Aurora Citizen

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Has Transparency Been Re-defined This Term?

Posted by auroracitizen on December 16, 2009

This is the first of a continuing series of articles by Richard Johnson.

Council Watch — issue #1, by Richard Johnson

I have decided to take up the offer to contribute to Aurora Citizen on a more formal basis. The list of issues and concerns that spring to mind concerning our municipal government seem to offer no end of possible topics that deserve to be raised for consideration and discussion. From my perspective our democracy requires both a detailed examination of the facts as well as debate in order to achieve the best possible results. While most issues may not be clearly black and white in nature, a thorough debate can clarify, refine and sometimes even evolve our respective positions to our collective benefit (at least that is my hope).

Provided enough time, effort and clarity is brought to any given discussion one can expect to see an underlying truth emerge or at the very least the full range of perspectives, regardless of the fact that some details may be debated or the simple fact that we may all view any given issue from a slightly different perspective. With this in mind, I am grateful for the opportunity that the Aurora Citizen has provided everyone in Aurora to express their views and concerns. While we may not all agree all of the time, I can only hope that we can agree to respect and appreciate everyone that cares about the issues facing our town, regardless of their perspective.

Without further adieu, I would like to now get down to business.

For my first topic I would like to raise the issue of transparency and accountability.

While we were all promised a new and higher standard of civility, responsiveness and transparency during the Mayor’s 2006 inaugural speech it strikes me that in reality we have been subject to something quite different. Local reporter Sean Pearce has been forced more than once to file Freedom of Information requests in order to obtain what appears to be simple answers to basic questions, as has been my regrettable experience. In fact the 2009 file number (#39) that was assigned to my two recent Freedom of Information requests may suggest that over 40 questions have been submitted to the town through this last resort method of inquiry in order to hold the government accountable, but that is another question for another time.

After receiving no response following multiple weeks and multiple e-mails to the Town Clerk in which I was merely trying to understand a simple Council Procedure that appeared to have been potentially politically manipulated in order to serve the Mayor’s self interest, I felt compelled to file a Freedom of Information request on November 11th. You will note in the Freedom of Information response from the Town of Aurora, that there are no written procedures for editing the town’s website, therefore my initial reasons for concern in this instance appear to have been well founded.

The FOI response states that when material is posted on the town’s website at the direction of Council the “staff  generally requires direction from Council regarding the removal of the posting” and “The posting regarding the Code of Conduct complaint will be removed from the town’s website upon direction of Council.” 

Here-in lies the conundrum: how can Council ever contemplate the removal of the unsubstantiated and potentially politically motivated accusations posted on the town’s website attacking Councilor Evelyn Buck if, according to the Mayor, raising a motion to remove the material is considered to be “reconsideration” of an earlier motion posted the material in the first place ?  The Mayor’s handling of this issue at council strikes me as being not only indefensible but absurd.

It should not have required a response to an FOI request to come to this rather obvious conclusion given that the Mayor’s apparently broken logic was raised for discussion by Councillor McRoberts and Collins-Mrakas at the same time that numerous councillors stated for the record that they wanted to “move on” from the whole code of conduct issue, however true to form their comments were apparently ignored by the Mayor and her block of supporters.

I’m open to hearing all perspective related to this story, however based on the facts as I know them today this situation looks to me to be rather transparent and clear cut from my perspective.

Posted in Code of Ethics, Council Watch-Richard Johnson, Freedom of Information, Integrity, Leadership | 12 Comments »

Will Taxpayers be Forced to Pay For Mayor Morris Poor Judgement

Posted by auroracitizen on December 12, 2009

Buck launches $5.25M lawsuit suit against councillors

 The Banner, Aurora, December 10, 2009

BY SEAN PEARCE

Evelyn Buck has launched a $5.25-million civil lawsuit against Aurora Mayor Phyllis Morris and five fellow councillors in the latest salvo following their filing of a code of conduct complaint against her last July.

Mayor Morris, Evelina MacEachern, Wendy Gaertner, Stephen Granger, John Gallo and Al Wilson are also named in a statement of claim stemming from an advertisement, entitled Statement From Town of Aurora Council, which was published in The Banner and another local newspaper last July.

The Banner is also named in the lawsuit.

The ad contained a statement from Town of Aurora Council regarding its review of Councillor Buck’s weblog entries and its decision to file a formal complaint against her based on those postings with then-integrity commissioner David Nitkin.

