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When Is It Campaigning — and When Isn’t It?

Posted by auroracitizen on July 8, 2010

 The annual Belinda’s BBQ was held last week at the Senior’s Centre. 

This event — sponsored by Belinda Stronach — is a popular (and tasty) fundraiser, with all proceeds going to the Senior’s Centre. 

Of course, Mayor Phyllis Morris was there, waving her Canadian flag, sniffing out the photo ops like only she can do. She even managed to find someone to present a plaque to.

There she was, moving from table to table, pressing the flesh, laughing and joking with people, all the while, dragging along Chris Ballard — Chair of the Economic Development Advisory Committee and recently confirmed candidate for Council (although this walkabout was before his nomination papers were filed).

So here’s the questions.

How does the EDAC committee chair have a role at attending the Seniors fundraiser or was this merely a prelude to announcing his candidacy?

When do “official” duties of the Mayor start to slip into campaigning  — which is very clearly not allowed until nomination papers are filed.

We spoke about this last week Mayor Morris Confuses Many With Her Ethical Choices and continued to be disappointed by the Mayor’s choices. If she plans to run — and we all believe she will — why doesn’t she just do the honourable thing.

Declare and this whole discussion disappears. Campaign away. But our concern is this pretending to do town work — often with town employees in tow — when it really appears she is just campaigning for re-election. Whether it be hanging out at the Farmers Market on frequents Saturday’s or trying to promote a Promenade Study at Yonge and Wellington — when does town work end and campaigning start?

I guess after the Mayor was spotted campaigning at Yonge and Wellington last Friday with Neil Garbe, she decided she needed someone else to accompany her on these very essential Mayoralty duties. 

But taking the Chair of EDAC to a Senior’s BBQ? Really. What would the connection be?

Wonder how an Integrity Commissioner would view these activities.

Quack, quack!!

Posted in Code of Ethics, Integrity, Leadership, Town Council | 71 Comments »

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 »

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 »

Reader asks: Is the Code of Conduct Counter-productive?

Posted by auroracitizen on May 28, 2010

I had the opportunity this past Tuesday May 25th to watch the Aurora Council on Rogers TV in particular the debate and subsequent vote on the property development at Yonge & Centre streets. This issue consumed Tuesday evening’s council meeting and produced some heated debate from both sides as to whether the development should be delayed pending the release of the Promenade report.

I have also followed the reporting in the Banner and its web version yorkregion.com as well as the opinions in some of the Aurora based blogs including this one. It now strikes me that Aurora’s Code of Conduct may be working against any freedom of expression or was there actually a breach of the code committed in trying to sway the opinion of the Banner readers. It did strike me as odd that the chairperson of the town’s economic development advisory committee was critical of the councillors and the process.

Please read the excerpt from the below article and then the appropriate section from the Code of Conduct. What’s your opinion on this matter? Is the Code counter-productive, should it be applied to the letter of the law or simply a waste of space? 

1.    From http://www.yorkregion.com/news/local/article/821240–aurora-project-baffles-development-chairperson

 (I believe this article was also published in print in Tuesday May 25th edition of the Banner.)

Aurora project baffles development chairperson              by Sean Pearce

The chairperson of the town’s economic development advisory committee says he is scratching his head after council paved the way for a multi-storey residential building planned for Yonge and Centre streets last week.

The steering committee for the downtown study is working to release a draft version of its plan next month so it’s curious why councillors would vote to greenlight a six-to-seven-storey mixed-use development at this point, EDAC chairperson and downtown steering committee member Chris Ballard said.

It’s concerning councillors would approve official plan and bylaw amendments to permit the proposal, eyed for the northeast corner of Yonge and Centre, without knowing what the downtown study has to say, as it may set a poor long-term precedent, he said.

He’s also perplexed why it’s being waved through despite having about 25 fewer parking spaces than current policies permit.

“Why spend all of that time and effort on a plan with new rules and regulations and then just sneak this in under the wire?” he said. “I’m pretty miffed certain councillors would vote for this when they know we have a draft of the (Aurora) promenade study coming out in June.”

2.    From the Town of Aurora’s website “By-Law Number 5037-08.C Being a By-Law to Adopt a Code of Conduct for Members of Advisory & Statutory Committees”

Section 3 Communications and Media Relations

Committee Members will accurately and adequately communicate the attitudes and decisions of the Committee and Council, even if they disagree with the majority decision of Committee or Council.

Members shall show respect for the decision-making process of the Committee and Council.

Official information related to decisions and resolutions made by the Committee or Council will normally be communicated to the community and the media in an official capacity by the Mayor or designated staff member or through a Press Release issued by the Corporation.

Information concerning adopted policies, procedures and decisions of the committee shall be conveyed openly and accurately.

Confidential information will be communicated only when and after determined by Council.

