If you are interested in sharing your opinions with other citizens of Aurora, we want to hear from you. Pick your favourite topic -- sports, traffic, environment, youth, culture -- we don’t care.
Plus, if you simply have something to say, have a question you always wanted to ask, or are just interested in what fellow Aurorans think, we'll post your questions or comments under the heading Community Corner.
We have heard and read a number of comments about which 8 Councillors to vote for.
Many folks are confused when it comes to voting for Councillors. They are mistakenly under the assumption that you must vote for 8 Councillors.
Not True.
You can vote for “up to eight” Councillors. So only vote for the Councillors you truly want elected.
Let’s say you really like 6 Councillors and aren’t sure about some others. If you add a couple maybes to round out the eight, you have effectively cancelled out the votes for the 6 Councillors you really want. Your favoured Councillors no longer have the advantage over the other 2 maybes — they are all even again.
So you only need to vote for the Councillors you really want.
Each vote is precious — so whether you vote for 1 or 8, make sure it’s only the ones you want.
Christopher Watts has a brilliant post over on his site Temporary Sanity. The site is a must read for anyone interested in Aurora politics — or anyone with a quirky sense of humour.
The focus of the recent post was Dick Illingworth’s analysis of the outgoing Council before he passed away last year. For those who didn’t know Dick, he was a highly regarded and well-loved fixture in Aurora politics who alway spoke his mind and provided great insights on the goings on at Council.
Some may even recall that Phyllis Morris took a quote from one of Dick’s column many years ago and continuously used it in her election brochure because she acknowledged the impact his point of view had on readers.
It would be worth noting that Dick would probably not be happy to see his quote used this election.
Chris has taken the time to review all of Dick’s Brickbats & Bouquets and provided a neat summary for your review. It is worth the time to read.
In it he stated that in almost 50 years of observing council meetings; “I have never seen a more fractious council than the current Aurora Council. It’s an embarrassment and a disgrace!”
He went on to say, “If some of the senior members of staff start looking for positions elsewhere, council members will only have themselves to blame.” It is almost prophetic — 6 of 8 positions left this term — but Phyllis and crowd accept no responsibility.
Remember this column was written in May 2008.
Please take the time to visit Temporary Sanity and read the post. It will give you greater insight into what has been going on these last 4 years.
Just in time for a municipal election, we wanted to share with all Aurora Citizen readers a special campaign that’s taking place this week.
Rent or food? It’s a choice many must make when their social assistance cheques don’t stretch far enough to feed themselves and their families.
For the week of Oct. 4, community leaders are taking part in the Do The Math Challenge. They will experience first hand what it is like to live on $585 a month — which is what the region’s less fortunate get from the province as part of their social benefit program.
Debora Kelly, York Region Media Group’s editor-in-chief, is participating and readers can follow her journey in her column at www.YorkRegion.com or on Twitter (@dlkyorkeditor).
By writing about their experiences, community leaders hope to raise awareness of the very real issue of hunger in York Region. This challenge, organized by the Poverty Action for Change Coalition, is part of a larger campaign pushing the province to provide a $100 healthy food supplement for all adults on welfare.
This is something to consider as we sit down with friends and family this weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving. Let’s remember to be grateful for what we have and give some consideration to those less fortunate.
Accroding to Rogers, the only programming that will be available on Rogers On Demand Online will be the Municipal Profiles and the Debates produced by Rogers TV. In order to view this programming you must register. In order to register you must be a Rogers customer (cable, wireless etc.)
Unfortunately they have not yet provided a date as to when the programming will be uploaded. Once the programming airs on Rogers TV they will do their best to get the programming up as quick as possible.
The Aurora Town Hall was the scene, this past Sunday, for the first in a series of three candidate meetings. Based on Sunday’s event, this is shaping up to be one of the hottest mayoralty campaigns this Town has seen in decades.
Sunday’s meeting was hosted by the Aurora Public Library and was moderated by Dr. Wes Cragg – a professor in business ethics at York University. The irony of an ethics professor moderating that lot, at the Aurora Town Hall, was rich, to say the least.
It was the first chance for the public to see and hear first hand what the candidates for Mayor, Council and Trustee had to offer.
The APL candidate’s meeting is usually a staid – read “boring” – affair. Candidate after candidate gets up there and talks about nothing of substance and then sits down.
Not this time.
It was clear from the buzz in the room that people were there for a purpose. You don’t see that many people cooped up in a building on a beautiful fall Sunday afternoon if they don’t have a vested interested in the outcome.
