Moscoe calls it quits

Our longest-serving City politician announced today that he won't be running again this year.  Sweet relief for Ward 15 candidates.  Now the real fight begins...

Who cares? It's not our money!

Rob Ford takes aim at city-issued credit cards

This story seemed to get very little traction in the media back in January.  Sure, abuses found by the Auditor General's report were only minor amongst expenses of $8.5 million.  It's not quite a "billion dollar boondoggle" that gets reporters salivating.

The problem is that abuses could creep up given that little to no oversight seems to have been provided since the report.  In fact, Council voted to allow City workers to continue using the cards even though there is no list of cardholders nor any major review of purchases being carried out! What was the logic behind voting against oversight?

Workers knowing that there's no one really watching what they purchase might be inclined to abuse the system.  In a multi-billion dollar budget, thousands or even millions of dollars wasted may seem like peanuts.  But even peanuts can make a mound if they add up.

Voted against oversight of the PCard:  Ainslie, Ashton, Augimeri, Carroll, Cho, Davis, Del Grande, Di Giorgio, Hall, Heaps, Holyday, Jenkins, Kelly, Lee, Lindsay Luby, McConnell, Milczyn, Minnan-Wong, Moscoe, Palacio, Pantalone, Parker, Perks, Perruzza, Saundercook, Shiner, Stintz, Thompson, Vaughan,
Walker

I don't recall.

Rossi's announcement today that he would ask the province to permit recalls of Toronto Councillors and the Mayor seems to me a sort of gimmicky ploy to get some desperately needed media attention.  He's in last place in the polls so he needs a little kick.  He's trying to tap in that anger like the other Mayoral candidates, Councillor candidates and yours truly.  The problem is that anger fatigue may eventually set in.

But I digress.  Given that the details are spotty and that this change depends on the province it's hard to comment the possibility of having recalls in Toronto.  I'm all for democratic renewal and strengthening our institutions through new measures.  I'm just not convinced recalls are the solution.  Given that we have few examples of this kind of direct democracy in Canada we must look south for precedents.  The most famous case has been the recall of Democratic Governor Davis in California.  This was a highly partisan-driven campaign that took the elected governor out of office 10 months after being reelected.  Although recalls have by no means been abused in the US the ability for special interests to hijack the democratic process to serve their narrow goals is a cause for concern.

Direct democracy is indeed a good idea in theory but can it really be trusted in practice?  Also, who gets to decide the process by which these initiatives take place?  Do those in power make them highly restricted to protect their own interests or do they provide very liberal rules for recalls/referendums?


Let's begin by reforming our current elections by limiting the ability for Councillors to spend Expense account money on election years.  We could also change the winner takes all voting system and replace it with run-off elections for candidates who don't get over 50% of the vote.  No one should get elected with only say 30% of ballots cast.  And set term limits!

Rossi has put recalls on the agenda with his 3Rs voter reform.  It's an attention-grabbing proposition but it's one I hope gets forgotten.

Pantalone: "There is no conflict of interest - period" (2009)

Contract goes to insider 

Do you remember the selection process for a hotel at Exhibition Place?  Does Rocco Maragna ring a bell? Mr Maragna was part of the Board of Governors that would select the winning bid to build a hotel on the City-owned Exhibition grounds.  Mr Maragna voted in favour of HK Hotels in March of 2008 and was hired as the project`s architect a year later.  He remained on the Board until September of 2009.  Although he did declare a conflict of interest whenever the hotel project was discussed, he made presentations to the Board on behalf of HK Hotels while still on the Board.

Joe Pantalone, Deputy Mayor, strongly defended the deal. It probably helped that he and Maragna are good friends.  At Council, friends watch our for each other`s backs.  

Regardless of the merits of the project by the winning bidder and its architect, Mr Maragna should have resigned as soon as he entered into negotiations to design the hotel.  The fact that he didn't and remained on the Board a half year after being hired makes the whole deal seem stinky.  Legal or not it was certainly unethical. 

Regardless, Council decided to back Mr Maragna as architect for the $100 million project 36-4.  Friends backing friends backing friends.

Agreed with hiring of Rocco Maragna as architect of the hotel he voted for in 2008: Ashton, Augimeri, Bussin, Carroll, Cho, Davis, De Baeremaeker, Di Giorgio, Filion, Fletcher, Giambrone, Hall, Heaps, Holyday, Jenkins, Kelly, Lee, Lindsay, Luby, Mammoliti, McConnell, Mihevc, Milczyn, Miller, Moeser, Moscoe, Palacio, Pantalone, Parker, Perks, Perruzza, Rae, Saundercook, Stintz,
Thompson, Vaughan, Walker

Against: Ford, Minnan-Wong, Nunziata, Ootes

Security the next big issue this election season?

With the news of a supposed gang war under way in our fair city it's inevitable that candidates will begin talking about their plans for keeping out streets safe.  Throw in a few terrorism suspects arrested in Ottawa and we've got a climate ripe for the fear mongers.

I hope candidates talk about tackling violent crime but given the caliber of discourse in this race I imagine I'll be reading more soundbites than solutions.

How do you propose to keep our streets safe?

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A Saturday morning of voting history.

I've done the search for Councillor's voting records a few times but the only helpful sites I can find are Rob Ford's (Thanks Rob!) and the Vote Toronto website.  Do I really need to go through Council minutes on the City website to find out what they voted on and how they voted?  How many citizens would actually do that? 
Let's get an easy interface on the City of Toronto website detailing how our Councillors vote on the issues presented to Council!  Increase transparency at City Hall!

City Hall's jobs solution for Toronto? Become an artist!

A day or so after the Globe and Mail released a poll stating that Torontonians are more concerned with the job market than cutting taxes ( http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/torontonians-put-economy-ahead-of-cutting-taxes-poll/article1687010/) Paula Fletcher got her plan approved to bring jobs to the Torontonian masses: subsidized housing and commercial spaces for artists.  $2.2 million is being invested into this waste of a project.  Was this really a priority to ram through on the last council meeting before elections?  Do these incumbents have a political death wish?

http://www.torontosun.com/news/columnists/joe_warmington/2010/08/27/15167326.html#/news/columnists/joe_warmington/2010/08/27/pf-15167326.html

She learned good at City Hall.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/08/26/15154311.html#/news/torontoandgta/2010/08/26/pf-15154311.html
Apparently the learning curve for a City politician to not say something asinine like insulting your own constituents on a morning radio show goes beyond 30 years.
Will voters give Maria Augimeri a big fat F on October 25th?

Tina expands onto the blogosphere

After a few weeks of trying to gain momentum on Facebook, I've decided to try my hand at creating a blog to see if I can attract a few new faces.

If you come by here and you'd like to be part of the Takedown, make sure to also join me on Facebook: Tina Toronto.