Aurora Citizen

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Lessons from Lincoln

Posted by auroracitizen on September 22, 2008

In the book Team of Rivals, author Doris Kearns Goodwin focuses on how Abraham Lincoln built his cabinet. Instead of choosing cronies and old pals, Lincoln’s choices included three of his major rivals for the 1860 presidential nomination, William Seward, Edward Bates and Salmon Chase.

None of these men thought Lincoln was presidential material, and, in fact, he was considered a light-weight who was not prepared for the job.

Lincoln won them over by genuinely and methodically building his relationships with them. In fact, relationship-building encounters were a key to Lincoln’s success, whether it was at the highest political echelons or meeting the troops at the front.

Is there a lesson here for our current Mayor and Council?

Every interaction can be a relationship-building encounter, if we genuinely believe that relationship building is at the center of what we need and want to do. We can all learn from Mr. Lincoln.

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Posted in Growth, Town Council | 2 Comments »

Community Corner: Ward System — what happened?

Posted by auroracitizen on September 21, 2008

A reader sent in the following comment. We will run a poll question on this in the next few weeks.

During the last election, a number of current sitting Councillors for the Town of Aurora agreed the electorate would be better served having a Ward System. These Councillors promised that if elected they would do something about it.

It’s now been two years. What happened to this election promise?

Do you think Aurora should have a Ward System?

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Posted in Community Corner, Town Council | 5 Comments »

How much growth is too much?

Posted by auroracitizen on September 20, 2008

Every municipal election, candidates make promises about the rate of growth here in Aurora. The favoured buzzword is usually managed growth, but what does that really mean?

Everyone recognizes that it is impossible to stop growth, but what can the politicians and staff really do to manage growth.

A recent article in the Era Banner prompted this question.

If historically, we have issued approx 400 building permits each year, is the new pace of 600 permits the new level of managed growth?

If so, are you happy with this rate of growth? If not, do we want more, or less?

What can we as citizens of Aurora do to let our political leaders know we are unhappy.

A second article indicated that a developer had been granted a turning lane that had previously been denied. What does this apparent reversal signal?

When the Mayor stated that the reversal was the result of careful consideration it begs the questions “what was the orginal decision based on?”

Was their a detailed traffic study conducted to support this careful consideration? What will the impact be on the already congested Wellington traffic patterns? Does this decision signal a more welcoming reception to growth and developers?

Share your thoughts!

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Posted in Growth, Town Council, Traffic/Parking | 10 Comments »

Council versus Staff Roles

Posted by auroracitizen on September 17, 2008

In this weeks Auroran there was a good commentary by Dick Illingworth about the ongoing battle between staff and Council. In it he expressed his opinion about the role of Council versus the CAO and how the break down in this role can and has created problems.

On a broader level, it has always been the general understanding that Council’s role was to establish policy and staff would then implement those policies in a fair and consistent manner.

It would appear that this division of responsibilities has broken down in Aurora in more areas than just between Council and the CAO. The recent situation concerning the lights in the Canadian Tire parking lot illustrates the point (also covered in The Auroran this week).

On 2 separate occasions staff recommended that Council not become involved in a matter between 2 private parties. Ignoring this advice, Council went ahead and intervened, resulting in incremental costs, some which will likely be shared by the broader Aurora tax base.

More importantly, it also sets a new precedent that indicates that Council is willing to step outside its own stated policies and get involved in areas that should rightly be left up to the private parties to resolve.

Is Council sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong, or is their involvement in these areas appropriate? What are your thoughts? Let us know!

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Posted in Town Council | 9 Comments »

What is your definition of open & transparent?

Posted by auroracitizen on September 10, 2008

There was a disturbing article on the front page of The Auroran this week about the Freedom of Information (FOI) request for legal costs (see separate post).

Why must a citizen request information through Freedom of Information (FOI) in the first place? Shouldn’t a simple request be enough.

Isn’t Council accountable to the citizens of Aurora? Every election we have the opportunity to re-hire or terminate based on how we vote. That means the citizens are the boss and the Mayor and Council are accountable to us. Seems pretty clear.

So why does Council make any citizen go through the effort of making an official request to get information that they are entitled to see. The mere fact that a formal process is required suggests that something is being hidden.

What about the open & transparent promises of this Mayor and Council? It is surprising that this type of information wouldn’t be more readily available. Isn’t that what open and transparent means?

Maybe this Council needs to be reminded who they actually work for! If they truly want to be open & transparent, any citizen should be able to get these type of questions answered without being required to make a formal Freedom of Information request.

That tact has historically been used by politicians with something to hide.

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Posted in Town Council | 2 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.

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Posted in Legal, Town Council | 19 Comments »

Guest Post: Dick Illingworth’s Challenge

Posted by auroracitizen on September 8, 2008

Thanks to Councillor Buck for the following Guest Post.

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

Dick Illingworth’s offer of a Bouquet to any councillor who will request information about the costs of replacing recruiting and re-training staff was relevant to the times when he was involved in the Town’s business. Those times they are no more.