The lengthy statement of claim filed by Richmond Hill law firm MacDonald Associates seeks $1 million for “misfeasance in public office and abuse of power, conspiracy, intentional infliction of mental suffering, injurious falsehood, breach of confidence and breach of privacy” and another $1 million for “infringement or breach of (Ms Buck’s) charter rights and freedoms”.

Beyond that, $2 million is sought for defamation, $1 million in punitive damages and $250,000 in aggravated damages.

None of the allegations contained within the statement of claim have been proven in court.

The Banner and the Auroran, which also published the town ad, were initially named in a notice of intended action filed in September. The Banner consequently ran a notice to readers regarding the ad at the request of Ms Buck’s lawyer. Despite that, the newspaper is also being sued now, while the Auroran, which didn’t run a notice or apology, has been removed as a defendant on the latest legal documents.

“I saw the newspaper did publish something, but I’m not sure why that wasn’t acceptable,” Ms Buck said. “I’ll leave it for the lawyer to say.”

Ms Buck said the lawsuit is about principle, not money.

“The reason I’m doing this is that people can’t do things like that to another person in this country,” Ms Buck said. “You cannot publish damaging statements about another human being in Canada. You may have freedom of speech, but you cannot spend money to publish damaging accusations about another person. You can’t go about it the way they did.”

Mayor Morris would not comment, saying only she has been advised by the town’s insurance company not to comment.

Town solicitor Christopher Cooper refused to confirm if the town would cover the legal costs of the six councillors named in the civil suit. However, a town statement issued on behalf of Mrs. Morris and the five councillors states, “The remarks complained of were part of a notice to town residents, speaking to the integrity of our hard-working staff and our concern that they were being treated unfairly.

“These remarks were posted on our website in July 2009 and only now, at the end of November, have we finally been served with a statement of claim that repeats the allegations made in the Toronto Star (on Oct. 30). We are currently reviewing the statement of claim and look forward to defending ourselves and our staff vigorously. We are confident that we will show that the claims made in the lawsuit are entirely without merit.”

Ms Buck has said her intention is to sue the six councillors as individuals and not the town itself.

Lawyer Kevin MacDonald of MacDonald Associates was unavailable for comment.

Ms Buck said she has received unsolicited cheques and cash to help with legal costs, being tracked by former Aurora councillor Grace Marsh in a litigation account.

According to Mrs. Marsh, more than $3,500 has been donated by about 25 donors.

Any excess funds will be donated to a local charity, Ms Buck said, adding, “I’ve spent more at this point than I’ve received.”

Note: Highlighting added by Aurora Citizen

Posted in Code of Ethics, Integrity, Leadership, Media, Town Council | 12 Comments »

Community Corner: When is a Treasurer not a Treasurer

Posted by auroracitizen on December 10, 2009

Just so there is no confusion — this post was submitted by Junius

Dear Aurora Citizen:

Yet again, the Mayor (“I do so know how to run a meeting”) has abused the procedural bylaw, in allowing the announcement that Mr. Dan Elliot has been appointed as the Town Treasurer.

Actually, the announcement of the appointment was made by the CAO, Mr. Garbe, but does anyone think that he does anything that is not pre-approved by the Mayor?

Mr. Garbe has issued an announcement to all Town staff as well as Council, that Mr. Elliot has been appointed to the position of Town Treasurer. Yet, the Municipal Act is very clear that a Treasurer can only be appointed by Council enacting a by-law. No by-law to this effect has been proposed, let alone enacted. So, how has he then been appointed?

So, now we have a Council (or a majority of Council) who do not care about procedure; a CAO, who obviously does not understand or care about the procedure; a Town Solicitor who either doesn’t know or is so completely out of the loop so as to be irrelevant. And, now a Treasurer who is suspect.

I have heard from people, who are in the know and whose opinion I respect that Mr. Elliot is very knowledgeable and does a good job. Yet, I must admit that my cynicism is now to the point where I have to ask, “if he is that good, why does he let the situation be manipulated so”.

The history texts state that Henry II issued these famous words with reference to Sir Thomas Becket, then Archbishop of Canterbury: “Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest”. Sir Thomas refused to acquiesce to the King’s changing whims. (Yes, this historical perspective can be argued).

I ask: “who will rid us of this treasonous, poisonous rabble”

Signed, Junius

Posted in Community Corner, Leadership, Legal, Town Council | 9 Comments »

Who Owes An Apology?

Posted by councilcop on December 5, 2009

Per page 3 story in December 1, 2009 issue of the Auroran entitled “Buck apologizes after recorded vote”.
 
If this isn’t a classic example of how our current council works I don’t know what is. This is absolutely hilarious.

