• A local developer has set a very bad precedent, in collusion with the Town. Mr Bowering, the developer of the condos at the harbour has entered into default with the Town over the development fees payable for the construction of his condos. As a result the Town has now decided to 'tax' the occupiers of the condos by attaching to each tax bill the defaulted development charges. [Ed comment bet that the final price of the condo will not be readjusted to reflect this! A bad move by the Town getting involved in the dispute in this way. Developers should pay the fees not the buyers.]
• The controversy about the road allowance in the Brook Rd. area is still going on. More compromise is supposed to be on the table and the residents have become more formally organised. Stay tuned.
• The usual dance and whine from the Council members has started - "I need more money, those people in Port Hope make more than me!" Deputy Mayor Bob Spooner finally has the review committee he wanted three years ago. The last report, authored by Wendy Curtis basically told Council that until you get your workload evaluated you cannot adequately set your wages. No movement on the workload assessment so the chaos is still there. However economic envy sets in and the Council members think they need more money. [Ed comment:If those folks want more money -GET A JOB! None of you are working for a wage you don't need more money for a part-time job!]
• Another report from the correspondent who watches Council:
  December 6th 2004
  Two things that were interesting tonight:
  Molly Baker Laneway:
  3 more really good presentations by members of the public, but again no questions by the councillors, except.................
  Councilor Williams stated: "There must be a misunderstanding here. The council has coordinators, and McCaughey is the coordinator in this case and he hasn't reported to us on this, so there has been little council discussion on it yet."
  
  I guess they don't know about it because they never read the local papers and they never listen to any of the presentations made at council meetings. This still doesn't explain what they were discussing in the in-camera meeting on November 22nd when the Mayor and Councillor came out to announce the Council's "compromise solution".
  It is interesting to see the council rewriting history, and scurrying away from this issue, and pretending they have never heard of it.
  
  Council remuneration:
  The Council passed a motion to appoint people to a committee to look into council salaries. Lots of discussion on this item.
  Councillor Brocanier suggested that the committee should be given terms of reference and a defined process, but the other councillors did not back him up on this.
  Most members appointed to the committee had recognizable names around town, and the Mayor even explained that one was the lawyer ( not the councillor of the same name) and mentioned the identity husband of another committee member. I guess the salary committee is well known to the council. I wonder if they ever thought of appointing a member from the poverty coalition ?

The analysis of last month's American Presidential election is still going on here is one reprinted from Starightgoods.com It is a collection of links to stories about the Diebold voting machines. More writing about the OHIO vote is here The complete vote in Ohio is being challenged by the Green and Libertarian parties, strange that the Democratic party has refused to get involved.