Cobourg Council is wrong

Just because Council says "It's not our fault" they can't afford to deny liability. In the case of the flooding in the George St, Buchanan St Station St area the Town told local residents that it's not their fault that the area flooded. The reasoning being that the flooding occurred as a result of an inadequate storm drain on private property.

Quote from the NNews
"In an interview after the flood, Ted MacDonald, acting director of public works, said town staff were out in the field on Jan. 25, inspecting the George Street culvert as well as areas both up and downstream and found no evidence that the George Street culvert was blocked, based on flow rates observed in other parts of the system. The George, Buchanan and Station Street area has long been defined as a flood plain and the affected homes have been there for over 50 years, said Mr. MacDonald. Currently, new building is restricted on flood plains, given the likelihood of flooding. However, the homes in the area predate the current rules and regulations, he said.

Flooding in this area is not a new occurrence, he added. Similar circumstances back in 1980 - frozen ground and heavy rains - also resulted in heavy flooding. He added the culvert that runs under the CN/CP tracks is not on town-owned property nor was it built by the town.

"Any flooding that occurred (in the area) was not due to any negligence whatsoever on the town's part," said Mr. MacDonald. "We (Town of Cobourg) have worked hard over the last 20 years to improve infrastructure to limit any damage that may occur during flooding."

The BurdReport asks the following questions:

• If the Town has worked hard to improve infrastructure how come this area flooded?
  
• If the Town is responsible for Storm Water Management how come they haven't ordered private property owners to improve their facilities to modern standards?
  
• If the Town knew that this Railroad culvert was inadequate twenty odd years ago why haven't they followed the standards of the latest Storm Water Management Report and ordered changes on the railroad property?
• If the Town is denying culpability why didn't they tell the Homeowners to sue the Railroad Company?
  

For a video of the flood as it passed below the affected area, the railroad lands, look here; Wally's video

First of all, congratulations to Bob Spooner

So the "dinosoar" has pulled the plug! Congratulations to Bob for his public service. Read this story for the details
Now the fun begins, who will be the first to declare for the vacancy? Many names come to mind but it will probably be someone we have never heard of. That's good because whoever declares will need the time to develop a profile. You don't get one by hanging out in the backrooms of City Hall filling a committee seat.

So let's have BurdReport special - who do you want to run for Council? Nominations are open, just mail the names in and I will setup a special tracking page.

Now's the time for all....

.... Good Liberals to come together. That is they can afford the $125.00.

Everyone on the Lib mailing list, and others that the Vice-President of Funding can think of, will be soon getting the invite on the left. Lib bigwigs will be speaking to the faithful. Any excuse for the good Senator to use his "cottage" at the bottom of Bagot St. But the topic should be enlightening to policy wonks. The exception should be the results of the research that Gerard Kennedy has been doing on the "Stimulus" figures: who got what and how much has been given to the Tory faithful etc.

As an observer I find it fascinating that this event comes a month or so after a particulaly brutal AGM where long standing officers, identified with the losing side in the Nomination battle either elected not to run, withdraw or were beaten at the polls by a side run by TeamRudd, determined to have things their way. The upshot is that hard feelings are still there, an executive has been elected dominated by persons from the West and some people do not feel welcome in their party. Not a good harbinger for an expected election.

But back to the poster, click on the image to enlarge it, if you are a Liberal and want to hear pearls of wisdom delivered from the mount, pay $125.00, have some munchies sip some wine and have a good Liberal time.

An answer based on intuition, not necessarily fact

This question came in yesterday
"Now that this little saga (My experiences with phone companies which obviously bore the heck out one reader at least) has mercifully ended, for Ben and for us, can we talk about something else?
How about the news that the County is charging the County paramedics double rent for their new digs at the old Kraft research building?
This according to a story in Northumberland Today.
Are they not both landlord and tenant here? Whazzup Ben?"

