Mayor Miller's Priorities

$6.2 million is chump change in a budget of $1.2 billion but when people are fighting for nutritional supplements on social assistance, traffic tie ups due to water main breaks, roads full of pot holes, etc. you would think politicos would be showing some semblance of fiscal restraint. $5M for roads/bridges $6.2M for office renovations?
The backlog of road and bridge repairs in Toronto is a $301-million pothole growing larger by the day and endangering residents, the Canadian Automobile Association warns.Toronto's proposed 2007 capital budget allocates a mere $5 million this year to the backlog, when it should be at least $30 million for each of the next 10 years, Faye Lyons, of the CAA, told city councillors yesterday.

And what else is buried in the budget

Hall's $6M remodel
Expansion of mayor's office part of two-year renovation planned for City Hall
By BRODIE FENLON, SUN MEDIA

The mayoral workspace at City Hall is pegged for a renovation that David Miller's spokesman says will merge the mayor and his staff into one office space. (Mark O'Neill, Sun Media)

Mayor David Miller may cry poor over the city's finances, but there's apparently enough taxpayer dough to pay for a multimillion-dollar renovation at City Hall, which includes the expansion of his office.

Tucked away in the city's proposed $1.4-billion capital budget is a $6.2-million renovation project spread over two years.

The project includes two new committee rooms, a media studio and a bigger office for the mayor and his staff.

A breakdown of costs wasn't available last night. Nor was the mayor, who was en route home from Ottawa.

Details of the renovation came to light just days after councillors passed a 9% water rate hike to pay for badly needed repairs to the city's crumbling water main system.

Just yesterday, councillors were briefed on a $301-million backlog in road and bridge repairs -- a backlog for which the city says it can only afford $5 million due to the TTC's huge cost demands.

"This is ridiculous. I think taxpayers should be outraged," said Councillor David Shiner, a former budget chief.

"At a time when we're begging the provincial and federal governments to assist us financially to maintain our infrastructure ... we seem to have more than six million to renovate at the mayor's convenience."

Miller's spokesman, Stuart Green, stressed the renovation is being directed by city staff, not the mayor.

"It's a project to increase public access to City Hall," Green said, adding that the mayor's staff is split between two offices and the goal is to merge the two.

"There's a disconnect between the mayor's staff as a result of a previous design. The intention was always to have the mayor's office as one unit," Green said.

City spokesman Rob Andrusevich said the plans date back to 1998. With the advent of the new City of Toronto Act, more public meetings will be held requiring more space, he said.

"With the act, there's an expectation of more civic engagement, people being more involved with City Hall, and as a result we need more meeting space," he said.

The renovations must still be approved by the city's budget committee and council as a whole.