I listened to Adam Vaughan on the John Tory Show last night. Mr. Vaughan, as councillor, reckoned it was his sole responsibility to represent his Ward. He wasn't interested in representing the Mayor or joining forces with any other councillor unless it was in his Ward's best interest.
That's all very well and fine but where does that leave constituents from other Wards in the city? In effect he was saying if something came before him that might be detrimental to the best interests of constituents in another Ward he felt justified in ignoring the issue.
This explains Mr. Vaughan's actions during the last Council Meeting and explains what goes on down at City Hall.
You see, the way things were meant to work, local issues were supposed to be ironed-out at Community Councils before they came to full Council, for basically a rubber stamp. The Community Council was intended to be a Public Meeting where constituents could attend to inform and to voice concerns about, or support for, items on the Agenda. The assumption was that open debate would protect against things going terribly wrong.
What actually happened at Community Councils was nothing like that at all. In reality, councillors, and lobbyists, would secure the votes of Council members before the Public Meeting. When it came time for the constituents the outcome was already decided. Much of the time councillors were not in their seats and deputants would be speaking to empty chairs or over other conversations. . Nobody paid a blind bit of attention. This happened regularly at the North York Community Council. If a Ward Councillor wanted to ignore community unrest on a particular item, by virtue of this corrupt culture, it required only a devious manipulation to overcome their protests.
Hardly any way to conduct local democracy, eh? It's what Rob Ford speaks to when he says he wants to improve customer service at City Hall. "Ford is explaining the horse-trading of votes at City Hall. Recorded votes publicly available on a website would prevent that, he argues." http://live.nationalpost.com/Event/Live_coverage_Toronto_mayoral_candidate_Rob_Fords_meeting_with_the_Post_editorial_board?Page=1#ixzz10I73he1y
Maybe Mr. Vaughan would care to comment?
