Money items today

Finally the Provincial Government has canned the head of e-Health Ontario. This agency was established from the ashes of its predecessor agency that that was dismantled after spending over 600 million with no results, this came after another fiasco with computers a few years earlier with computerized land records and another with welfare systems. Anyway the Head of e-health presided over eight months of gravytraining and questionable contracts awarded to buddies and one alleged family member. So what does Sarah Kramer get for her supposed expertise? Nine months salary at $26,500 per month, a bonus of $114K after five months and a severance of $317K to go away and not sue them for breach of contract. A total of $700K for nine months work; nice if you can get it. No wonder the opposition and the news people are all over this, it is salacious. But the scandal here isn't the obscene wages being paid to civil servants to administer outrageous consultants fees but the inability of any government to understand how computers work and the cost of networking lots of them. Because it is technology that most MPs do not even understand they are prepared to pay the ridiculous fees demanded by computer specialists, sad!

Back to the local scene, we now know how much money the local pols pulled in for doing a part time job. Last month the County published its "remuneration report" which details the amounts paid to councillors for being at the County level. Tonight the Cobourg report will be published it is here for those who missed it on the agenda [it never appeared on the agenda, the memos never Are - Ed] it shows all on the Council payroll.
But the big thing for Cobourgers to note is that the Mayor by attending a monthly meeting at the County is able to bump up his $30,272 + expenses of $3,482 ($33,754) by adding his County money - $9588 - for a total of $43,342 but you then have to add in the money he gets from the Local Utility for being a Director of the Company and the money he gets for being a Director of a subsidiary ($4,500 estimated total) and that comes up to a grand total of $47,842. Not bad for a job that could be called full time, if he worked at it constantly.
The sad part of this is that although most people I talk to hold the Council in low esteem for their actions over the past few years and complain about a lack of vision nobody is chomping at the bit to want to be the next mayor, even if it pays a respectable stipend.

How to leave a name on your comments

Some people have been unaware of how to sign a comment with your name and have been attracting more attention than they should by posting comments as "anonymous". So if you look at the image to the left you will see that after one has clicked on the radio button "Name/URL" a box drops down. Put your name in this box and you have a comment that has your name on it. Try it and stop annoying those who think that all comments should be signed. Personally I don't care just keep the comments coming in! To make the image larger just click on it.

It will be interesting to see just how many puffed out chests there will be at Council tomorrow evening and who gets to announce the kickoff for the public fundraising campaign for the new Community Centre. As Bob "I raised a pile of money for the Jack Heenan Arena" Spooner told me, he already has pledges from some community groups - keep 'em coming Bob you can do it better than anybody else!

Let the fundraising begin

Went to the Police BBQ, a fundraiser for the Hospital and came away with a bigger story than hotdogs on a bun.

The Stimulus money is coming, the stimulus money is coming! the real fun now starts. Bob"have I got a story for you" Spooner figures that the amount to be raised to keep the taxpayers' money away from this project is about 2.5million, others on Council think it is more but whatever it is Cobourg's contribution, after using the "Playmoney" should be raised and paid for by interested people and future users. Don't expect the taxpayer to put up money for this out of the tax rolls when the majority of taxpayers wait to be convinced of the need. The BR position is simple those that want it should find the money to fill in the blanks. And if they, the users, can't find what amounts to about ten per cent of the cost then they don't deserve a building.

But back to the hot dogs. This BBQ was organised by Deputy chief Dave (Cromlish) - seen on the left, and raised $255 dollars - 51 citizens came out and had a cheap lunch and raised money for the hospital while chowing down with lunchbuddies and had a good time. Well done!

Only in Port Hope, we hope

A snippet from a letter to the paper from John Miller.

One council, two opinions and closed doors
Let me see if I've got this right: Port Hope's councillors, sitting as elected officials, paid two consultants to look into the operations of the Harbour Commission. They concluded that it was a municipal board, not a private corporation, and its meetings should be open to the public.
Those same Port Hope councillors, sitting as appointed members of the Harbour Commission, are now paying a lawyer to see if they can get different advice. Mayor Linda Thompson (who is obviously quite comfortable meeting behind closed doors when she's wearing her nautical hat) is not saying which set of advice her Harbour Commission will act on.
Very interesting set of circumstances and all too common with local Councils, unfortunately they get away with it because of the lack of voter oversight. Where was the crusading press on this one?

