$#*! My Mayor Says
Posted by auroracitizen on October 1, 2010
Taken from the recent email published by the Morris campaign.
In fact, one attendee who had been at the campaign launches for some other prominent Greater Toronto Area politicians said it may have been the best-attended in the whole of the GTA this year.
We guess if you preface a distortion or untruth with the claim that someone else said it, it somehow makes it okay. Really, now Phyllis believes she had more people than either Smitherman, Ford or any of the GTA events. Delusional? You decide.
At the Rogers TV debate the Mayor talked about how the Town has turned the tables on rising taxes. In 2001, tax increases raced ahead at 9 percent. This year the Council whittled the increase down to 2.8 percent.
Why did she conveniently leave out the tax increases from her last term of Council (2003 – 2006) or that since she became Mayor we have seen taxes rise a combined 13.81%? One would almost think she intentionally meant to mislead you.
Mayor and Town Council have taken strong steps to ease the burden on residential taxpayers and make growth pay for growth. How? Town Council completed the first major reorganization of the Town administration since the 1980s.
This re-organization resulted in a 20% increase in staff during a worldwide economic downturn — ahead of both tax base growth and population growth. Including a new, full-time personal assistant for the Mayor. How does that ensure growth pays for growth?
She served as one of only two Mayors on a special stakeholder advisory committee concerned with the Watershed, by appointment of the Minister of the Environment.
What she failed to mention was that her role on the committee was to “…provide input and advice to the government on protecting Lake Simcoe…and provide a linkage with the broader community…”. So aside from attending a meeting or two, just what advice and input from the community did she provide? Where was the consultation with the community on whose behalf she was appointed?
And a deal that will earn taxpayers more than $130,000 a year in rental income from the former Aurora Hydro building. Worth waiting for.
However, what she failed to mention was that this deal took 3 years and bumped the planned use by our own Parks department because the Works and Parks department have long outgrown the facility they are sharing on Scanlon Court. What is her plan to address that need? And at what cost against this $130,000 windfall?
We are now renting out a town facility that was supposed to be used for town staff. And since when did the municipality become a landlord? Shouldn’t town buildings be used for Town purposes ahead of rental opportunities? Surplus buildings and land are supposed to be sold and the revenue used for municipal purposes. Shouldn’t she know that given all of her “experience”.
Christopher Watts had his own take on this same email you might find interesting. As always, Christopher brings his own special sense of humour to the online word via his personal blog, Temporary Insanity.
Aurora Citizen 
KA-NON said
Wouldn’t you!
BJ said
this town council reminds me of an old British song ….Mayors eat oats and Does eat oats and Little Lambs eat ivy, a Kid will eat ivy too.