When a committee member chooses to communicate through the media which may include or involve interviews, editorials, writing of a regular column in the newspaper of magazine, hosting/co-hosting a regular televised program, where they are identified as a “member of a committee of the Town of Aurora” which is a recognized entity of the Municipality as a Corporation, the committee member shall be expected to feature an appropriate acceptable disclaimer stating “the opinions reflected by the member are their own personal comments and are not endorsed nor representative of the committee or the Town of Aurora Council”.

Posted in Code of Ethics, Community Corner, Community Input, Leadership, Town Council | 5 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 »

Aurora Market Going It Alone

Posted by auroracitizen on May 21, 2010

The Aurora Farmers Market & Artisan Fair have delegated to Council last Tuesday that they wish to separate operations from the town.

After being used as a political tool this last term it was only a matter of time before the folks who were simply interested in providing products and services to the community, would wish to distance themselves from those who sought to use the market for personal advantage.

Ex Councillor Kean initially championed the idea of the market to offer a service to the community and provide a draw for the downtown core on a Saturday morning. His good intentions were matched by selfless behaviour.

This last term we have seen a different approach.

Since the market  resisted the efforts by Sher St Kitts to leverage her “volunteer” role for personal gain — she has disappeared. Guess there was nothing in it for her any more.

Councillor Granger also backed away after his manipulative and dictatorial attitude were resisted by the executive.

Good for the executive at the market. If they stick to delivering on what the citizens of Aurora are looking for — and leave the politics out of the mix — they will probably be a success. The opportunity to purchase local produce without the political grandstanding every Sat will be a pleasant change. Well done!

Now let’s hope that Council can see their way clear to letting business do their thing without the ongoing political interference.

Posted in Community Corner, Leadership, Local Business | 2 Comments »

Aurora Workers on Verge of Strike

Posted by auroracitizen on May 20, 2010

Lying in bed this morning, listening to 680 News for the weather, was stunned to hear an ad indicating that Aurora outside workers were on the verge of striking. As they say “when you hear it — it’s news”. Well this was news.

Came across an old Press Release from CUPE on this issue from May 2004. They summarized their position as follows;

The key issue is wages. “We found out at the bargaining table that the town has a discriminatory policy against outside workers,” says Charlie Goodwin, a municipal worker and chairperson of the Aurora Unit of CUPE Local 905. “It really offends us that Aurora seems to have no problem giving hefty increases to city managers and inside workers and councilors, but seems determined to pay unfair wages for hard physical labour. Aurora is practicing clear discrimination with this policy.”

It appears the issues haven’t changed. We understand that during this last bargaining process there was a commitment made to work towards wage equity with similar work in other municipalities. The current contention by CUPE is that Aurora has not lived up to these commitments.

Clearly, we are not privy to all the facts, and equally importantly are not taking sides on this labour issue.

But what is obviously true is that Aurora is on the verge of a strike AGAIN and the community will be caught completely unaware. That we do have an issue with.

These are the outside workers that maintain the parks, pools, and arenas, repair infrastructure such as roads, water mains and sewers. Kind of a critical service at this time of year.

Where has our much-lauded new Communication team been hiding this little gem. We are looking down the barrel of strike action here in Aurora and no one knew. Nothing in the Banner, nothing in The Auroran. No communication from our Council in the paid advertising. Just an ad on 680 News by CUPE 905.

For our faithful readers at Town office — please fill in the details.

And  Councillor MacEachern — you have indicated you read these blogs and criticized our unbalanced reporting — so in the interest of providing a balanced report, we invite you (again) to provide the “other side”.

How about it? Post in your name and provide some information? We’d all love to hear your position.

Posted in Budget, Leadership, Recreation, Town Council | 11 Comments »

Freedom of Information Update 2

Posted by auroracitizen on April 29, 2010

There have been a number of comments to the original posts on this subject enquiring on the status. 

Past posts:

Freedom of Information Update-March 12

Freedom Of Information and Aurora Coalition – Part 2-Jan 3

Freedom Of Information and Aurora Coalition – Part 1-Dec 30

The update is as follows;

On March 24th, Shannon Boychuk, Acting Deputy Clerk, sent a letter (click on link to see the full letter) to the lawyer indicating that a number of the requests were possibly exempt and that for the balance it would cost $1,065 to cover the costs to locate and provide the requested files.

It is worthy of note that this letter was received at the end of the allowed time for a response. One might wonder why it took so long to respond.  Did they delay the maximum time as a strategy to avoid — or did it actually take that long to craft a response. We’ll leave it to our readers to decide the appropriate answer.

The lawyer then agreed (although they had no choice) to the demand for an additional 40 days to produce the documents as well as sent a cheque to cover the 50% deposit of $532.50 on April 1st.

So now you know everything we know.

We really think is says something about the openness and transparency of this Council where every piece of information must be purchased at a personal cost to a taxpayer.

Maybe if the same principle was applied to Councillors and they were charged for make-work staff reports that are never acted on, we could save money and reduce the time wasted by staff as well. Just a thought.

Stay tuned.

Posted in Freedom of Information, Leadership | 11 Comments »

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