Aurora Citizen

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Archive for the ‘Election 2010’ Category

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Is Mayor Morris Putting Lipstick on a Pig?

Posted by auroracitizen on July 3, 2010

Aurora getting makeover

In the recent Banner Article (June 29th, 2010), outgoing Mayor Morris rhapsodized about a “new programme” to provide the downtown core with a makeover in the coming months – just in time for the election – but not in time for the summer, Street Sale, Canada Day parade, movies in the park etc.. but hey, it will be ready for the election.

Morris described it as the “Clean up Aurora” programme. Apparently, the much ballyhooed programme consists of such basic things as repainting lane markers, railings, power-washing the sidewalks (seriously???)  She described it as a “quick win” for the downtown revitalization “plan” she’s been flogging to death in recent weeks – including apparently, standing on the sidewalk literally waving it about last Friday.
 
Is it just us, or does it all seem so desperate? And, well, just a little bit sad.

This is what the outgoing Mayor seems to think is downtown revitalization? Are you kidding me? Shouldn’t painting lines on the road so drivers know what lane they are in be common practice?  She thinks this needs to be part of a plan? It is pathetic that normal day-to-day business practice in public works is repackaged as some kind of new plan with bells, whistles and streamers (even a puff piece in the paper…)

Has this “plan” been discussed at Council?  Let’s hope not.  I certainly hope it doesn’t need to be debated. Can you imagine that council discussion? 

“I move a motion that we replace all the straight lines in town with wiggly ones…”

“I move a motion that the lines be painted red in honour of Canada’s Birthday Town…”

“This is just too much for us to consider, Madam Chair, I move a motion to refer that motion to staff to consider and report back to Council, madam chair…”

Good grief!

Morris hopes by “tidying” up the area, her fellow Auroran’s “…will no longer be ashamed of the downtown”.

She thinks Aurorans are “ashamed”???

If that was the case, then why did it take her 44 months of a 48 month term to notice?  Has she been paying attention at all to what’s happening in the Town she ostensibly serves? Or too busy pandering to the whiners – oops, sorry, potential voters – wanting light posts moved/trees planted/whistles silenced etc. etc. etc.

Even sadder is outgoing Mayor Morris’ comments that she hopes, “with luck” that the tidying efforts will get people, “excited” about the supposed pending changes to the core.  With luck?  She needs “luck” to get people interested in their town again???

Of course, unsaid is the fact that her hopes are all based on whether the study is ever completed, ever adopted, ever implemented. After all, we have seen so many studies shot down, re-written, shelved by this (and other) Councils, I doubt anyone pays much heed to Morris’ clarion call. More to the point, the next Council is not obligated to act — hence most Council actually develop plans early in the term so they can see it through on their term.

It is all well and good to “tidy-up” the Town – it’s about time. But to make this the central focus of what has been a term lacking in any substantive action simply highlights just how little else has actually been accomplished.

Past terms of Council have built Libraries, Seniors Centres and the new Aurora Rec Centre in a single term. Mayor Morris has managed a study.

Well … do what you’re able Phyllis.

This is just more spin to try to make an ineffectual term look like something it’s not — lipstick on a pig we say.

Posted in Election 2010, Growth, Leadership, Town Council | 3 Comments »

Chris Ballard Enters Race For Council

Posted by auroracitizen on July 1, 2010

Just checked the town website and noticed that Chris Ballard has submitted his nomination papers for Council. Chris is the current Chair of the Economic Development Advisory Committee and the owner of Aurora based CSB Communications — a communications company that currently lists the Town of Aurora on its website as a client.

Chris is also generally viewed as a friend of Phyllis Morris — recently spotted glad handing with her at the Seniors Centre at Belinda’s Barbecue.

This will raise an interesting quandary when it comes to declaring conflicts. How would sitting on Council impact his ability to work for the same town he is a Councillor for?

No doubt he will have an interesting response to the question. We’d certainly be interested in hearing what his response is.

For what it’s worth, our opinion is that he should decline any and all work associated with the Town and therefore avoid any hint of conflict.

Equally interesting will be  whether Chris will stand up against the Mayor should they both get elected or whether he will just be another vote that the Mayor counts on to support her agenda. Or will he possibly turn on her should he see her fortunes turn and another mayoralty candidate look like they will be the winner. Nothing worse that backing a losing horse in a political race.

This election is shaping up the be the most interesting in recent history. Only July 1 and already 3 Mayor candidates and 7 Councillor candidates. That must be a new record.

Possibly a commentary on the view of the current council’s performance.

Posted in Election 2010, Town Council | 19 Comments »

Geoff Dawe Kicks Off Campaign

Posted by auroracitizen on June 29, 2010

Last night Geoff Dawe kicked off his campaign for Mayor at St Andrews Golf Course. There were upwards to 100 supporters there to hear what he had to say. The buzz in the room seemd good, but of course these were his supporters. Were any readers present? What were your thoughts?

