Aurora Citizen

News & Views from the Citizens of Aurora Ontario

Archive for the ‘Legal’ Category

Next Entries »

The State of Volunteerism

Posted by auroracitizen on May 14, 2009

Volunteers have recently come into the spotlight here in Aurora.

First, Sher St Kitts has come to our attention because the committee she heads has been unclear on how funding for the July 1st parade and how the Dream Team is associated with a Town funded and endorsed committee. This lack of transparency and potential conflict of interest has raised eyebrows and concern in some quarters. At a meeting on Tuesday, this issue was raised in a very confrontational manner — endorsed by the Mayor and Council.

Before you ask why we used the word endorsed — understand that when someone attacks a Councillor directly (versus Council as a whole) on a civil matter that is outside the mandate of Council and this is allowed only because Council waives the procedural by-law – that implies endorsement.

The same week, we have seen the resignation of Dave Giroux, the President of the Aurora Minor Ball Association (AMBA) in frustration because Council continues to refuse to honour their commitment to build a senior ball diamond. Not everyday one sees that!

He communicated his reasons through the local papers and has encourage stakeholders to rally around the issues because of the lack of movement on this issue.

We all recognize that stuff happens — but when they escalate to this level it links directly back to leadership — by the Mayor and Council.

Why have they not been able to deal with issues without this level of escalation?

Council needs to immediately take the following steps;

  1. Clarify the conflict of interest and financial questions associated with the Dream Team and the Town endorsed parade committee.
  2. Communicate with the stakeholders in the AMBA about what has happened and why they have not moved forward on resolutions that are a year old. Plus indicate what next steps and timing are in place to resolve the outstanding issues.

We predict if Council doesn’t move quickly to address these issues they will continue to fester and will become significant issues at the next election. We all know that is the last thing the Mayor wants. Unfortunately, she may not get her wish.

Stay tuned.

PS — There are a number of comments related to this post in the previous post When Is An Invitation Not An Invitation?

Use the envelope and pencil icons immediately below to forward this post to friends or leave a comment.

Posted in Code of Ethics, Conflict of Interest, Legal, Recreation, Town Council | 26 Comments »

Removal of 2 Comments

Posted by auroracitizen on February 22, 2009

Recently 2 comments were deleted from the site after they had been posted. People have inquired why. Here is our explanation for those who are concerned.

The 2 comments were initially posted by the moderator because we post all messages unless the language is deemed to be particularly vitriolic. We have only rejected 3 messages of this type thus far — so we are trying to be as liberal as possible. This has been the only criteria we have used to date to prevent accusations of stifling conversation or trying to create our own particular bias or spin. People have been free to express their opinion regardless of whether we agree with their opinion.

However, these 2 comments introduced a new twist.

  1. Person A (Anonymous) posted these 2 comments trying to masquerade as person B. In fact, we initially thought they were submitted by person B.
  2. They were identical word for word in 2 separate locations.
  3. They indicated that the person B had made specific statements. However, contrary to online popular reference techniques, they did not link to where those statements were made. It is not our job to try and figure out whether another person is being quoted correctly.
  4. There was no additional commentary on the statements. This was why they were initially thought to be posted by person B.
  5. Person B indicated they had not submitted the posts.

Therefore they were removed.

Feel free to express your own opinions, but please do not express an opinion dressed as someone else.

If you want to quote someone in this blog , please follow protocol and reference the comments by post and date (as everyone to this point has done).

If you are referencing another online source (i.e. a newspaper, Council Minutes, etc), please include the link so people can easily review the comment in context.

We trust no one is unduly offended by these simple rules of conduct.

Use the envelope and pencil icons immediately below to forward this post to friends or leave a comment.

Posted in Code of Ethics, Legal | 12 Comments »

Discussion: Legal Fees

Posted by auroracitizen on November 23, 2008

One reader asked whether the Mayor would consider placing an ad about the legal fees and what they were spent on.

This Council seems on the way to a record for external legal expenses. Shouldn’t we know what they are being spent on? Then we can decide whether the dollars (our tax dollars) are being spent on issues of importance to the Town — or those of importance to Council.

Hopefully this will be part of the budget process and we can all see it broken down by issue and dollars spent. Bouquets to the Councillor who insists on it!