Can I have a chicken in my backyard?

Fresh eggs, what kind of image does that evoke? Farmers' wives with their baskets feeling under brooding hens to take the eggs. The noise and smell of the fowl. Take your pick but what are the rules? Raising chickens is about as "back to the country" as you can get. But is it legal in Cobourg? After spending time with helpful people, in Town Hall, such as Susan Beer and Steve Ashton the legal status of a back yard chicken is still not definite. If your chicken does tricks then it is banned under 59-2004 - a bylaw to prohibit wild or exotic animal exhibitions. But if all the chicken does is produce eggs for the kitchen table it may be legal. Residential zoning bans agricultural uses and the Zoning Bylaw (ZB) allows "general farming". "General farming", the only agricultural reference in the ZBL , is not allowed in residential areas. The legal argument is - "What is general farming" (GF)? How many chickens do you have to have to fall into GF? Can you build a coop that is legal? The answer to that one is easy; keep it under 100 square feet and you don't need a permit. But the general consensus is that if you get on with your neighbours and don't keep too many chickens and house them in a coop less than 100 sf you will probably be allowed to do it. But don't boast about it and don't have a rooster!

If there ever is a "black hole" for policing costs it comes under the heading "Communications". Over the years the amount of money devoted to this subject, Cobourg and Port Hope, has been LARGE. Now a consultant is recommending that PH spend even more. How much will Cobourg spend? Why is it that parochial pols still abound where Policing costs occur? The latest report of the Port Hope Police Services Board exposes some of this thinking. Pull the prisoners out of the Cobourg police station and put them at the OPP station, just to save cents - what shortsighted thinking. How's this for an idea - amalgamate and share the costs!

A linkage between the GM fiasco and Wall St and guess who gets to keep their money? This story links Obama and his car czar to a scheme whereby GM's pensioners will lose their fund to 2 Wall St banks who, in the end, will never share the pain of everybody else in the bankruptcy. In addition the proposal is illegal but being done in the name of Obama and his Wall St buds.

Words of wisdom from our MP. Mr Norlock musing about the prospect of an early election

(snip) Norlock, who was re elected last fall, says canadians clearly don't want another costly election so soon.
He says an early election call would amount to crass political opportunism to try to take advantage of economic hardship in order to win public favour. (snip)

So the question to RN is this - "What about the crass political ministerial responsibility crap that SH , is putting out to sack a Quebec male "swordsman" and to keep his "pet" over identical mistakes. Read Don Martin's comments about the incident here.

Another lost chance to demonstrate integrity

One would have thought that when the Cons and SH have little else to hang on to they might have taken the high road - some chance. In a demonstration of Political Cowardice of the highest order, (story here)  the Minister of Natural Resources, who was responsible for State secrets found out that a binder full of docs marked SECRET was left in a TV studio and not even noticed, the TV people had to phone her office and ask, "Anything missing over there?", the PM-SH dropped the ball. Admitting that he, SH  , had received the offered resignation obviously treated it like a garden party ticket and declined to take her up on it. I can't imagine the oinky squeals of high dudgeon and fake outrage that would have emanated from the opposition benches if SH  , were occupying them today. But another lost chance for integrity and another nail in the coffin of credibility. Sad!

The RCMP may have ineffective tasers but ours are better

Information from the Cobourg Police Services should put the minds of Cobourgers at rest. A headline story last night on the National (CBC) reported that the RCMP is pulling most of their Tasers out of service. They fail to meet standards and are an earlier Mk 1 Type.
In an interview this morning the BurdReport discovered that Cobourg has the newer model, there are only two of them, which are tested yearly, and they issued to Supervisors who are also trained on a yearly basis by Durham Police and only used in situations of "Aggressive Behaviour". Only one is on the streets at a time and in the hands of a trained and capable Supervisor. So ours are safe!

Government goofs!

