiences in his presence. He left on Sunday. A particular vote did not go his way and he indicated, with a departing flourish, Toronto would withdraw from the organization.

Member fees were based on per capita or some such measurement. If Toronto withdrew
that signalled one of two things. Fees from every other member would escalate. Or, the organisation would collapse. Or, the first would predicate the second with the same result Toronto is still doing stuff like that.

With the exception of Alberta and the North West Territories, I visited every capital city in Canada while I was in office. It was great to see how people lived in other places and how cities functioned. It broadened my perspective. I believe it made me a better Mayor.

Round and Round The Mulberry Bush

Ten--thirty p.m. is council's hour of adjournment. It never happens. At the last meeting, seventeen of twenty-three agenda items were still to be to dealt with.at ten-thirty p.m. Two hours of the 3 1/2 hour meeting were taken up with requests for assistance which did not qualify under the town grant policy.

The situation was typical. Council meanders. There is little semblance of debate and few recognizable rules of order. The hour of adjournment passes and talk continues until close to midnight. An in-camera meeting often carries on after that before staff and council wind their weary way home in the wee small hours of the morning.

The early part of the last meeting was quite bizarre. The first delegate had to be assisted to the microphone. She explained she had been in an accident. She needed help to finance a Literary Festival in East Gwillimbury. She listed names of renowned authors who would be participating.. .. Never heard of any of them. It was not clear who would be benefiting. She assured Council she was a professional and we could be confident the affair would be well organized.

The request met none of the town's criteria for grants. It was refused. The delegate had to be assisted back up the stairs. On leaving the council chamber however, she suddenly became quite self-sufficient and firmly elbowed her way out of the Town Hall - but not before we had spent a considerable amount of time on a sympathetic hearing.

The second request was for free use of a facility that accommodates 200 people, to entertain thirty-two people for ten hours. The facility was already booked on the required date. The delegate wanted chairs, tables, kitchen and the Seniors' dishes . The program was a student exchange. Ten students were involved, two from Aurora. The cost of the request was $1 thousand dollars. The exchange was with the Town of Leksand - Aurora's twin in Sweden. The delegate needed an immediate decision.

The decision was no, but only after another lengthy hearing and staff were directed to find alternate space. The following day, in an e-mail, the delegate requested a letter to go to Sweden explaining why the accommodation was not being made available.

The third request was for a two thousand dollar contribution for a private playground in a Co-op. It was argued by council a Co-op is non-profit. It was granted.

We have several Co-ops in Aurora. They were all sponsored by community organisations. Mortgages were financed with a preferred rate of interest from the two senior levels of government. While they live there, residents have all the responsibilities and rights of ownership. They elect a board of management. They share regular maintenance chores to keep costs down. They must qualify by income to live there. If they do not meet their responsibilities, they are invited to leave. They are not people in need.

Other Co-ops provide and maintain their own playgrounds. The town provides and maintains public playgrounds. But in this instance, we dug our hands into the taxpayers pockets and helped to provide a private one. At the same time, for the the third year running, we cut a playground that needed to be replaced out of the budget to keep the tax increase down.

The town has a grant policy for a couple of very practical reasons. The first is to assure residents of equal treatment. The second is to take the decision out of the hands of politicians and provide futher assurance that money isn't being handed out because of having friends in high places.

It is not working. Hasn't for some time. When I came back on Council in 2004, it seemed to me council could easily be mistaken for a Charitable Foundation or a Philanthropic Organization. It almost seemed there was a competition to find places to distribute public funds.

Last term, we sent money to an outfit in Georgina that claimed to be saving Lake Simcoe. They forwarded their request by mail. We didn't even ask why they needed the money. We likely sent a cheque with a covering letter. For all we knew, they might have been planning a boozy executive night out on a boat on Lake Simcoe.

The same year, we dug into the pockets of Aurora taxpayers to "Save Lake Simcoe". The Lake Conservation Authority had a budget of $64 million dollars. Their mandate is the care and maintenance of Lake Simcoe.

When I was a member of the Ontario Social Assistance Review Board, I visited towns, cities, villages and homes all over the Province. Georgina was an occasional destination. Their building is a former seminary. The council chamber is the former chapel. Council sits on a dais that was the former altar.

In the reception area, there was a glass display case enclosing a fur clad fish. It had a brass plate identifying it as having been hooked in a Georgina Ice Fishing Derby. It was in a trophy case.

