Sitting in my front porch office yesterday I was interrupted by a swarthy looking man, who hardly spoke english, who thrust a large brown envelope at me. "Sign thees!" I did after a flutter of apprehension as I had spotted the lawyers logo: "MacCarthy Tetrault". Thinking that I was being sued for upsetting people with my comments I took the package, with shaking hands. As the brand name goes "No Fear" it was only two big factum books, written by the lawyers for Royal Cobourg Centres Inc., asking the OMB to dismiss the objections of Zellers, Oliver and Schumann. Anyway I have read it and think that if the Town can get away with only spending a few bucks on this appeal they are nuts. This is going to cost big time. And it should, they were wrong!

All's well that ends well. Messrs Halewood and Hancock will still be applying their skills as local conservators. They have joined the Board of the Barnum House museum, Well done chaps! Cobourg's loss and Grafton's gain.

A comment from Spooner, whom I met at the gas station, this week, about the workload at Council. "Long meeting! we were there for forty minutes on Monday, we can normally get out in twenty to thirty!" Perhaps if Councillor DeVeau ran her report through an editor before she delivered it proceedings may be shorter.

Budget talks all round and the impacts are not yet known, there are a couple of big unknowns that could produce hikes. The final tax tag from the County and in Port Hope where they have already committed at least 4 million to various projects (the new library and the Capitol Theatre) and yet to get the money to finance it. The sale of the former Port Hope Hydro has yet to be approved and under what conditions. There is a fear that because the rules of Hydro deregulation has changed since the sale was announced perhaps the business case that Veridian (the new owners) based the sale upon may have collapsed. Anyway in a worst case scenario if all the financial houses of cards fall down Port Hope does have the capacity to debenture the 4 million, but at what cost to the taxbase?

Still on Port Hope's affairs I am told that the naming of the new  municipality is hung up in protocol but will be "Port Hope". Even the people on Ward 2 support this, this has to borne out out by surveys but trust me the name "Hope" will disappear.

I hear little whispers about the hospital fundraising and construction process. On the list of 'pre-qualified' construction companies there is a non-union company, Kanadian. This company has a dubious history of hospital construction and will, if selected, upset the local unions. Consider that employee deductions of the United Way run at 65% of total donations, if the hospital runs the same trend then a Labour boycott could be devastating.

As a result of the article I wrote for the N'land News about the Jubilee Park/Elgin intersection I have been contacted by others in the dispute who point out that LinMac may have been treated fairly but the Bothwell's haven't. Nobody is talking because they have decided to let a judge sort it out. Look at the picture and you realise why Mr Bothwell is in court, he has lost his driveway.

Sunday 10th March
A quiet week, the 'rose debate' is over. Only Lloyd could support Lloyd, I wonder if when he debriefs himself he realises that he didn't get what he wanted because he went about it the wrong way. Six weeks of consultation is entirely different from six weeks of backfilling. His big mistake was not talking 'with' the ladies of Victoria Hall but talking 'to' them.

I paid my $5 to get a Freedom of Information request in the system let's see what happens next. I am told that a committee of council and staff will rule on it and get back to me. We will get those names and publish them here, stay tuned.

Did you see that article I had printed in the Northumberland News about the possibility of parts of Jubilee Park being handed over to LinMac. The story behind that is that the Cobourg Star did not want it (besides they didn't want to pay the going rate), so I sold it to the News. The joys of private enterprise! The real story in that event hasn't happened yet. That's when LinMac gets the land. Under the law the land doesn't have to be sold by tender to the highest bidder at the appraised value, only that the land be declared surplus and appraised. Council can use its discretion in the disposal process, lets see who is going to be discreet.

Went celebrity spotting this week, Doug Galt was seen at the Chamber of Commerce's breakfast on Friday. He turned up without any handlers (I guess Al Hoffman and John Boreham preferred to eat b'fast at home, or just not be seen with the Doug) and proceeded to talk to a couple of people and then sat down. I got the impression that most people in the room couldn't care less whether he was there or not there was certainly no big rush by anybody to talk to him. Paul Macklin was spotted in 'No Frills' Sunday afternoon picking up vittles for the family. Sans wife he had plenty of time to tell yours truly that he is thoroughly enjoying himself up in Ottawa and wished he made the move sooner.