Use the envelope and pencil icons immediately below to forward this post to friends or leave a comment.

Posted in Legal, Town Council | 3 Comments »

Let the Facts be Known

Posted by auroracitizen on November 19, 2008

First, let’s congratulate Council for taking the initiative to print ads about some recent issues affecting the town. It seems that the awareness created by this blog and the local newspapers has caused them to recognize that pretending that there are no issues doesn’t make them go away.

Hopefully this will be the first of many ads communicating the facts about issues of importance to the community. Let’s hope that the oft repeated commitment to “providing open and transparent government” is more than just these couple ads.

With regard to Mr Whitehurst, this issue will continue to dog the Mayor right into the next election. She and others continue to ignore the point about a conflict. The issue is not that he resigned or what he is billing the town — the conflict is that he voted on an item that had a financial impact on himself personally. It is one of the most clear cut cases of a conflict ever seen. Given the number of times this comes up with regard to members of Council — it is amazing that they continue to pretend it doesn’t exist in this case.

Did we really pay a lawyer $2,144.63 to attend a single meeting as part of an overall $12,345.83 expenditure. To be clear, the taxpayers of the community had to pay a lawyer to defend Council against the very people they were elected to serve so Council could act against the will of the taxpayers and appoint a person of their choosing. Talk about a slap in the face.

As for the unauthorized spending by staff, let’s hope a lot more questions get answered. Here are a few– you probably have more. Send them along and we will publish them.

  1. How did Council miss this issue when the Auroran reported on it a number of times?
  2. How did cheques get distributed without Council being aware of them? The Mayor and at least 2 Councillors regularly review — and question staff – on the cheque registry. Where were the questions in this case?
  3. If proper procurement procedures are in place — then how did this slip through? Don’t taxpayers deserve to understand what happened and what is being done to fix it. General statements about changing roles and working hard don’t provide much reassurance.
  4. Was this used as an excuse to dismiss the CAO? It seeems the issue has been known for awhile, but only became public when the CAO was asked to leave. Are staff being blamed to cover the real issue — that Council simply wanted John Rogers out?

It is offensive that Council is pointing the finger squarely at staff about not following procedures. Where are the checks and balances by Council that should also have been followed. If The Auroran spotted the issue, them why didn’t Council?

Hopefully the media will continue to keep up the pressure until all the facts become known.

Keep your comments coming. Only through open dialogue will these and other issues get broadly discussed.

Use the envelope and pencil icons immediately below to forward this post to friends or leave a comment.

Posted in CAO, Conflict of Interest, Legal, Town Council | 19 Comments »

Community Corner: Staff spending without authorization

Posted by auroracitizen on November 14, 2008

A reader sent in the following comment. It is published unchanged.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views of the AURORA CITIZEN.

I’d be interested in reaction to the Nov 12 Banner article:”Aurora staff spent $500K without approval.” Town embroiled in lawsuits to recoup cost of arena repairs By: By Sean Pearce, Staff Writer The Town of Aurora is locked in a legal battle to recover more than $440,000 in unauthorized spending by staff last year.”

Share your thoughts!

Use the envelope and pencil icons immediately below to forward this post to friends or leave a comment.

Posted in Community Corner, Legal | 4 Comments »

Legal Fees

Posted by auroracitizen on September 10, 2008

The recent article in The Auroran about legals fees raised a couple interesting points. The FOI issue is covered in a separate post, but the increase in fees and the lack of clarity of why the monies were spent is equally troubling.

When then Councillor Morris made her request in 2006, she asked for a clear and thorough report detailing how often, what reason and what cost. Yet when a similar request is made now that she is Mayor the numbers were provided in lump sums by month — with no explanation.

Of course, there is the obvious increase from $76,881.98 in 2006 to $81,666 in 2007 and already $139,339 year to date (Jan – Aug) for 2008.

The monthly 2008 average of approx $17,500 puts Aurora on a spending rate equivalent to over $200,000 for the full year.

Where is the similar demand for clarity? What are the reasons for the significant increase in spending — and where will this increase be funded from?

How much of next years inevitable tax increase will be directly attributable to these increased legal costs.

Use the envelope and pencil icons immediately below to forward this post to friends or leave a comment.

Posted in Legal, Town Council | 19 Comments »

Next Entries »