Council Watch #17 – letter to the editor of the Auroran

If it was not already obvious, based on my second sign count one can only conclude that we have a very close Mayoral race on our hands.

I surveyed every quadrant of the town and took a representative sampling of signs located on private property.

Morris won four areas, Dawe won four areas and they tied in one area. You can’t get much closer than that.

I counted nearly 300 signs and the results are surprisingly consistent with the September 19th sign survey.

October 6th sign count results:

• Geoff Dawe         –  46% – drop of 3%
• Phyllis Morris     –  33% – drop of 3%
• Nigel Kean         –  13% – essentially the same
• Roger Clowater   –   8% – increase of 5%*

*Clowater’s increase can largely be attributed to the fact that I counted his home area in the October 6th count, which doubled the amount of signs he previously had on September 19th.

Winning 40% of the total votes cast on October 25th will likely win the mayoral race. If we assume 12,500 total votes cast then 4,800 is the magic number, however I also think that because Phyllis is tracking at 33% of signs counted, a slightly lower vote count could win the day.

If we extrapolate from the October 6th sign count percentages noted above, the vote count on October 25th would be as follows:

• Geoff Dawe:        5,796  — Our next Mayor
• Phyllis Morris:     4,152 —  This predicted result is in around where I would expect given that Phyllis won 5,208 votes last time around
• Nigel Kean:        1,600 — This is consistent with the September 19th sign count results
• Roger Clowater:      952 — Based on the nature of Roger’s sign distribution I suspect that he may not win as many votes as projected here.
• Miloslav Prikryl: — No signs were counted

The next logical question is how and if the issue of “strategic voting” will enter into the minds of voters who are hoping for change at the Town Hall. This has been a topic of major discussion in the Toronto election however it does not appear to have entered into our local discussions to the extent that one might expect given the number of candidates.

We should be thankful that we have so many people who care enough about this town that they are prepared to invest so much time, effort and energy into an election campaign and quite frankly I can’t fault anyone for supporting who they feel is best suited for the job at hand, however that said, we also need to be prepared to live with the outcome of our collective reasoning for another four years.

While Phyllis Morris recently stated that Aurora has “set the gold standard of democracy” others (including me  – a former Morris supporter) have come to quite a different conclusion as a result of the senior staff turnover (6 of 8 senior staff positions have left the town’s employment), the mayor has been instructed to “cease and desist” in her comments related to an internationally regarded ethicist and expert on corporate governance who was released from his responsibilities as the town’s first Integrity Commissioner the day after his first decision was announced publicly. This was explained as a “coincidence” by the mayor which garnered negative media coverage in the Star, Globe, National Post, Sun, CBC and in the local media.

We have had one well-respected councillor quit, two (our most educated) will not run again as a result of their experience and one councillor has felt compelled to sue her fellow councillors (that doesn’t happen too often).

The town staff has continued to grow at the same rate as it has in the past ten years despite the severe economic times that have compelled governments and businesses around the world to exercise greater financial restraint.

While hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent on a jazz festival, parades, a cultural center, recreation facilities, trails, trees, and legal fees no money has been directed towards the food bank or the region’s affordable housing efforts. The Mayor actually feels that spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to compel one councillor to say sorry is money well spent, while at the same time she turns a blind eye to the actions of others; including herself, who I have reason to believe broke the very same section of the code of conduct as she has accused Councillor Buck of breaking.

From my perspective, anyone who is given $200 million of our tax dollars to spend over a four-year period can point to accomplishments but for me the real question to ask is if you feel that your elected officials are representing our town in the most professional and most effective manner possible ? Aurora’s politics have been characterised as dysfunctional, poisoned, poorly informed and petty for years, however it is once again up to all of us to determine what is required to set a new course.

I can only hope that those people who take the time to vote, also take the time to become well-informed in an effort to separate fact from fiction which is no small task in our municipal arena.

Good luck to all and may the best candidate win.

Richard Johnson