Posted in Election 2010 | 19 Comments »

Mayor Morris Confuses Many With Her Ethical Choices

Posted by auroracitizen on June 26, 2010

So, here’s a question.

If the Mayor spends 2 hours on a Friday afternoon, standing in the hot sun at Yonge and Wellington — telling people about the recently released Aurora Promenade study — should that be considered campaigning?

Does the fact that she drags high-priced help like Neil Garbe along make it Town business? Surely he has something better or more useful to do than hang out with the Mayor promoting a study that already complete.

And you can be sure that Brian Morris – the ever faithful Photographer — was there capturing the activities for the next campaign brochure.

In our opinion — if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck 🙂

But as usual Mayor Phyllis Morris has her own unique  interpretation of the rules — regardless of what common sense would indicate.

Why doesn’t she just do the honourable thing and declare? Oh, then she couldn’t drag high-priced staff along to keep her company.

Posted in Election 2010, Integrity, Leadership, Waste | 4 Comments »

It’s Official – Geoff Dawe is Running for Mayor

Posted by auroracitizen on June 22, 2010

The rumours are true. The Auroran broke the story earlier today that Geoff Dawe is running for Mayor. 

In an email by former Mayor Tim Jones, Jones writes about the newest candidate as follows; “He is Geoff Dawe, the outgoing President of the Aurora Chamber of Commerce and 33 year resident of Aurora. Geoff has participated in and held leadership positions with his children’s school councils, his church and is president of his own company. More recently, Geoff has served as Chairperson of the Aurora Library Board.”

Jones went on to say; “He is a leader who seeks consensus, not retribution. He’s a team player, allowing full and uninterrupted input and with that input, he is a decision maker. Geoff respects the positions of others while asking for respect in return.”

It will be interesting to see how the 2 current candidates and Mayor react to this news.

Although Dawe has no direct Council experience, he brings a wealth of business experience and has been involved in town governance for many years serving as past Chair of the Library Board and President of the Aurora Chamber.

Maybe it’s time we had someone in a leadership position who actually has some real leadership experience — rather than the smoke and mirrors the current Mayor has bamboozled folks with for the last few years. It’s time Mayor Morris provided some specific documented experience rather than her generic claims of leadership and HR experience. Goodness knows, she hasn’t demonstrated any skills in either area.

Stay-tuned — it is shaping up to be an interesting summer.

Posted in Election 2010, Leadership, Town Council | 24 Comments »

Councillor MacEachern Instigates 2 Integrity Complaints

Posted by auroracitizen on June 4, 2010

By Sean Pearce — Jun 04, 2010 – 2:26 PM

Integrity commish reviewing new complaints

Here we go again.

Aurora integrity commissioner David Tsubouchi is working on two formal complaints under the town’s code of conduct, both of which were filed by Councillor Evelina MacEachern, The Banner has learned.

At first, Ms MacEachern would only say the complaints originated from a member of council, but, when pressed, conceded she had filed a pair of formal complaints and expects a decision on them from Mr. Tsubouchi “any day now”.

“I have filed two formal complaints,” she said. “I don’t want to say what they’re about or who they’re against.”

Councillor Evelyn Buck, who was the subject of the first formal code complaint lodged by six members of council last year, wouldn’t confirm if the two new complaints were against her. It wouldn’t be appropriate to do so, she said.

“I will neither confirm nor deny that the two complaints are against me,” she said.

“I would not want to give them any ammunition, because one of the things they said last year was that I had breached the confidentiality of the process before they did by publishing my response to their (informal complaint) letter.”

If the two new complaints are against Ms Buck, this will mark the second time she has been targetted by one or more of her council colleagues through such a mechanism.

Last July, Ms MacEachern along with Councillors Stephen Granger, Al Wilson, John Gallo and Wendy Gaertner and Mayor Phyllis Morris, voted to file a formal complaint with the town’s first integrity commissioner, David Nitkin. Mr. Nitkin, whose contract had only been finalized in June, returned his ruling Aug. 5 and was fired the next day.

A month later, his report was publicized, at which point it was revealed he had ruled the complaint, as submitted, was “ill-formed”, “incomplete” and “inappropriate” and, as a result, could be seen as “wholly political” in nature.

A freedom of information request filed by The Banner last fall revealed Mr. Nitkin was paid more than $28,000 during his time with the town.

Shortly after the release of Mr. Nitkin’s ruling, Ms Buck launched a libel lawsuit against the six members of council who filed the complaint against her and The Banner relating to a town-sponsored advertisement that ran in the paper.

The town’s code of conduct doesn’t lay out a specific timeframe for a response on any complaints, town clerk John Leach said, but noted he has no reason to suspect Mr. Tsubouchi isn’t working as quickly as possible to return a ruling.

When a decision on one or both complaints is received, the complainant and councillor complained about will be notified and a report will be placed on the next council agenda, he said.