As a side bar to the story below, you may also recall that the Mayor recently stated in the media that Councillor Collins-Mrakas swore and was disrespectful at a recent meeting because she said “Oh my God” as a result of the Mayor not following Council procedure and allowing Councillor Granger to ramble on without the Mayor ruling as was required and without the Councillor Granger justifying in any way his procedural actions.

The sole purpose of councilor Granger’s actions was apparently to discredit Councillor Buck, whose motion was eventually passed unanimously (but that is another story). The Mayor then ironically says she is “putting her foot down” when in fact it was the Mayor that broke numerous procedures and then turned around and tried to blame others for what transpired.

Check out the following quote from the above noted story that appears in this week’s Auroran. After Council voted to have Councillor Buck to apologize to Councillor Wendy Gaertner the following occurred:

“Councillor Buck, it would be an appropriate time to consider just apologizing,” said Mayor Phyllis Morris immediately following the vote. “That would put an end to this.”

Councillor Buck then issued her apology to Councillor Gaertner.

“If Councillor Gaertner’s feelings are hurt, I regret that,” said Councillor Buck.

“There are times, Madame Mayor, during lengthy discussions hour after hour after hour when one’s patience starts running a little thin,” she continued. “After listening to Mr. Elliott make a 15-minute presentation and having Councillor Gaertner ask for him to repeat that, and when he said, ‘What part would you like me to repeat?’ and she said ‘All of it,’ quite frankly, I lost it. I said, ‘Oh, my God!’ Now, is that offensive, insulting, disrespectful? I don’t think so. Nevertheless, for the purpose of staying here for the rest of the evening and participating in the Town’s business, I will tender an apology.”

Posted in Integrity, Leadership, Town Council | 36 Comments »

New Town Clerk Arrives

Posted by auroracitizen on November 30, 2009

We have a new Town Clerk to replace Lucille King, but they won’t be called a Town Clerk — according to the Nov 24th Town Press Release he is the Director of Customer & Legislative Services. We are not really sure what that means and the Press Release wasn’t very clear, but he is definitely taking on the role of Town Clerk.

You will recall Ms King’s abrupt departure with 3 weeks notice after she released, in accordance with the rules of her position, the report from Mr Nitkin to Councillor Buck without the approval of Mayor Phyllis Morris.

Well her replacement has arrived — John Leach — a 20 year veteran, mostly in Vaughan. The interesting news is that Mr Leach was dismissed from his job at Vaughan. The Toronto Star reported this in November 2007.

As an aside, it would be interesting to hear Councillor MacEachern’s thoughts on this issue since she was the key proponent of the recount a numbers of years ago when the Town initiated some electronic voting. After spending approx. $10,000, the then Town Clerk was shown to have acted completely appropriately and the votes were confirmed as correct. Another total waste of Town funds on a personal agenda.

Now this hiring could be good news, since it could mean he stood up for what is right and paid the price. Or possibly he was following direction from Council and ended up as the fall-guy for their actions. We will probably never know, so let’s not jump to conclusions. Let’s evaluate his performance on its merits here in Aurora.

Hopefully, having a senior staff who has experience working with a dysfunctional Council will be to our benefit — time will tell.

Posted in Leadership, Staff Turnover, Town Council | 31 Comments »

Community Corner: Do the Friends of Councillors Get Special Treatment?

Posted by auroracitizen on November 25, 2009

To the Aurora Citizen

What seems to be missing in the debate (debacle?) around the November 10th meeting, is the fact that Walter Mestrinaro was making his second appearance before Council to get a decision on the bleachers overturned, because his company did not get the award.

Despite the fact that Mr. Mestrinaro was disqualified for the most of basic of reasons – he didn’t respond on time, he did not provide the proper certifications and his bid was more expensive – he appeared at multiple Council meetings to protest that he did not get the work, culminating in the Nov 10th meeting, where he impugned the town staff for not following procedure.

Mr. Elliot & Mr. Christopher both advised Council (at a previous meeting) that the matter was administrative, strictly within the purview of Staff. They advised Council again on the 10th. Yet, Mr. Mestrinaro was allowed to carry on, impugn town staff, with no input from Mayor Morris nor the sidekicks. Interesting, considering that Councilor Wilson had just recently professed his undying support/respect, etc., for town staff.

The other interesting point is that Councilor MacEachern was “sick” that evening – perhaps the “my friend is appearing a Council to whine about something, and I don’t really want to be a part of it” flu.