Whether it was an example of what was right or wrong with the Lake I do not know. It certainly rooted me to the spot momentarily.

Hazy, Lazy Days of Summer

I read in the Toronto Star yesterday about the Ontario Municipal Board "endorsing" a plan for high rise clusters in the west end of Toronto. It is that kind of language that leads the general public to believe the OMB has a role to play in planning. Since they are not elected, it's easy for people to believe there is something not right about that. It also makes it easy for city politicians to shift blame on to the OMB for decisions they have previously made or didn't make when they should have.

The west end of Toronto, near the Lake and the CNE has many run-down former industrial properties. The city's plan has obviously designated the area for renewal. The Zoning Bylaw, which puts the teeth into an Official Plan, must permit multiple residential development.

I say "must" because no developer in his right mind would purchase sufficient property to build a cluster of high rise structures in downtown Toronto, if he didn't know for certain he could use the property for that purpose.

I don't have to be there to follow the story; the artsy crafty people have formed a community in the area because the old buildings have cheap rents. They have appealed to the politicians to save them from the big, bad developers. Councillors, perhaps knowingly, perhaps not, have leaped on their chargers to defend the righteous and downtrodden people of the arts and the crafts.

It is such a simple formula. Add a reporter or two, also looking for fame and fortune in slaying the dragon, and suddenly you have a completely distorted representation of the facts. Even those who know the truth of the matter stay quiet and keep heads down until the clamour subsides.

There is an indication now, the city, after two OMB hearings, is considering taking the matter to court and spending thousands more of taxpayer dollars for legal costs to argue that their own planning regulations should not be followed.

You may wonder, why does that story matter to us. Well, we came within a vote of it happening here just a few short weeks ago. The Separate School Board, after months of work with the town planning department to determine that the Wellington site for a new high school would be an appropriate purchase, did exactly that.

After more months and expense on architects and such, they received a date for a public planning meeting. At the planning meeting, even with no concerns expressed from the immediate neighbourhood, Councillor Stephen Granger moved the application be refused. Councillors McEachern,Gaertner and, it seemed the Mayor, supported the motion.

One more vote, and the matter would have had to go before the OMB. The Town would have been in the position of having to defend the refusal of a planning application which completely conforms to our plans. The planning department recommended in favour of it. Half of the council supported it. The application was being made by another elected public body. Vast sums would have been spent on legal costs, for no good purpoose whatsoever.

The substance of a good debate is when two rational sides of an argument can be made. When it is over, no matter the decision, everyone can feel they have given it their best shot. They can feel they have justified their place at the table.

When I am reclining on my backyard deck staring up into a canopy of maple leaves, I try to understand why four elected representatives would collectively arrive at that position on the Wellington Street Catholic High School.

For the life of me, I cannot fathom the logic.

Blissful Ignorance Is Not An Entitlement.

Last week, I received a call late in the evening. There was no water in the taps in the north-west corner of the town. The caller added people had been running their sprinklers for hours and the water was running down the streets to the catchbasins. I needed to hear no more.

Forty-five years ago, the town added 750 new homes in my neighbourhood - an increase of more than a third of the town. The same thing happened on another hot summer evening. People turned on their sprinklers and let them run. Soon they found themselves without water in the house. They were stunned and of course, it was all the stupid town's fault.

We were new to the town. Many of us were relatively new to the country. We did not relate the large ball hundreds of feet above us on stilt-like supports to the water that magically ran from the taps. Even when we were informed there was a finite supply from the water tower, we were not convinced the town was not at fault. One of those residents, still indignant at the end of the year, was a candidate in the municipal election. Elections were held annually. It was said she gave the best speech of all the candidates.

People did learn however, and after that first summer, the taps never ran dry again. We observed the watering rules. Our houses were full of children. Babies needed formula, children needed bathing, toilets needed to be flushed. Bottled water was not a commodity. Our water, from artesian wells drawn from deep below the ground, was the best.

This time is similar. Except, we have a reservoir in the ground in the north end of town. The water we are using is from thousands of feet below the ground. It has been carbon-dated. It is thousands of years old. We have many times greater supply and improved water pressure. There are now fifteen thousand homes as opposed to three thousand and there is the internet and email.