So what's the answer? Unfortunately the question appeared to be a throwaway from the bulldog of County Council, Mayor Bill Finlay. I can imagine one of the reasons Bill is not running again is that he is tired of posing common sense questions, at the County level, when no-one else will, and getting snowed by the bureaucrats. But back to the question, but a bit of background. The County paid $1.5 million for the old research lab and a bit of land on William St. The purchase was justified to the Council and public by claiming that when the price was amortized and the Land Ambulance and the Food-for-all Warehouse was moved into the building the County would be paying less than rent in annual costs. Sounded good, the Council said Yay and the Feds kicked in a whack of money to cenvert the building and now the place is almost ready, but the bills have to be paid. In recent budget discussions the EMS budget was higher than planned. In a report in NToday "The 2010 budget anticipates EMS department rents at about $290,000 compared to actual expenditures on rental facilities of only about $122,000 last year." In fact in the debate about the purchase, last year, Mr Pyatt reported to Council "Presently rent for the EMS, Food 4 All Warehouse and storage trailers is about $85,000 per year, says Pyatt." "These rent expenses would stop and rental income from two unnamed agencies would begin. "
So what has happened here? For the rent to go to a planned budget of $85K (less than that with a planned rental agreement) to an actual of $122K and now a future cost of $290K?
One reason given is that the County appears to have two problems: they have purchased larger ambulances and therefore need a larger garage in Port Hope and the base in Cobourg will be charged back to the County at commercial rates. But hold on here didn't we buy a building to eliminate having to pay rent in Cobourg? So is this a paper transaction or a real one designed to pay off the building?
Either way Mayor Finlay must have been satisfied with this answer as there was no report of a followup question or an answer to his main question, "Alnwick/Haldimand Mayor Bill Finley asked during the county budget session. "Are we getting the benefit of having our own building?"
Sad really I can remember being on County Council when the budget discussions used to be the highlight of the year when every single councillor used the occasion to demonstrate to the folks back home just how much they were protecting the taxpayer by hacking and chopping every single line item. It appears that the major issue for the Council of this day is just how llttle time they can spend on discussions of any kind. After all who cares it's only the County - one step removed from the people!

The Bell saga

It's over, my flirtation with a Smartphone. Yep I sent it back and cancelled my account. This was done because it is impossible to get a plan that allows the Smartphone to operate properly for less than $70.00 a month. That's a whack of dough just to look at email on a phone. How Bell can sell a phone that is web dependent without a data plan being mandatory is beyond me but they do. So not willing to pony up that kind of money I called it quits. But this phone hell never seems to quit, this morning I have to phone Honeywell about a programmable thermostat that has never worked properly from the day it was purchased.

If this is true I wonder what the defense will be - PTSD

With the news that a military person has been charged story here with two counts of murder, I wonder if the defense will try to have him diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? That may be hard to prove considering that he has only one active service medal and a good conduct medal (I guess he loses that one) And further if it's true that the charges will stick congratulations to the Police for such a quick arrest, that is unless this guy just left such a great trail of clues behind that they couldn't fail to catch him.

New technology and customer service

Ever tried to access customer service departments lately? I have been struggling with Bell Canada and this morning with the Toronto Star.
This morning the TO star was not in its usual place when opening the door at 7am. Nor was it there at 1015 am. So I went online and obtained the phone number for the circulation department. Accessing phone hell the final stop was a notification that informed me that I had been credited with a newspaper to replace the missing one. Not satisfied I tried again attempting to guess which of the options would give me access to a real person. Finally the voice informed me., "Press #3 if you have other questions" I did and was promptly cut off. Trying again, after all I had a seven minute investment in this quest already, I connected with a person called Shonna and she informed me that i would be credited with a paper. I said, "but I want a paper" She said, "You should have called before 10am, we have nobody to deliver after 10am." But I said, "Look just find the guy in Grafton and send him out." She said, "I don't know the delivery person in that area, I have credited your account" So I said, "I really only want a paper." She said, "Sorry sir I can't help you." I said, "Please make a note and tell your supervisor I am not satisfied." She said, "Yes sir, is there anything else I can help you with?" and proceeded to explain that the Starweek will not be delivering any more and proceeded with an upsell. I disconnected.

