The councillor who many would agree has been leeching off taxpayers for nearly 30 years told council earlier this week that we at the Toronto Sun are "chronic deadbeats" and leeches for allegedly not paying our rent at City Hall.
Howard Moscoe's contentions came during a nearly one-hour debate on whether to increase the rent all media pay for occupying space in the City Hall press gallery from the current $17/sq.-ft. to $21.50/sq.-ft. -- a figure city real estate officials claim will recover their costs. (That proposal passed 23-13.)
But Moscoe's nonsense didn't start this week. The mouthy blowhard -- who since late February has been shopping the story -- did himself even better two weeks ago.
In the confines of government management committee (where he knows he's protected by privilege) he proclaimed the Toronto Sun's behaviour has been "so egregious" and we've been so "chronically late in paying the rent" -- that at one point we were $50,000 in arrears -- he felt it his duty to bring the matter to public attention.
"I'm here because I don't like deadbeats leeching off the backs of taxpayers," he said, claiming that his campaign was "not a vendetta against the Toronto Sun."
The city's director of real estate services Joe Casali also got into the act.
When asked why the Sun had a lawyer involved in the rent negotiations, Casali claimed it was because we were in arrears. "They don't have a good record for making payments on time," he said.
He also stated we only paid off the $50,000 in arrears 1 1/2 years ago. "There was no dispute over the space or how much money should be paid," he contended.
This is the same director of a department singled out by the mayor's blue-ribbon panel for needing a complete overhaul. I've made no secret of their incompetence when it comes to purchasing properties and the millions of dollars they end up overpaying for what they acquire.
For the record, the Toronto Sun is paid up in full.
Alan Shanoff, the Sun's lawyer at the time, told me yesterday he tried to negotiate a proper lease with city officials repeatedly after they "out of the blue" decided to charge us for space previously occupied by the media rent-free. His letters went unanswered -- for two years -- while the rent charges continued.
It was only when someone in real estate "who was intelligent" got on the file that a proper lease was negotiated, Shanoff said.
According to our records, the lease issue was finally settled and the so-called arrears paid in the fall of 2004.
"This is all about incompetence at City Hall," said Shanoff.
And dare I add, it is well within our rights to expect a proper lease for space we rent, even if City Hall chooses to operate like a circus.
As for Moscoe's claims this has nothing to do with a vendetta, I beg to differ. The insufferable over-the-hill trougher -- who was the first to push for a pay hike and has been rabidly protective of his $53,100 office budget and other perks -- has openly expressed his disgust with the Sun (and me in particular) as of late for daring to expose his spending excesses and those of his socialist colleagues.
Rest assured we won't be letting up on our criticism of his silly shenanigans.
As for the rest of council, far be it from me to suggest they might have had better things to do than dickering about media leases -- like discussing whether to make the TTC an essential service or figuring out why the brontasaurus blue bins have been such a disaster.
DO THE RIGHT THING
Nonetheless Adam Vaughan -- who in his former role as a TV reporter would have been all over councillors for wasting time with such nonsense -- made sure he had his say.
"Those people that have been living without paying their rent in very nice digs downstairs ... let's just say to them we hope you will put this in your paper," said the sanctimonious Vaughan, indicating we should do the right thing, pay up and not succumb to our corporate czars.
So Adam here it is. I've put your comments in the paper.
But I think you owe us -- let's say $100 -- for all the times you borrowed the phone in our "nice digs" for free. Fair is fair. I hope you, too, will do the right thing and pay up.
No comments:
Post a Comment