Surprisingly though, many people are not better informed than residents of forty-five years ago. Yet, they are just as sure they know who to blame. It is the stupid town and the stupid politicians. It is never, never, never, the people who turn on sprinklers and let this precious resource run in the gutter to the catchbasins, and run and run until the reservoir is dry.

The e-mails that I received are all about rage and abuse and grass and flowers and the cost of it all. Not about being unable to flush toilets, or make baby formula or a cup of tea. One man demands to be informed of the process to install a septic tank and well on his own property.

I know people with wells. They are definitely hesitant to spill precious potable water on the ground to keep their grass green. At times they have to pay for a tank truck to bring water to their wells. Sometimes wells become contaminated and they have to drill new ones always deeper to find potable water.

The town is sending out personal, respectful and placatory e-mails to enraged residents who are demanding additional reservoirs be built.

I do not favour that. Reservoirs cost millions to build. Water costs millions to treat in these post-Walkerton times. I am persuaded it makes no sense to build reservoir capacity and treat a supply of water beyond our needs for twelve months of the year to accommodate a possible need for two months of the summer. So far as I know, there is no way to measure the supply of water from our current source. We are tapping into a source which has been there for thousands of years. It is precious. We need to use it wisely.

I do not support pumping and treating and storing that water beyond our normal needs just because a summer drought is possible but not inevitable. We did not have one last year.

The demand for more capacity is like saying : O.K. thirty students form a gym class and that's the capacity of the gymnasium; we have three hundred students in the school, therefore we need ten gymnasiums and ten teachers because everybody wants to take gym at the same time. No reason, they just want to. Where is the logic in that?

We have sufficient reservoir capacity for ten months of the year for all of our needs. For two months, if there is a heat wave, we need to follow some sensible rules . Three nights of the week, one half of the population waters their gardens and the next three nights belong to the other half. If a sufficient number of ill-informed and uncaring people decide they will disregard the rules, everybody suffers the consequences.

It is an odd thing, in all the e-mail s I received, there wasn't one that complained about not being able to flush the toilet.

Another fact needs to be considered; it doesn't matter how much precious clean water is poured on to the grass, the stuff is destined to dormancy and the appearance of hay in a normal August anyway. We are not living in the rain-saturated environment of the U.K. and the Emerald Isle. We are living at the latitude of the Mediterranean to which people flock from everywhere to enjoy the glorious dry heat of summer and the vegetation particular to that environment.

When you live in a community, you share ownership of its resources, as well as responsibility for good stewardship.

Storm In A Paper Cup

Council met in the evening of June 17th for the first time as an audit committee. Boring, eh?! It didn't turn out that way. Councillor McEachern used the opportunity to repeat an assertion the town's e-mail service had continued to be accessed by the former Mayor for "months” and staff had permitted its extended use.

There was an insinuation of wrong-doing. It was made in a public meeting. An individual was named. and staff were implicated.

From the perspective of public liability and accepted protocol, to say nothing of fairness, the comments had no place in a public forum. They were out of order.

The Mayor did not rule that way. That is one of the functions of a Presiding Member.

Former Mayor Tim Jones circulated his new e-mail address the day he left office. Staff permitted incoming messages as a courtesy to people who might still have messages to convey. The new Mayor learned of it, stopped it immediately and informed council. It was referred to again behind closed doors for reason which are not immediately discernible. (Harrumph!). When it was regurgitated at the public meeting by Councillor McEachern and exaggerated to a period of "months" the Mayor did not correct the Councillor. As noted, she did not rule her out of order.

I did object. The statement was damaging, made in a public meeting, it was an innuendo of wrong doing which I found unacceptable.

The Mayor found my comments out of order. She directed me to apologize to Councillor McEachern. It was never going to happen.

The Mayor decided that gave her the authority to expel me from the council chamber. That too was a dead duck from the start.

The Mayor called for a recess. The vote tied. So that didn't fly.

The Mayor turned the chair over to Councillor McRoberts, who thoughtfully considered the wording of the clause the Mayor was leaning on for her decision. He ruled it not apply.

The Mayor took back the chair.

Councillor Gaertner decided she would not stay at a table where the Mayor was not respected. She left her seat. Councillor McEachern left her seat once and returned, and then left again..

The Mayor vacated the chair, which brought the business of the meeting to an end. She called to Councillor Granger and they all trooped from the council chamber .