I have asked for the legal costs of the various lawyers personally retained and instructed by Mayor Morris with the support of the majority. The information has not been forthcoming.

John Gutteridge is a municipal professional. He knows councillors are entitled to receive whatever information they request. He has provided me with information I have requested in the past before the hammer fell. I could call again and insist that he provide the info. I already did that once. If I persist, I will simply be making his job more difficult than it already is.

The Mayor rules the Town Hall with an iron fist. There can be no employee with any illusion as to their fate if they do not submit. They have only one option.

I anticipate others will choose it in the near and ongoing future.

Evelyn Buck, Councillor

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Posted in Community Corner, Guest Post, Town Council | 6 Comments »

Update: Where have all the town staff gone?

Posted by auroracitizen on September 2, 2008

Since our original post last week on this subject, we have received a number of comments. Obviously it is an area of concern to many Aurorans so we thought we would update everyone on some of these comments.

It seems we were incomplete in our list of town staff who have left under this new Council. In addition to the 5 Directors, we have also lost the Mayor’s administrative assistant, Cookie Ellis — who was subsequently replaced by both a Mayor’s administrative assistant and a new position this term of an assistant for our part-time Council. What she does for 5 days each week when Councillors are at their full-time jobs is beyond my scope of understanding.

Possibly even more troubling is that we have already lost 2 of the replacements. It seems both our interim Solicitor Robert Cambridge and the Acting Director of Public Works Dave Atkins have already left.

One must wonder who will be next through the revolving door of town hall staff. One of our commenter’s stated that there is already a move afoot to jettison another Director.

To quote Dick Illingworth “Bouquet to the Councillor who will request a report outlining the termination, recruitment, training costs associated with all these departures.”

To see all comments from the original post click here.

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Posted in CAO, Staff Turnover, Town Council | 10 Comments »

Conflict … what conflict?

Posted by auroracitizen on August 28, 2008

There has been considerable discussion in the paper and on the street about the perceived conflict of interest of Council appointing a prominent member of the mayors campaign team to a paid position in the town without any opportunity for a member of the public to apply for the job.

While that is certainly a concern — the perception of patronage — it is not by definition a clear conflict of interest.

The clear conflict of interest is a member of a committee proposing a position that they were subsequently hired to fill — as Mr Whitehurst did. Mr Whitehurst was and is a sitting member of the committee that created the job he has now been appointed too. Resigning does not change the fact that he was involved in making the decision.

The definition of a conflict on interest is when you may benefit financially from a decision.

That is exactly why members of council declare a conflict when a topic is being discussed that may have, or be seen to have, a positive or negative financial impact on them. By declaring a conflict they remove themselves from the accusation of the financial impact influencing their decision.

There is no doubt that Mr Whitehurst is in a conflict of interest. If he wasn’t aware of this, then the mayor and Council certainly is and should have avoided the appointment.

For the Council to try and shift the blame to staff for this inappropriate decision is nothing less than a complete abdication of their responsibilities. Council knows they direct staff, not the other way around.

It’s time for this Council to step up and show some leadership — and stop looking for ways to avoid making hard decisions and shift responsibility to others for their poor performance.

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Posted in Conflict of Interest, Town Council | 5 Comments »

Where have all the Town Staff gone?

Posted by auroracitizen on August 25, 2008

Senior staff at the Town Hall are leaving at an alarming rate. Since our new Council started, under the much vaunted open and transparent leadership style of Mayor Phyllis Morris, we have lost our Director of Planning, Director of Legal Services, Director of Public Works, Director of Corporate Service (leaving this year), and now the CAO. That’s 5 of the 8 person Management Team.

The years of experience lost are significant and the costs associated with recruitment, re-training and lost opportunities without these people in place is immeasurable. The termination costs will also be considerable given the CAO had over 3 years left in his contract.

Of equal concern is the abrupt manner of the recent departure of the CAO, a well-respected member of the municipal community who the previous Council hired for a 6 year contract to provide consistent leadership for the town. It has been reported he was “escorted” from the building.

What may be more telling is that two councillors were unable to participate in the decision as one was recuperating from surgery and one was on vacation. Given that Council was informed in advance that the two councillors would not be present, why did Council go forward so abruptly with a decision with such far-reaching implications without a full Council present?

Why the urgency? Why not wait until all of Council could be present and a “special meeting” be called. The mayor has called 4 “emergency” closed session meetings this summer so far, what difference would one more make? The implication is clear — a swift decision was made and executed.

The impact on staff morale should also be of great concern. One has to wonder if this is a purge or is there some staff-wide malaise that has caused all these departures.

At this point, the only members of the Senior Management team from last term still standing are Al Downey, Director of Leisure Services and John Gutteridge, Director of Finance/Treasurer. I guess we will just have to await their fate.

Maybe I’m the only one concerned about the state of affairs at town hall, let me know.

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Posted in CAO, Special Meetings, Staff Turnover, Town Council | 16 Comments »

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