I am glad to see that the the Cobourg Star has run with the issue of committee appointments, only a couple of weeks late, but as I emailed Don Horne when he described 'dissent as the sinews of democracy', "I guess that makes me Charles Atlas" I expected no answer or comment!

The week of March 25th looks like democracy week. There will be events right here in Northumberland preparing people for the discussions that are taking place in Quebec City about the FTAA and globalization and the corporatization of the world. High School students are having a daylong workshop about the effects of globalisation and the rise, and effects, of the Maquiladoras on the Wednesday. A well known social commentator, Murray Dobbin, will be addressing the local 'Council of Canadians' on Thursday and on the weekend (30/31) a coalition of activists will be running discussion groups and workshops about the issues that will discussed in Quebec City. A web page (here) has been made up that outlines the programe - take a look at it!

I had to chuckle to myself when I saw in the papers this week that Council had gone to a retreat at a local B&B. They emerged with a plan for the next thirty years. Well that takes care of the Official Plan. It should be much cheaper than hiring consultants every 7-8 years to update the plan to just send the Council of the Day away to solve the Town's problems for the next thirty years, every three years. I like the bit about wanting to create a new industrial park to attract business. What's wrong with the existing planned park, oops we don't have it anymore we've given it to WalMart. It must have been really forward thinking (30 years out) to come up with the idea of cleaning the Victoria Park washroom (it may take 30 years to clean it if you believe how filthy it is now). The whole process reminds of the joke about the Prisoner of War in Germany in the last war talking to a guard who was boasting about invading England. "When we invade England next month I will jump on my bicycle in the morning and explore all the land we have conquered." The POW replied, "And what will you do in the afternoon!" Long-term planning done through bifocals!

Faithful readers should be sensing 'deja-vu' when reading the local daily paper, Two stories this week, in the Cobourg Daily Star have been on these pages some weeks before: the committee controversy and the decision to setup a committee to study the council remuneration. Keep on reading here I can't promise you a steady stream of scoops but if it is of local political interest it will probably turn up here first. [get on with it, stop blowing your own horn! ed]

As you may have read I am preparing a Freedom of information request (to read it click here) to get the names of the 21 people who asked Council to be appointed. I don't go along with the idea that these names should be private because the unsuccessful applicants may be embarrassed by having their names on the 'reject list'. That's like saying "I want to be Mayor but only wish to be appointed and if I don't get to be Mayor only I will know and if I do get to be Mayor you only find out I wanted the job once I had been given the job!" Faulty Logic.

But back to the story about council setting up a committee to study its own wages. The telling comment in this report was a remark attributed to the Mayor "Council looked at this in January and decided something had to be done". That means that almost the first thing this Council did was to decide that they were underpaid and decided to suck up to the trough for more money. I will be the first to say that Cobourg Council is underpaid but all of these characters knew what the wages were when they ran for election. In fact three of them were on the Council that refused to discuss the issue last term. For them to look at this issue first thing after being elected betrays the electors. This bunch far from being idealistic and fresh and willing to make change have just behaved like traditional politicians sucking up to the public trough. The capper is to call the committee that is studying the issue independent. With one exception all were up to their eyeballs in the effort to elect this council and its Mayor.

Oh I wish I could be fly on the wall next Monday night during the closed session of the Council meeting. I have asked Rick Stinson for the names of the people who applied to be on committees and the committees they desired to be on. "It's not a normal Council practice to release those names, but I will ask Council if they would release them to you." I can just imagine the conversation.
"Mr Chairman the last item of business comes from Ben Burd, he would like to know have the names of the people who applied to be on committees and which committees they applied for"
"Who wants them?" would be the universal question. "We're not going to release them to him!" "Besides that kind of information can be considered personnel and therefore is secret" (a common perception but wrong)
This information is public and is needed to assess the way a Council governs. If the committees are stacked with people who will echo what a Council wants to hear, will the advise be objective and good for the Town?

Besides for a Council that prides itself on being open and new and progressive can that be judged as true when committees are filled with "retreads" and sycophants. As a friend of mine mused recently "just how many times can we recycle Brocanier?" Gil Brocanier on CAUSE? He was in charge of the last architectural monster the Town built: the Library (enough said), I wouldn't consider him to an adherent of anything architecturally progressive.