They were there to hear, to see, to FEEL if change was in the air.
Would they get positive change? Or just more of the same?
Would they hear empty platitudes? Or recognition of problems that exist and solutions to address them…
It was a raucous crowd. The room was simply electric with anticipation.
And they were not disappointed.
Geoff Dawe was the first to speak. His speech was electrifying. He had to stop a number of times as the crowd cheered his statements. He spoke of the problems Aurora has faced these long, long 4 years – a fractured council, the waste of taxpayer dollars and, most important the culture of disrespect exhibited by Morris et al – but he also spoke of solutions; what he would do to “put the Aura back in Aurora”. His theme of positive change clearly resonated with the residents present at the meeting.
Mr. Kean too spoke of change – “refreshing” change. Similar to comments made by Dawe, the crowd reacted well to his concerns about the lack of respect for staff, the wasted money on integrity commissioners and need for greater accountability. His speech was also well received.
Mr’s Clowater and Prykyrl raised some interesting ideas in their speeches – for example Mr. Clowater’s idea of the need for Aurora to have a University. They spoke well and should be commended for their efforts.
Morris as expected gave an “I” speech – the type of speech we’ve heard her give virtually every week at Council. “I sat on this committee”. “ I steered this group and that group”. “I shepherded this process”. “I make the sun rise in the morning…”
“I”, “I”, “I”, “I”, “I”
No acknowledgement of work left undone. No acknowledgement of the need to rebuild what has been lost. No acknowledgement of any responsibility for the debacle that was this past term of Council.
That just isn’t Morris’ style. She cannot admit failure. As a result, she is defensive – both in speech and stance – chin defiantly thrust forward, heel stuck out to the side. She fumbled and stumbled towards the end of her speech – perhaps sensing she had not won the crowd.
At the end, aside from the omnipresent Ms. St. Kitts whooping and whistling, Ms. Morris received a smattering of polite applause.
But then something extraordinary happened.
Instead of recognizing that her speech had fallen flat and she should sit down and prepare for the question period, Morris instead decided to pretend to act the statesman and proceeded to walk about the chamber, thrusting her hand out to a few of the candidates. Bizarre. Inappropriate.
But it got worse!
She proceeded to walk all the way around the chamber and marched right up to Evelyn Buck, and thrust her hand out in a handshake.
It was simply a disgusting display of disingenuousness – and typical Morris.
The crowd was appalled. There were boos. There were calls to “sit down!”. Morris scurried back to her seat, her ignominy complete.
It’s unfortunate that Rogers has chosen NOT to show the meeting in its entirety. They are only showing snippets of it on the news.
What is fortunate is that we understand that members of the audience do have a recording of the speeches. We will make them available to you if we can track them down.
Today was the probably the most well attended all candidates meeting in recent memory. High turnouts are usually associated with elections that are looking for change as a result of dissatisfaction or because there is a particular polarizing issue before voters. In Aurora, we may have both.
Hopefully this turnout was an indication of things to come and we will see an equally great turnout at the polls on Oct 25th. Remember, if you don’t vote — you have no right to complain 😉
If you attended the meeting, we would be interested in hearing your thoughts on how the candidates acquitted themselves.
Recently all 5 Mayoralty candidates were invited to Devins Drive Public School to talk to the Grade 5 students and answer questions from the students about the upcoming election. Teachers and parents were also invited.
Most folks would understand this was not a typical campaigning event since it is more educational in nature and the audience were all young people.
However, since all 5 candidates were invited, would you expect Phyllis to behave as a candidate or Mayor?
We ask because Phyllis wore her official chain of office to this event.
What do you think? Did she step over the line?
When campaigning, incumbant candidates are not allowed to use town resources (i.e. email accounts) to avoid the perception of an uneven playing field.
Should she have worn her chain as Mayor, brought the chain and just shown it to the kids or should she have left it at home given the nature of the appearance with other candidates?
Well folks, as the days of this Council’s term mercifully dwindle down it seems that Morris and company are still having problems with even basic council procedure. So much for Phyllis’ much trumpeted experience when she still doesn’t know basic procedural bylaw.
What are they struggling with now, you might ask? How about HOW TO VOTE! Heaven forbid she needs to explain the difference between a referral and deferral.
For the sake of those council members that read the blog (and we now know that most of you do!) – here’s how you vote:
As per section 5.4 (d) (Procedural by-law) “ …all members present …shall vote”
The process;
Chair – Calls the question
Chair asks: All those in favour?
Chair asks: all those opposed?