Another meeting of the Audit Committee has been scheduled to complete the business barely begun. Staff will once again be assembled for evening duties. The auditors will attend once more. Whether a quorum of council is available remains to be seen.

We have not been asked.

Writer's Block

I have created my own blocks to my blog writing. I recently engaged in a discussion with someone who preferred to be anonymous. The issue was my childhood recollection of a penny bank on a neighbour's mantle. I may have seen it only once. It is the only artifact in that room that I do recall. I would possibly have been four year's old or younger at the time.

My correspondent was determined to prove my racism from my sharing that memory. Oddly enough the frustration I felt from that exchange came from the fact the correspondent was anonymous. He knew who I was. I did not have the same advantage. I have decided I will not engage again unless I know the name of the person offering an exchange.

Then there were the e-mails I received from Councillor McEachern and her invitation to publish. That was tempting. But I knew my instinct was not pure.

I could not come up with a justifiable reason .. I tried, but I am no paragon of virtue. I too crave revenge. All it did though was stop me from thinking about other blogs that might be of interest.

So now I have cleared the obstacles to objectivity, my muse will no doubt return.

An Old Morality Tale

I said I would copy the exchange between myself and Councillor McEachern. I have not done so. I have mixed feelings about the merits of reproducing something which may or may not contribute to the public debate. I think the exchange is revealing. I'm just not sure the end justifies the means.

Putting something into writing is not like having a chat. There are all kinds of reinforcements present in a face to face dialogue. Reproducing someone else's written comments is even more problematic.

I have always stuck to the principle, I am responsible only for my position on any issue that comes before council. I do not profess to be always right. I only commit to be always forthright. I am glad to be judged on my contribution to the public debate. I believe others should judged by the same token.

Scott Somerville was our interim Chief Administration Officer last year. He has the same breadth of experience as myself but from an administrative angle. One time, we were discussing a matter which represented a clear conflict of interest. I was intent on bringing it to the attention of council.

He asked “Evelyn, why should you always be the one?”

”Because no-one else will.”, I answered.

“Exactly.”, he said.

As it evolved, no advantage was gained by the individual who had the conflict. The matter was resolved in a different direction.

His advice was sensible. Scandal was averted. The person who had the conflict clearly did not recognize the impropriety. A cloud would have been cast. It's shade would have spread widely. Was it my job to cast it? I think not.

The current council is not like any I have experienced. I have serious concerns. People are being hurt. To this point, in my perspective, the town has not been well-served. Yet as a councillor, I can only govern my own behaviour...and trust to the discernment of the community at large.

Experience tells me that trust is seldom misplaced. It's a long road that doesn't have a turn.

The First in a Series of Emails

June 8th 10.17 a.m

Good Morning All,

On Tuesday we spent time talking about the region coming up with a new way to collect toxic waste. In the bulletin about co-mingling, it is noted paint cans and aerosol cans are collected in the blue box.

My God, we really know how to waste time, don't we? Tuesday had to be the worst yet. Listening to those two regional officials droning on endlessly about the Noise Abatement plan for Bathurst and the Rapid Transit just about drove me under the table.

The first followed with an immediate Open House for the residents who are affected.The second has an Open House on June 11th in the Lobby of the Town Hall. At the hour of adjournment,we had more than half the items on the agenda still to be dealt with.It has to be dawning on councillors, there is something wrong with the way we are doing things. The town's business is not being handled.

Stephen's motion criticizes the Board of Education for not allowing more time and opportunity for public input into their decisions. The Board is doing what it has to, to fulfill its mandate...which is making decisions... in this instance a difficult one.

We are way behind in the decisions we have to make. We are not in a position to criticize anyone. What we do is the opposite. And it is not about public participation it is about public intimidation of council.

Now watch this Mosaic Lighting thing become a carbon copy of the appalling waste of time on the Aurora Cable Fiasco. Once again, the Mayor has bypassed council and town management by giving direction to town staff. It is the collective will of council that gives direction to staff. As long as this council allows the mayor complete freedom to direct staff, we have no properly functioning system of government, we have chaos and eventual collapse.

Have a great day everyone,

Evelyn Buck

Councillor

On words and Up words

Heather Sisman, she who finds or creates pictures and helps with format, does not like me to refer to the difference in our age. She passionately believes age has no relevance in the world of ideas. For the most part, I agree. I have probably acquired skill and, when it is called for, diplomacy in presenting my views. But as my experience has grown neither my principles nor my pattern of thought have changed. I consider myself fortunate to have the opportunity to continue to commit to a worthwhile purpose.