All participants in the OMB hearing (Strathy Rd/Walmart) have received registered letters informing them of the date of the first day of hearings, there is a scan here.

A new column is also published this week, and a few articles that the Colborne Chronicle has been printing are up on my literary site.

I see Mr Bill is up to his old tricks of filling his Saturday Cobourg Star column with e-mail he has received. I can only suggest that if Don Horne wants to accept this lazy practice then he should be paying Bill less for his column because he did not write it - his penpals did!

On to the happenings of Monday evening down at the 'Old Vic'' The rose is obviously off the bloom (don't you just love this story all kinds of puns can be developed). Lloyd Williams, proudly wearing his CC pin, makes a motion to reconsider the siting of the emblem that is causing so much trouble, the rose. Spooner seconds it and then wait - no support; motion fails. Spooner makes a motion (just to get a decision of any kind, he told me afterwards) to confirm the tender and make have council make a final  decision in two weeks. If there is no decision in two weeks the rose wilts and dies.

So there you have it folks the first major decision of this council is to make a motion mandating that something be done and if it is not then the whole idea is dropped! In other words vote to do nothing and then in two weeks time if nothing has been done then forget about the whole issue.

Not at the meeting were the members of the 'senate' (Joan C, Arnold M and Dean P - they called themselves that); some of the previous council, they were patiently waiting in Kelly's for the only beer drinkers on this council (Dean MacCaughey and Bill MacDonald) to join them. I guess Bill and Dean get pretty lonely with their own company what with the Mayor heading off to the hockey games and Spooner going home.

New committee members announced on Monday
Economic Development - Dean Pepper
Planning - Al Stewart, Marg Grundy and Stan Frost
Cause - Gil Brocanier and  Harold Greaves
Lacac - James Sandham and Elizabeth Parken
Environment - Jeannette Johnston, Micheal Cleverdon and Douglas Warling
Accessibility - Robert Robertson and Steve McCahan
Christmas Magic - Gerry Drage and Patricia Kulik
Canada Day - Karen Bridgeman, Victor Baitley and Tom MacMillan

Campaign donations Election 2000
I have made a chart of the campaign donations, as reported to date, read it here. It is interesting that the coordinator of planning, in his filing, only reported accepting money from developers! It is also suspected, by this writer, that First Professional's principals gave money to candidates using different companies. As the executor of Gerald Roger's estate Ian Angus signed a cheque to Peter Delanty, the estate holds a mortgage on the land where "New Amhearst" (a company owned by Max LeMarchant) wants to build 600 houses. Max is also the project manager for the company that wants to build a WalMart store. I wonder if Gerald would really understand the mechanics of this donation?

Sunday 18th February 2001

Another item with Lloyd's fingerprints all over it is the 'rose'. As we know his plan for the downtown calls for a rose to be laid out in decorative brick at the front of Vic' Hall. I appears that the ladies of Vic Hall are outraged. Is it because they feel infringed upon or is it that the rose is just a tacky addition or is it because that they have spent so much time and effort on making the back of the Hall look good that any change to the front might distract. I notice that he is again playing both sides of the fence: genuflecting in front of the fine ladies and still trying to get the project on track.

Another item came to the front, the complaint (addressed by two local commentators) that Northumberland and Doug Galt got jobbed in the round of cabinet making. Now I am no fan of the makeup of the new cabinet, we will be subjected to the real neo-con ideology now, but Doug Galt in cabinet is a stretch. Minister of What? He has only got one good speech in him (and that's holding him together) and now that the PCs have to govern his rants against the 'ten lost years' have worn thin. I guess I started to suspect something when he railed against the school boards and their policies when he built some of those policies as a Trustee some years ago (Chair at one point if I remember). Reading Robert Washburn's column if there was suggestion that he [Doug Galt] must finally get the point (Doug you are going nowhere) it was certainly implied. It will be interesting to see if Doug is running again. The rumour about him being a signed up Alliance member is surfacing again. What I want to know is: who is lining up for his seat? The seat is no cakewalk for a Tory, it has swung with the provincial trend every election. That means that the Libs must be getting cocky about their chances, expect rumblings about potential candidates soon (time to make a statement Carolyn). It will be interesting to see how John Lindsay likes his sabbattical from politics, and the drive to P'boro'. Look for him to go with a Liberal surge!