Posted in Code of Ethics, Election 2010, Integrity, Leadership | 17 Comments »

Banner Provides Interesting Perspective on Aurora Coverage

Posted by auroracitizen on May 29, 2010

Was anyone else struck by the reporting in the Thursday issue of the Banner on the information picket at Aurora  Town Hall?

For the first time in this writers memory, the main front page picture didn’t lead to a story in the paper. Readers were instructed to go online at www.yorkregion.com to read the story. Once there — there is nothing on the home page or on Aurora’s home page. However, a number of other articles from the paper are easily found. So what’s the deal?

In fact, there was no story at all. Best we could find was the original story  from May 25.

Another interesting twist was Sean Pierce’s article on page 10 about the role of the internet in the upcoming election. He mentioned serving members websites, candidate websites and even specifically mentioned Counselor Buck’s website — but no mention of citizens websites. Hmm.

Isn’t the fact that citizens across the GTA are increasingly using the online channel a relevant part of the story.

Ah well, possibly Sean hasn’t found out about our wee blog yet. Someone will have to whisper in his ear. Or maybe he does — but is discouraged from giving it any media coverage.

We’d be willing to wager on the later based on the historical coverage of the activities at town hall.

Posted in Election 2010, Media | 16 Comments »

Another Mayoralty Candidate on the Horizon

Posted by auroracitizen on May 21, 2010

We have confirmed through a number of sources — including the person in question — that another Mayoralty candidate is contemplating standing for election as Mayor in October 2010.

They were initially approached by numerous community and business leaders citing ongoing concerns with the conduct of the current Mayor and Council, and the lack of a viable alternative with the 2 declared candidates

Although they were not planned on running for Mayor, they decided to consider this increased level of community involvement because of the wide-ranging encouragement by community and business leaders.

No official date has been set for a final decision.

It will be interesting to see what response an additional candidate will bring from the 2 declared candidates and the current Mayor.

Posted in Election 2010, Leadership, Town Council | 58 Comments »

Community Input: Was Ad Electioneering?

Posted by auroracitizen on April 28, 2010

Received from a reader. If someone can send along a PDF or even identify the issue we will provide a link or publish the information.

Perhaps you could help me.

At tonight’s Aurora Council meeting, Councillor Buck raised some questions about a large ad in a recent Era-Banner issue concerning Aurora’s successes with economic development. I remember reading the ad since it was spread over 2 pages, although it would be about 1 page in total space.

At the time it struck me as being a bit strange, since it didn’t seem to have a real focus and there were mistakes (though minor in nature) in it that I thought shouldn’t have slipped into it. From a marketing point of view it seemed to be put together in haste, though that’s just my personal opinion.

When Councillor Buck mentioned tonight that she was raising these questions as she had concerns from other citizens and it had a flavour of “electioneering”, I thought I would like to take a second look. Unfortunately I didn’t keep my copy.

Would anyone connected with the Aurora Citizen still have a copy that they might be able to scan the 2 pages and provide it as a pdf file for 2nd reading? I unfortunately don’t know the issue date but I remember that it had a blue background and was on the lower half of each page with a number of photos of new construction.

Thanks for any help that you can provide.

The following were supplied by a reader. The ad was published April 15. Click on image to view as larger size.

Posted in Community Corner, Conflict of Interest, Election 2010, Town Council | 20 Comments »

Did She or Didn’t She?

Posted by auroracitizen on April 22, 2010

Much debate in the local coffee shops about whether Mayor Phyllis Morris lied when she said she didn’t “recall anyone asking to come and plant trees on town property”, when in fact it was later identified that Tom Taylor had spent over 1 hour discussing the issue with her before being told “NO” it conflicted with her own Mayor’s Litter day.

A couple of issues.

  1. Did she lie? And does this call into question past statements and her overall integrity? To date Phyllis has been very careful with her words. “I never read blogs”, but yet she knows everything about them because she has someone else read them and tell what is in them. If this is true then she is legally correct —  but morally and ethically corrupt. Clearly Councillors are reading them, so are we to believe that she never discusses them with her fellow Rat Packers. Will our Integrity Commissioner be asked to investigate?
  2. Should she as Mayor allow her own feelings toward Tim Jones to influence her decision-making on behalf of the tow — many of whom supported and voted for Tim for many years. Phyllis has spent considerable town dollars trying to find dirt on Mayor Jones — unsuccessfully it would appear because she has never brought any findings forward. Most people “in the know” are fully aware of these feelings. However, this latest move by Phyllis clearly demonstrates her personal feelings are getting in the way of Town business. Not the kind of leadership we need.

Is this the first time we have caught Phyllis Morris twisting the truth to suit her own needs? Probably not, we’ll see come election time.

Posted in Code of Ethics, Conflict of Interest, Election 2010, Integrity, Leadership | 7 Comments »

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