Having Heather to bounce ideas off is invaluable. She is intelligent, interested, and eager to catch whatever I have to pass on. She attends council and council-in-committee meetings . We spend time afterwards discussing everything that transpired. If I needed anyone besides my many children and grandchildren to keep me grounded in the present, Heather is ever present. We trust each other. She surprises me with the nuance she observes.

Of course I am not in the habit of keeping my thoughts to myself. The Blog you know about. I also e-mail ideas to colleagues. I think it is a fantastic tool . It doesn't tie up valuable time. The message can be read or not. No response is required. If a thought occurs which I think is relevant to the stuff we are dealing with, off it goes into the ether. In general, I sense no hostility from colleagues. so I am comfortable sharing. A council is after all, a collegial body. I may be the only one with the luxury of time and indulging myself in self-expression is a habit hard to break.

This week, I sent such an e-mail. Councillor McEachern responded through the Mayor's office. She invited me to publish her response. I thought not. But I did share it with Heather. She thought I should accept the invitation. I still thought not. Then I considered the generational thing. The Councillor's e-mail does provide background of a sort. Heather thinks it provides insight as it stands and won't come across as a spiteful act on my part.

So I will. What follows is the complete exchange:

Verisimilitude

So, Vaughan is going to have an Integrity Commissioner. Aurora's Mayor is giving serious consideration to the idea. Newmarket is warm to the notion. Toronto has one. Information about how it works is already available. The press has been paying attention to the matter and the story has all the elements of high drama of the farcical genre in keeping with our times.

Provincial Legislation to allow municipalities to appoint an integrity commissioner derived from the Findings and Recommendations of the Bellamy Inquiry

The reason for the inquiry was the bilking of Toronto taxpayers of millions of dollars for a computer system. A foolish female financial official was seduced by a fast-talking and apparently not very intelligent computer salesman. A city politician with a high media profile in budget control was, without a doubt, the dastardly villain of the piece. The fellow was a candidate for Mayor in the previous election. He complained about another candidate not following the rules. Lucky for Toronto, they didn't choose him.

The Bellamy Inquiry went on for months. It seems money and favours changed hands with remarkable ease and little subtlety. The entire scheme of things was laid bare. Yet, except for the recommendation of an Integrity Commissioner, nothing much came of it. The inquiry probably cost more than the funds scammed in the skullduggery.

But there were consequences. Yes indeed. Toronto appointed a Grand Poohba of Verisimilitude, a former legal beagle from Queen's University. He rode forward on his white charger to save Toronto's badly served taxpayers.

His part-time position pays $104,000. He has an Administrative Assistant. They are both accessible only by appointment.

Complaints deemed worthy of investigation have been telling. A citizen claimed to have been verbally disrespected by a politician. The Commissioner found that was simply a misunderstanding of the tone of the comment.

A candidate in the last city election left a disparaging comment about another on the answering machine of a Member of Parliament, who was supporting the candidate being disparaged. The party of the first part was found to be at fault by the Commissioner. He deemed the act to be reprehensible and worthy of an apology.

City Council did not require the apology. The Commissioner tells the press he will quit the job if they disregard his judgment a second time. Seems it has not occurred to this expert in law to ponder how an elected official can be forced to apologize if she just won't.

The latest matter to be investigated is the failure of two councillors to claim expenses. The complaint came from councillors who do claim expenses.

If they are paying any attention at all, the taxpayers of Toronto must be wondering by now; why do they always have to pay the consequences?

I will not be voting in favour of an Integrity Commissioner for Aurora, but If the majority does, I already have a list of actions to complain about where integrity has been conspicuous by its absence. I look forward to making the cases.

Another Pat on the Back

HEATHER'S NOTE: Below is an email exchange between Evelyn and a young Aurora citizen. I thought this was definitely worth posting. I've removed the young man's name.
~HEATHER SISMAN

----- Original Message -----
From: "Name Removedl" <_________@aci.on.ca
To: evelynb@aci.on.ca
Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2007 12:00 AM
Subject: Regarding your Blog


Dear Ms. Buck:

My name is ______________, a local Aurora resident (recently 18 years of age), and an avid reader of your blog online. I just wanted to take the time to comment on a recent town council meeting I had the opportunity to watch in which you suggested the potential for publishing town
council meetings onto the Town of Aurora's website. I think this is an excellent idea. It's not always convienient to sit down and watch ACI's channel 10 at the prescribed times that town council meetings air, and I think this would be an excellent way to make local politics more
accessible to people of younger ages.