So we are going to have an OMB hearing in March, even though all acknowledge that it will only be one of many and the process could take a year. It will be a gamble for the proponents to have both hearings combined. One goes down all go down. The case for a stand-alone application is certainly stronger that the changes to the OP. All the opponents have to do is make a good case that procedures and polices were ignored by the Town during the secondary plan process and Walmart is off to another site and another rezoning. High stakes legal poker here folks. Meanwhile I'll say it again, Walmart can go anywhere in Town but that site, it is only First Professional, chasing the enchilada, that is causing the delay.

We're off Friday, to the tune of Jimmy Buffet click on the bottle for it (it may take time to load and is only 40 secs long -- what do you expect I couldn't upload Jimmy himself!). The temp yesterday was 88 degrees and there's no gossip where we're going so keep those e-mails coming and I'll fill the page up when I get back. In the meantime check out these e-mails from the readers this week here. I guess we must qualify as a real journalistic endeavour a couple of people wrote to me as "Dear Editor" here, Just like the big boys.
 

Here is a copy of a letter sent to Greg Hancock by the Mayor in answer to his letter (printed 1st Feb). Unfortunately all of these happenings only lead to more questions. The question from this letter is simple; are the advisory boards worth sitting on if you have to be moulded to a councillor's idea of the committee?

Sunday 4th Feb
Just to put this next item in context about two weeks ago I received, in my mail box, a copy of a letter sent to the Mayor by a group of 'concerned senior citizens' who want easier access to the local Y and reduced rates for the use of individual programmes. The second para sums it up:
"It would seem that the Cobourg Y has become a Country Club for the well heeled, and seniors on a fixed income and the ordinary working class family are effectively excluded. A reduced membership fee is available but in order to qualify for this one must fill in a form disclosing all income and assets, which is ignominious to say the least."

Now to the item, a copy of an email. It came from a person who had contacted Councilor Jackson about the letter to the Y.
"A message was left on my machine that the Y was Macdonald's portfolio and she would pass the issue on to him: I hope she is bright enough to recognize that I wrote her, hoping she could embrace this very public issue....this portfolio shit is driving me NUTS.. and it is precisely this that keeps other Councillors from advancing issues that are different from their portfolios...we do not elect on portfolio's!!!! Bill MacDonald has such contempt for me that the Y issue will never be reviewed by him: should not ALL public issues be put on the agenda (such as LACAC's !!!) of Council, rather than "the manager of portfolios"? Glad that Halewood and Hancock did not just roll over and played dead! wow, all the things that happen when you are away for just a few days-cheers"

Whilst we are the subject it should be noted that the story that revealed the existence of the "mandatory charitable donation" was sent to the Cobourg Star and the management refused to print the story as a story. Cynthia Amsden, the journalist on the case, finally managed to get it into her column, but in a much edited and watered down state. Good work Cynthia.

On the subject of Campaign Donations, it appeared that First Professional has really got its claws into the council. I bumped into Rick Stinson the other day and he jokingly asked about the story and mentioned that most, if not all the financial statements filed to date include FP's name. It will be really interesting to see the final list - sometime in April, I believe.

Back to the portfolio question. It seems that the electioneering zeal that produced a commitment to investigate 'standing committees' as opposed to 'portfolios' has been sent to the staff for investigation. If and in what form and also when it emerges from the catacombs are the questions now.

The LACAC affair refuses to go away but only smoulders in the hearts of a few. This is due to the fact that the traditional press in town haven't picked it up yet (I don't think they will). Anyway Greg Hancock has written to the Mayor read it here. Meanwhile Halewood intends to apply for his old seat; there are two vacancies. I hear that a prominent person asked by Dean MacCaughey to apply for a LACAC seat retorted, "What for?"

The King St. saga continues, Councillor Williams appearing not to realise that the election is over is producing tons of consultation. Unfortunately the main concern, the lack of trust in the Engineering Dept., can never be fixed. But I guess we are all talked out. "I would rather Jaw-Jaw-Jaw than War-War-War" (Winston Churchill). "The only thing that has changed this week from last" the engineer from TSH told me, "is the elimination of 17 parking spaces and more bumpouts"

continued in the Archive