I know that we want to castigate government severely for anything they do because it is usually perceived as incompetent. But two examples hit the ether this morning, three if you count the secret papers left behind by Lisa Raitt for reporters to read, one was a federal story and one was a Provincial story thus putting the lie to the theory, at the moment that the Libs know how to do the job!
Number one - the Feds have lost some gold and silver at the Royal Mint. Here's the story.
Number two - the Provs have been accused of all sorts of nasty things including mismanagement and insider deals as the honchos of E-Health have pocketed huge wages and still claim for cups of tea on their expenses. A comment by Christina Blizzard here. The sad thing about this E-Health fiasco is that it was setup to take the place of an earlier Agency that spent over 600 million and failed to connect the provinces computers to deliver E-Health.

Yet another tale of Wall St ripoffs here is a detailed story of how Wisconsin School Boards lost a pile of dough by falling for Wall St's slick salesmen. It even makes a Canadian Bank look bad.

A classic play to the crowds

In a masterful piece of political puffery the Cobourg Council led by the Mayor played to the standing room only crowd in the room. This story recounts the action last night. Essentially the Mayor trotted out some memories of a free beach and said he would do what he could. Which by the way, if the owners stand firm, is very little.
If the Mayor and Council were serious about this they would have studied the existing legal opinions gathered over the past four years and actually done something. Blaming failed negotiations and obdurate owners is not good enough. If expropriation is an answer do it. Council was approached by a citizen in 2007 who asked for something to be done. and nothing was done. Amazing what can be done with a packed room. But remember when we were told that 2500 names on a petition was not good enough, good on the 150 who went to Council last night. Getting in the faces of Pols actually does work. But as with many other Councils this Council has been guilty of saying yes to a crowd and then disappearing into the backroom to discover that it could not be done. So the crowd should expect to be disappointed. And as for the offer that the Beach Society is making, "We will clean it up and police it" Didn't work so well for the Ecology Garden did it?

A suggestion from Michael Moore designed to drive the Cons nuts. In this story MM, the filmmaker of "Roger and Me" fame suggests what Obama should do to make GM work.

Local Art or just a good warning?

Correction, this was art: These signs appeared to be at the edge of the "nasty lady's" house at the west side of the Bagot St road allowance on Sunday. A local artist had told me over coffee that something along these lines was being planned but having seen the end result it looks like more than just art but could be utility. I mean who would be stupid enough to cross this line in ignorance if they ever saw them. But on the other hand would the perpetrator stand charged with crimes in violation of the "Art in Public Spaces Committee?"

On a National level, the election drums are beating, An NDP bill is being proposed that would make changes to EI. With all opposition parties in favour of changes and this bill being a confidence vote if it passes we could be off to the hustings. Locally the Libs are drooling, salivating and generally slobbering over the very thought. In fact there is, behind the scenes and out of the spotlight, quite a vigorous nomination race going on. Paul Macklin's people are jousting with Christine Stewarts people and it is all coming to a head soon. But back to the prospect of an election a blogger who describes himself as "Angry in the great white north" writes here that Jack Layton has cooked up a deal with the devil himself - SH - to put the boots to Iggy and foil an election.
In a nutshell here is the leaked stratagem: "What Jack Layton has done is to give the Conservatives their way out. The NDP tables the bill. The Conservatives offer an amendment or two (no doubt already agreed to, in advance, between the Conservatives and the NDP). The Liberals offer their own amendments. Votes are taken. With NDP support, Conservative amendments pass. Liberal amendments are rejected. No election. So there no election. The other reason, for no election, is that the next installment of election money ($1.95 per voter) is due in August, so who is going to pass that up in a needless election?

At tonight's meeting of Council, after all the histrionics and public outrage abates (the beach debate) a sensible letter will be accepted into the public domain. This letter here is from the Cobourg Sustainability Committee and outlines what they think about the proposed Community Centre's design. The committee suggests a green building (not the colour of paint but the actual design!). All sensible measures and has been referred to the Community Centre Feasibility Committee. I doubt it will get a mention in publc but will be buried in the bureaucratic paperwork of the project. Still nice try!