The Bell Canada saga is much more involved and complicated but it does have its comedic spots. Having decided that I might save money by exchanging my pay-as-you-go phone with a smart phone and a cheap plan, research was made into all the options. Settling on a Palm-Pre the local Bell store was visited. Oh back up, as I went into the local mall the Source was visited and the following question posed, "You folks sell Bell phones what makes you different from the folks next door (the Bell Store)?" "Our service" was the reply, "We cannot cut the plan rates." "See that phone mount on the rack?" I pointed out, "Can you give a deal on that if I buy a plan?" "Sorry sir the boss doesn't allow us to cut prices." So I went next door.
"Can I help you sir?" asked one of the perky young females. "Yes, I would like to buy a Palm Pre with a two plan." She looked at her schedules and said, "It would be cheaper on a three year plan." "I know that but I want a two year plan, for $99.00 (the going rate advertised on the website) with a Combo fab five plan." She then went into the back room obtained the phone and then proceeded into the upsell. "These phones are prone to freezing, do you want the extended warranty for $7.00 a month?" Is the freezing covered by the normal warranty" I asked. "Yes sir but these phones are on a backorder when you try to exchange them." A for effort but still no sale. Havig invested twenty minutes of waiting and buying time she then informed me, after discovering her computer would not take the order, that the phone I wanted on a two plan will now cost me not the advertised price of $99.00 but $150.00. When I asked why does the website say $99.99 another older but officious (read snotty) person then pointed to the fine print on an internal schedule and read the disclaimer. "I then said, "I am not satisfied with that, this whole deal has been very misleading and I'm sorry that I wasted your time and mine." And left much to the amazement of another customer being served not eighteen inches away from me at the counter.
Not wanting to give up with the holy grail of a PalmPre on a two year plan for $99 I decided to go on line and order it. Finding the right page on the website and proceeding to fill out the right pages and assemble what i wanted in the "cart" I was invited to chat inside a popup box with a customer service rep. Doing this I was informed that I could have what i wanted and could I give them a phone number where they could confirm all of this in person. Ten minutes later a man named Amin went through my order and then informed me, after many holds and pauses that the phone would be another $150.00 plus the $99.00 because I wanted a two year plan. He then reduced the price for me to $150.00 all-in and I informed him that that was not good enough and terminated the call.
Aha I thought why don't I just order the bloody thing on line and see if the shopping cart gives me what I wanted. Yep I could get the order, clicked buy, supplied my credit card and two days later the phone turned up.
But it turned out that had ordered the "Uber" Combo not the "Smartphone" combo and needed to change it. Instructed, by email to register the phone and create an account where I could make changes to my plans I attempted to do this. The vagaries of the transaction were such that the registration code was not being accepted by the website and I failed to create an account. Finding a phone number and another maze of "phone hell" a contact person was found. After a while it was determined by the CSR that he couldn't help me and told me to initiate a "Chat" on the internet. "What if I didn't have a computer?" I asked. "Well I can't help you." was the only answer this man could say.
So I guess tomorrow I will be contacting the business office of Bell with two simple requests: can I register my mobile phone and can I switch plans? After all I wouldn't want to waste the nearly two hours of enquiries that I have invested so far, now would I?

If you found this tale tedious, blame me for not writing in a Leacockian way - blame Dave Chomitz for suggesting that I write about it.

PS I guess my episode is not just Canadian or uncommon amongst telecommunication companies read about this British couple's attempt to obtain broadband here

Down in the farm team

Monday evening the Council, Cobourg that is, will appoint members of the public to committees. Two people being appointed may bear watching. One is Melissa Marshall and the other is Don Ubell who are being appointed to the Environmental Committee. Interesting is the fact that Melissa was a candidate in the last election. At 34 the youngest in the race and one of the few women. Obviously she wants to stay involved. Don is a man with a purpose - he collects committees. Currently the Chair of the Community Centre Building committee he also works on the Accessibility committee, he may even be Chair of that one too. He needs to fill his time and with three committees, that is one more than a sitting member of Council he will be busy. But will these positions on committees lead to a jump to the "show"? Ther are a couple of other active committee members who might make the jump too - losing candidate Larry Sherwin, is tucked down there as are other active people. Could be a busy period for aspiring candidates in the next few months, will they have had enough of the committee work or will the committee work prove to be a teaser for more?

An insidious file

Yesterday's Toronto Star placed its latest expose on the front page in blaring colour and headlines. "Blacks are three times more likely to be stopped than whites!" and went on to discuss the practice of carding and the recording of more blacks than white. However the Star has it wrong by not going deeper. In its file, that contains many stories on the same theme, not one is talking about the practice of "carding"
Carding is the method that police services use to gather and keep information about people they have stopped, on file. This story details the methods used and the database that abound where non-criminal information is kept.
Field Information Reports
Replaced MANIX as the repository for contact card data, and houses the same contact card details as MANIX. It also gives descriptions for the nature of police contact, such as general investigation, loitering and traffic stop. This data set captures details from 315,000 contact cards filled out on 242,000 individuals from late 2007 to end of 2008.
This information is gathered by officers on duty who come into contact with the public, make notes for whatever reason and the that info is moved to a database, FIR see above.
Flashback to the overthrow of the East german government years ago. What did the population do? They went to the HQ of the Stasi and ransacked the files. Every person in the Country was in a file that listed associates, traits and other information. Does anybody else see the comparison here?
The practice of anybody, and this case its the police, gathering and keeping information, without that information being able to be checked for veracity and context is odious, but even more odious is the practice itself. How can a free and civilised society condemn the Stasi and then condone the FIR being run by the Police in Toronto and even perhaps our local police?

When will the Star condemn the practice?

James Doolittle for mayor

The ego of the man, Jamie Doolittle, quoted in a letter to the paper today, "Councillor Bob Spooner, after all of my previous writings, has listened to me, other readers and various editorials and coverage of this issue in this newspaper. Well done." If he has led the charge to fix the park to HIS satisfaction just imagine what he could do for the Town. Go for it Jamie don't live up to your surname!