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Mayor Miller’s broom under the carpet
September 20, 2006 on 8:53 pm | In Social & Political Issues, ELECTIONS | 2 CommentsMayor Goldilocks must believe his broom is for sweeping controversy and embarrassment under the carpet at Toronto city hall.
David Miller has allowed a cover-your-butt bunch of bureaucrats to gut the Freedom of Information office and make them the final word on what information the public is allowed to know.
And in their minds, the less information the public has, the better off they (the bureaucrats) are.
That’s why it took The Bulletin several FOI applications and appeals to the province—and 19 months time—to learn how much the city bureaucrats paid high-priced lawyers to do the same work a lowly paid whistleblower was making for doing her work with recognized expertise and honour.
She made the mistake of embarrassing the city’s real mayor, Shirley Hoy.
Hoy, now city manager, alleged that FOI expert Rita Reynolds wasn’t a “team player” because she disclosed that bureaucrats had misled council about selection of winners bidding for a multi-million-dollar contract to run and operate historic Union Station for 99 years.
Reynolds’ disclosure came in her official capacity as head of FOI for Toronto.
But some dirt belongs under the rug, judging from the way city bureaucrats and the mayor treat the public’s right to know.
He’s perfectly content to keep it secret about what Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp. thinks should be done about the Gardiner Expressway. He claimed it was third-party info, but TWRC says t’aint so, it’s the city’s information.
Now Miller has popped up with a secret deal to buy a dump. Don’t expect to learn how much it will cost. He’s keeping that a secret.
Remember how Miller would scoff at the notion that there should be a strong mayor form of governance for the city?
Yet Miller is playing the strongman role and lobbied successfully with the reigning dolt at Queen’s Park to stretch his already interminable term to four years from the current three.
And there’s nobody running against him.
But maybe she’ll get elected anyway, since so may Torontonians are so disgusted with Miller.
Frank Touby
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I always enjoy your paper, particularly the incisive articles and comments from readers. As a longtime resident of Downtown, the following occurred to me recently.
In September 1972 while visiting Europe I had the opportunity to visit East Berlin, which at that time was the capital of the rather incongruously titled “German Democratic Republic.” I wandered around for several hours admiring some of the impressive historical buildings that had been restored, although there were many areas where war-damaged ruins had been removed and there was only an empty plot or an urban wasteland. My overall impression was one of neglect. It was clearly a city that had seen better days,
I draw attention to the above visit because Toronto, the city where I live, has started to remind me more and more of the East Berlin of old. Burned out (or otherwise inoperative) streetlights; streets Downtown where all the lights seem to have been turned off or were not functioning (Adelaide from Church to Jarvis; Front from Bay to Jarvis); broken and patched sidewalks; potholed streets; and dead and poorly maintained trees along city streets in the Downtown area. We don’t have as many “People’s Police” as East Berlin did although we do have legions of “Parking Enforcement Officers” who seem to be everywhere.
Our transit system is looking decidedly scruffy, reminiscent of East Berlin’s “Untergrund” (subway) with hard-to-find (or non-existent) garbage containers, dirty platforms, broken tiles, stained walls and burned-out lights in stairways. And of course there are streetcars that are dirty first thing in the morning. Maintenance received a low priority in East Berlin’s BVG (read TTC), too.
As far as citizen input, I might just as well be in East Berlin in the 1970s where the Central Planning Authority and the SED (read Communist Party authorities) ran the show with little or no local input. And we have a few mass projects; just like the Alexanderplatz redevelopment in East Berlin while the rest of the city slowly deteriorates.
Our parks are being filled with “low maintenance” (or no maintenance in the case of the street tree-planting program) plants and flowers—to save money one assumes. Toronto: a world-class city of the 21st Century? I don’t think so. Much more like a mid-20th-century backwater. Apparently, East Berlin has improved greatly since 1972. Unfortunately, the same thing cannot be said for Toronto.
Michael Piette
Comment by Administrator — September 22, 2006 #
I can’t agree with you more. We have been duped by this Mayor. The broom in the hand to stop backroom deals and he is the one doing them all. He keeps everything secret. The new garbage plan will be his demise dumping will increase. Water bills have been raised 35 % over the last 7 years, property tax $500 over the same amount of time. Then license renewal sticker double the price…Land transfer taxes hitting young couples who want to buy their first home. What does he stand for.Parking tickets given out illegally in the night while people sleep.Look into the bylaw someone has to complain via phone to have a parking ticket agent come out but they come out all the same withouit the call this is illegal and mayor Miller knows this and keeps the illegal money flowing. He is unoriginal he raises taxes and gives in to all unions.These are his best friends. How can people afford to live in this city. He can talk a good talk but I am not buying what he has to sell. He is the worst Mayor Toronto has seen as far as I am concerned. Mel Lastman looks great compared to Miller and that is not saying much.
Mike
Comment by mike — June 12, 2008 #