Votes are then tallied up
Chair declares “Motion i) carried ii) carried unanimously iii) defeated” (section 5.4 (e) Town of Aurora procedural by-law)
Mayoralty Candidate Geoff Dawe was in attendance at the September 14th Council meeting and was there to witness the farce that occurred. He commented on his blog about what happened at the meeting – in particular the fact that the votes on the amendment and then the balance of the minutes were not called.
Well – that did not sit well with the MorMac team. Goodness gracious! We can’t look stupid yet again. We MUST do something about this.
Hmmmm, there weren’t any cameras there. No one will know the difference. Let’s put our own version of reality out there.
So, in an extraordinary move, MacEachern took it upon herself to comment on the public statements of a CANDIDATE’s BLOG – at a COUNCIL MEETING!!
These comments are reflected in the GC minutes of September 21st, where MacEachern states:
“Councillor MacEachern advised that Geoff Dawe had published a commentary stating an amendment and a vote had not been called and carried. She advised that she had confirmed with staff who had reviewed the DVD of the meeting and that three sets of minutes were each called separately: two set with amendments. Councillor MacEachern said that staff confirmed that when the Mayor called the question, there was a show of hands, and the motion carried to adopt those minutes with an amendment regarding and the abstention from the vote. Councillor MacEachern said that immediately after the show of hands, there was discussion regarding this issue, but that it had already been carried.”
Aside from the fact that it is highly inappropriate and frankly out-of-order to comment on a CANDIDATE’s comments – MacEachern was/is WRONG! AGAIN!
We have the DVD of the meeting and have reviewed it a few times to make sure we have it straight. It is a chaotic scene so we can understand why some may have a hard time following along. The relevant portion of the tape to watch is 46:00 – 51:45. The relevant video is below.
Here’s a brief synopsis of what happened during the time in question:
Morris said that she wanted the minutes changed to reflect why MacEachern voted against the two Integrity Commissioner reports – reports based on the two complaints the very same Councillor lodged herself. Councillor Collins-Mrakas pointed out – and the Town Clerk confirmed – that the procedural by-law does not allow for such a special notation, the municipal act requires that all abstentions are counted as a negative vote AND that the municipal act requires that minutes be taken, “…without note or comment”. Thus, as ACM continued, this requires “a special motion to make a special statement” for the benefit of MacEachern.
Yes, it was confirmed by the Clerk. Council was informed that it would require a motion to amend the minutes to include the special language.
So the motion was moved by MacEachern (not Morris as noted in the minutes – she’s still the Chair, and everyone knows the Chair can’t move a motion!)
Morris then says “all in favour”. The GOS begin to feebly lift their hands. At the same time, Councillor Buck interjects to ask just what the heck it is they voting are on.
At this point the vote – on the amendment – has been halted.
Morris asks Buck if she wants the “minutes to stand down” and “do you want a recorded vote”
A 3 minute back and forth ensues. Morris, Gaertner and Buck all add to the “debate”.
Of course Phyllis can’t help herself from talking to members of Council like they are a complete group of morons.
At 49:46, Morris says, “I am calling the question”
At 51:00, ACM interjects with a “point of information” to which Morris responds with a ridiculous out of context babble about the “seriousness of conflict of interest”
Then at around 51:30 Morris says, “the matter has been dealt with, let’s move on”
Well, with all due respect to our procedurally challenged outgoing mayor, oh no it wasn’t
The vote never happened.
It’s right there on the tape for all to see.
Were all members of the table given the opportunity to vote? NO
Were those opposed asked to vote? NO
Were ALL votes counted? NO
Was the vote declared to be carried, carried unanimously or defeated? NO
Was the main motion, to approve the minutes, moved? NO; seconded? NO; question called? NO or voted upon? NO
So, to put in very simple terms – the vote did not happen.
Once again, we have a situation where the minutes do not accurately reflect the proceedings of Council. Councillor MacEachern is, to be polite, providing wrong information to the community. The public is left to stand, mouth agape, in horror at what has transpired.
Don’t take our word for it, watch the tape yourselves.
Ask yourself: Did Morris halt the vote? Did she ask for anyone opposed? Did she declare the vote to have carried? Did she call the minutes or just the amendment?
And then we encourage you to send emails to Ms. MacEachern (emaceachern@e-aurora.ca) demanding she retract her clearly wrong statements. And, for good measure, apologize to Mr. Dawe.
Possibly they can amend the minutes at their next meeting 🙂
A person of class and integrity can admit when they are wrong.
Aurora Citizen 