And, the kicker? Walter Mestrinaro is a member of the Committee of Adjustments: “The committee considers the merits of applications for land severance and minor variances to land, buildings or structure, in accordance with the Planning Act.” A PAID position.

Yes, good citizens of Aurora. You are paying for Mr. Mestrinaro to sit in judgment of merits of an application as it pertains to the Planning Act (a fairly extensive document) – and he can’t even follow the basic rules of tendering.

I would be concerned, but then I am not Mayor – at least not yet!

From Junius — belatedly and with apologizes added by Aurora Citizen 😉

Posted in Code of Ethics, Community Corner, Conflict of Interest, Leadership, Local Business, Town Council | 15 Comments »

And they’re off…

Posted by elizabethbishenden on November 25, 2009

With Nigel Kean tossing his hat in the ring as a mayoral candidate earlier this week, we are beginning to see what the November 2010 municipal election will be like in Aurora.

We’ll be enabling tabs on the “2010 Candidates” page  in the next while that will allow candidates to post their electoral message, but in the meantime, we’ll periodically make posts about the election here.

Let us know your interests and concerns!

Posted in Election 2010, Leadership, Town Council | 11 Comments »

Integrity Commissioner needed… but who should decide?

Posted by elizabethbishenden on November 18, 2009

 The article “Search Continues for Integrity Czar”  by Sean Pearce in the November 17 Banner states that the Town of Aurora is continuing its search for a new Integrity Commissioner (IC). 

A search of the Town website and re-reading of the Code of Conduct by-law and Town postings reveal no reference as to  who actually decides who the IC should be, what their credentials are to be, and how the person will be chosen.

Neil Garbe, the town’s CAO is quoted in the article as saying that the town is looking for “a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada, who has practiced in some sort of a judicial capacity”.  The candidate could have experience as a lawyer or a justice of the peace, the article states.  So, are we in the situation where only legal eagles need apply?

The article later has information from Mayor Morris.  It’s up to staff to determine candidates, Mrs. Morris said, adding she’s not aware who is under consideration.  Council will not be involved in the process until a report is brought forward, she said.

Statements in the article about Mr. Garbe’s comments also indicate that the hiring will be done without a job competition.

Since the first and only complaint to the first IC involved the interaction between a councillor and staff, it seems incongruous that the new IC will be hired by council from a list of staff-recommended candidates.  Both council and staff are now implicitly involved in the failure of the first Integrity Commissioner.  Can we citizens entrust them with hiring the next Integrity Commissioner?

Perhaps when the Code of Conduct was formulated a better system of choosing the IC should have been decided and adhered to at the same time as the key to all of this would appear to be who “rules” as IC and who can hire and fire that same person. There are predictions that a bigger mess of this whole situation is still to come.

The whole program seems to lack, let us say, integrity.

Posted in Code of Ethics, Conflict of Interest, Integrity, Leadership, Town Council | 58 Comments »

Is There An Alternate Motivation

Posted by auroracitizen on November 14, 2009

Apparently the Mayor has requested that members of Council provide their New Business to the clerk/secretary in writing in advance of meetings. It’s being positioned  “to provide assistance to staff”. This is a significant change in policy from previous Councils. Staff in the past have not found dealing with New Business to be a concern.

We are unaware of any motion or procedural by law amendment planned to effect this change.

The worrisome implication is that the Mayor and her “advisors” have not implemented this change to benefit staff,  but rather so that  they are able to prepare strategy and potentially augment the Morris spin if a contentious issue is being brought forward.

Remember, we are now in election mode.

How timely that this process is being proposed when we are celebrating the sacrifice of others to ensure freedom of speech.

Posted in Election 2010, Leadership, Town Council | 38 Comments »

Who Will Be The Next Treasurer

Posted by auroracitizen on November 12, 2009

The position of Treasurer for the Town of Aurora is currently occupied by Dan Elliot. Mr. Elliot was appointed to a six-month term, which is shortly coming to an end.

Has anyone seen an advertisement or posting in the paper for this position? Does that mean that Mr. Elliot is getting the position by default or will Council simply extend the contract?

Our guess is that they will use the excuse that to change Treasurers in the middle of the budget process would be irresponsible. Didn’t a former Ontario politician (and Minister of Education) famously get quoted about creating a crisis so they could implement what they wanted?

A better question might be — why wasn’t the position posted immediately upon hiring Mr Elliott so the process of finding a new Treasurer would have already been underway. That would have shown forethought and good planning.

Will there not be a competition for this significant position in our community or will this be another hand-picked appointment?

Posted in Leadership, Staff Turnover, Town Council | 41 Comments »

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