Councillors claim mayor a dodger |
In the end they did take the cowardly way out (no surprises there), narrowly voting 22-18 to support Mayor David Miller's call to refer the whole item to City Clerk Ulli Watkiss to create one clear set of rules for office expenses -- even though, as I've noted before, there are rules now which are simply not being followed.
The vote came 40 minutes after they'd embarrassed themselves so aptly I began to wonder if many of the councillors had taken "stupid pills" before council resumed yesterday afternoon.
In fact, I'd barely arrived in the council chamber to listen to the item (at 4:30 p.m.) before Coun. Janet Davis, one Miller's key lieutenants, noted for all to hear that it was nice to see me turn up for the expense issue (I'm guessing she didn't think it was nice at all). Her colleague Kyle Rae chimed in that it was the only issue I bothered to cover (these days, I'm guessing), chuckling at his own humour.
When Holyday -- upset with the idea of not being granted a proper hearing -- hotly declared to his colleagues: "It was you people on that executive committee that started this," deputy speaker Sandra Bussin reprimanded him.
"You are to refer to the mayor and members of the executive committee by their titles, not you and you and you," she haughtily declared.
And when Coun. Karen Stintz dared propose council give Ford and Holyday an apology for being "unfairly singled out," deputy mayor Joe Pantalone rose from his seat red-faced and fuming.
"Why are you speaking?" he questioned Stintz. "You've insulted the rest of us."
Later, Pantalone told me he behaved "intensely" because of the suggestion that council apologize to someone who'd broken the rules (namely Ford).
"I thought that was a bit above the top," he said. "It's like the rest of the Canadian public apologizing to Conrad Black."
I suggested to the deputy mayor that as my colleague Zen Ruryk and I have found in repeated reviews of council expenses in the past six months, some councillors consistently submit taxi chits and restaurant receipts that are not properly filled out according to the council rules -- but are paid anyway.
"The clerk issued payment ... the clerk feels it is legal and payments were issued," he said. "I have to accept the ruling of the clerk."
(Yikes! I thought there were so many darn policies, the clerk can't rule. Oh, whatever.)
And where was His Blondness throughout this silly nonsense -- the same mayor who'd just 15 minutes before declared it was "appropriate" to refer the review of Holyday and Ford because council should go after "public policy issues" and "not each other." Why he was missing in action, as per usual.
Giorgio Mammoliti, council's top spender and the man who'd initiated the petty review of his colleagues, sat quietly throughout the discussion and disappeared once the vote was taken.
And so I can't help repeating what I noted exactly two weeks ago. For a seasoned political veteran -- and the leader of a so-called "mature, responsible" government -- Miller has shown incredibly poor judgement on an issue that has resonated with the public.
By sending it off until April yesterday without giving Holyday and Ford a fair hearing, he's proven only one thing: He and his minions are too cowardly to deal with an issue that has blown up in their faces. Let's not forget either that councillors will be allowed to continue to spend flagrantly until April without rebuke.
If the Millerites believe their efforts to "muzzle" Ford and Holyday will make the expense issue go away, however, they have another thing coming.
Holyday vowed to file official complaints to the Integrity Commissioner on Mammoliti, Pam McConnell and Norm Kelly.
"I'm going to be all over these guys ... every single dime they spend I'm going to be on top of," added Ford.
"I guess there's something to hide because they certainly don't want to deal with the matter in the public," said Holyday. "And Coun. Mammoliti isn't the same boy ... I think he's been whipped by the media and the public."
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