Council didn't work! We need a change of culture.

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?

So, what's wrong with all this?

What's wrong is that Karen Stintz seems to have all the time in the world for making a career in politics and little time for making Ward 16 a better place for residents.

Ward 16 is popular with the development sector but it's also popular with the outside advertising business too.

Here, Councillor Stintz enjoys a good old time with the boys who spend their time defeating our By-laws on outdoor advertising signs.  "City Councillor Karen Stintz is caught on camera laughing it up with four lobbyists for the Billboard Industry." www.illegalsigns.ca

"From time to time, City Councillors would chat with members of the public as well as the industry’s paid lobbyists. But one City Councillor only spoke to the lobbyists. Her name is Karen Stintz. And we have the video to prove it: The silent video hits high drama at 0:33, when Stintz’ animation gets a tad wild." www.illegalsigns.ca

"Karen Stintz is the worst of a very questionable bunch. She may be the most articulate and witty member of Council’s unofficial opposition (goodness knows she doesn’t have much competition), but her positions rarely seem authentically her own but rather products of ideology or focused lobbying efforts. (Almost every time I have attended a Council meeting, I have seen her at the back of the gallery chatting away with lobbyists.)" Torontoist December 2006

So, what's wrong with all this?

What's wrong is that Councillor Stintz appears to be more interested in helping these guys get their signs erected, rejigged or illuminated than listening to the concerns of residents.

What was in it for Ward 16?

It's been 7 years now and we can't see what the residents of Ward 16 got for the millions of dollars it has cost to finance our local councillor and office. It seems we're no better off. We're still fighting against big property owners, illegal signs, noise and light pollution. It doesn't stop there either. It seems we're still looking to improve public safety along Avenue Road.

But, more of that one later.

Ward 16 is angry too about the spending habits of Toronto councillors. For example, many in the Ward took exception to Councillor Stintz spending our money to improve her speaking habits. (Check out the video too.) At the time we wrote to the councillor and got this reply - 


"All expenditures are within policy and pre-approved by Council Services.  One of the professional expenses last year was for public speaking." Karen Stintz, January 2009. " I wouldn't believe everything you read in a blog." But, it was 100% true. And, if we remember correctly, that was the type of standard answer during the MFP computer leasing scandal.

We're sorry, that doesn't cut it with us, and not with some others -  

"Sounding less shrill thanks to $4,500 public speaking lessons, Stintz talks a good game, but her inconsistent votes should back it up more. She also shouldn't have accused Miller of lying during a committee meeting when she knew he wasn't and got called on it" Sue-Ann Levy Toronto Sun

Shortly after being re-elected Councillor Stintz thought she could be Mayor of Toronto and we thought it was a good idea too - at least she would be gone! Perhaps she thought too that she needed to improve her speaking skills. A good idea if you want to be Mayor but we didn't think it was something we needed to pay for. Neither did we think it was a good idea for her to be giving speeches where she complained about Mayor Miller, “… four years of missed opportunities for cost-containment, revenue generation and meaningful partnerships” like she did in 2007 at the  the Economic Club of Toronto.

Someone please explain to me how Karen Stintz’s decision to blow taxpayer money on something this silly is not a missed opportunity for cost containment?http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/607196

Karen, your Stint's over.

There's a movement afoot to change City Hall and it's putting a wind at our back here at its2big.

Ward 16 is poised to participate in a landslide of disgust and re-peopling of Toronto Council. In our case it's not just the sense of entitlement that saw Councillor Stintz spend our money fixing her speaking skills that has made us angry. We're fed up being ignored and we're concerned about the mistakes being made. Residents are no longer prepared to move over for the sake of personal ambition or the quest for bigger bucks.

We've put some of the evidence of this on our site www.its2big.ca. The development at Orchard View and Duplex best exemplifies our anger and frustration with a system that has been manipulated and used against us by the very people we pay to protect our interests.

We hope this blog will encourage Ward 16 residents to participate in the change we need.