On that note, I just wanted to comment / commend you on your adopted use of technology to get your ideas across. I take great pleasure in reading your blog, and I have quoted your writing in several occasions in politics papers I have written for various assignments.

Thank you for making your viewpoints, idealisms, and thoughts accessible for everyone. Your transparency in those matters has not only increased my interest in municipal politics, but it has driven me to pursue involvement in it.

Sincerely yours,
_______________

Farewell to Cooky

Cooky Ellis is a truly beautiful human being. Warm, friendly and completely competent in her job. In many instances, Cooky gave face to the Mayor's office. She was the first contact people had, she was always helpful and kind. Parents and children had their contact with the town made memorable by Cooky's welcome. She made them feel immediately comfortable.

For a councillor needing assistance, nothing was ever too much trouble. From the time of the election she was always available no matter the issue. Always glad to be able to help. Our Inaugurals were always organized with more than a touch of class.

Her good humour was unfailing. Her laughter infectious. Even when her heart was heavy with personal grief, she was always ready to make herself available to assist in whatever way she could.

I consider such an employee as Cooky worth many, many times the salary paid. Not just for the daily excellence of performance - not just for going above and beyond or for the institutional memory.

It is simply not true that a person such as Cooky or Wayne Jackson can be easily replaced. What is lost, may be replaced. It cannot be recovered.

After six months of the current administration, Cooky Ellis has taken her leave of the Town of Aurora. She left on Monday May 28th at the end of the workday.

Newsflash!

HEATHER'S NOTE: Spring is a time for change, rebirth, and rejuvenation. To that end, Evelyn and I are revamping both her website, and the blog. I know that some readers have the existing blog tagged as an RSS feed - you might want to set one up for this blog as well.

Please visit Evelyn's Website Itself to see what we're up to. I'm still learning something new every day and so the site will continue its metamorphosis. ~HEATHER SISMAN

Noah's Modern-Day Plight

ORIGINALLY POSTED Thursday, May 17, 2007

In the year 2007, the Lord came unto Noah, who was now living in Canada, and said, "Once again, the earth has become wicked and over-populated, and see the end of all flesh before me.

Build another Ark and save 2 of every living thing along with a few good humans."

He gave Noah the blueprints, saying, "You have 6 months to build the Ark before I will start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights."

Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah weeping in his yard - but no Ark.

"Noah!" He roared , "I'm about to start the rain! Where is the Ark?"

"Forgive me, Lord," begged Noah, "but things have changed. I needed a building permit. I've been arguing with the inspector about the need for a sprinkler system. My neighbors claim that I've violated the neighborhood zoning laws by building the Ark in my yard and exceeding the height limitations. We had to go to the Development Appeal Board for a decision.

Then the Hydro One demanded a bond be posted for the future costs of moving power lines and other overhead obstructions, to clear the passage for the Ark's move to the sea. I told them that the sea would be coming to us, but they would hear nothing of it.

Getting the wood was another problem. There's a ban on cutting local trees in order to save the spotted owl. I tried to convince the environmentalists that I needed the wood to save the owls - but no go!

When I started gathering the animals, an animal rights group sued me. They insisted that I was confining wild animals against their will. They argued the accommodation was too restrictive , and it was cruel and inhumane to put so many animals in a confined space.

Then the Ministry of the Environment ruled that I couldn't build the Ark until they'd conducted an environmental impact study on your proposed flood.

I'm still trying to resolve a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on how many minorities I'm supposed to hire for my building crew. Immigration and Naturalization are checking the Visa status of most of the people who want to work. The trades unions say I can't use my sons. They insist I have to hire only Union workers with Ark-building experience.

To make matters worse, the Revenue Canada seized all my assets, claiming I'm trying to leave the country illegally with endangered species.

So, forgive me, Lord, but it would take at least 10 years for me to finish this Ark."

Suddenly the skies cleared, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow stretched across the sky. Noah looked up in wonder and asked, "You mean you're not going to destroy the world?"

"No," said the Lord. "The government beat me to it."