tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55585422068735303802024-03-13T13:12:06.970-04:00VOTESVote To EliminateSelf-Serving Politicians<br><br><strong>BILL LONGWORTH is putting together a team of strong "<u>idea and results oriented</u>" individuals interested in running as part of the <u>"Oshawa Votes" Slate</u> in the next municipal election. Please contact Bill Longworth at 905 579 3971 if you are an Oshawa Resident and want to be considered as part of the VOTES Team. <u>You may be interested in reading the mandate of the team at the bottom of this site.</u></strong><br>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.comBlogger183125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-75537550347967962402010-01-29T15:27:00.002-05:002010-01-30T00:58:21.238-05:00Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics....In Oshawa's case---Big Lies, Bigger Damn Lies, and Consultants Reports written to justify decisions already made.City Hall said they had to demolish and re-build Council Chambers and City Hall "A" Wing because it had a leaking roof. Then they said that it was not handicapped accessible and then not energy efficient where they finally found a justification that they thought would stick. We were then told that the $25 Million demolition, rebuilding, and refurbishing of Rundle Tower would be paid for by energy savings at no cost to the taxpayer.<br />
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I have maintained that the project was an unneeded wastage of tax money. A leaking roof was a maintenance problem which is required for even brand new buildings, the accessibility issue is a minor renovation issue, and the energy inefficiency is a problem with every public building including Buckinghham Palace, Parliament Building, The Louve, The White House, etc. and will be the case of any recent construction in a few years as new standards and materials are developed.<br />
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The city, employs "hired gun" consultants, almost like the "expert" witnesses employed on both sides of a criminal trial, who will produce reports, or testimony in the case of expert witnesses, to support the "preconceived" positions of those paying the bills.<br />
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I know that energy efficient windows installed in my house may pay for themselves in "X" number of years but they would never pay for demolishing and rebuilding it as City Politicians claim of the expensive city hall project.<br />
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Without having access to all of the technical studies, I do have some common sense to apply and so I made some assumptions for the demolition and rebuilding of Council Chambers only and expect that the result would be the same on the entire project.<br />
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Suppose the Council Chambers cost as much to heat/cool as 100 homes. My house costs about $1500 to heat/cool per year so the Council Chambers would cost about $150,000 to heat and cool. Suppose the increased heating/cooling efficiency is an impossibly high 50%. The savings for heating/cooling the newly constructed $8 million council chambers would be $75,000 annually resulting in a cost savings of $75,000. At this rate it would take ($8M/$75,000) 107 years to pay off the construction costs with the energy savings not counting the debt charges on the money used to pay for the construction.<br />
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Now do you believe City Hall's Claim that energy savings will pay for the job? You don't? Me neither!<br />
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Now apply the same arguments to the complete project...the demolition and rebuilding of Council Chambers and "A" wing and the refurbishment of Rundle Tower at a cost somewhere around $25,000,000.<br />
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City Hall must think we're stupid!<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-61666535950729186002009-12-30T15:03:00.000-05:002009-12-30T15:03:19.799-05:00Term Limits for Councillors<br>The following item is my Nov. 23, 2009 column “Eye on City Hall” published every Monday in Oshawa Durham Central Newspaper. I also host a 3 hour radio program under the same title every Monday from 6-9 pm. Both can be accessed at http://www.ocentral.com/<br />
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This week I am going to focus on two ideas proposed by Councillor John Henry at a Committee Meeting this past week….Term Limits for City Politicians and his proposal to rectify the loss of local community representation due to City Council’s decision to adopt the City-wide general vote. Henry is suggesting that council appoint councilors as ward representatives in something he called "special interest" wards.<br />
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While the first proposal is outstanding, it will not get the support of council, and the second is ludicrous, but will probably be adopted by the next council elected in November, 2010.<br />
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The real question is why Councillor John Henry proposed these ideas knowing full well that neither has a hope in hell of succeeding. He is either naïve or just spouting wind proposing ideas that even he probably disagrees with.<br />
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Funny how things work in politics. So why would Henry do this?<br />
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The only criteria for election under the general vote is “high name recognition” and does not at all depend upon quality of input to city business or a high level of service to ward voters responsible for political success under the ward elections that are used in every large city in the country except for Vancouver which has Municipal Political Parties. These are illegal under Ontario Municipal Law. Funny that Oshawa City Council has abolished the system used virtually everywhere else and has adopted a system not used in any large city in the country. If Oshawa City Council’s system was best, wouldn’t it be widely used?<br />
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In requiring only high name recognition for political success and making every councillor a competitor for the same city wide vote, the general vote promotes a non-productive and dysfunctional city council. All councilors will backstab, bitch, bicker and grandstand to grab the press to enhance their name recognition. No councillor will support a good idea coming from a fellow councilor since they wouldn’t want to give any competitor a “leg-up” for the next election. So let’s use these ideas of the dynamics of a general vote council to see why Councillor John Henry would make his suggestions and why council would never support them leading up to an election.<br />
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Henry’s first idea is limiting councilors to 3 consecutive terms (12 years) for any single position on council. This idea is outstanding since we have 3 council members who have sat on city council in excess of 20 years and 9 of 11 councillors have sat for over 12 years. Wouldn’t it be useful to insure some turnover to bring vitality and fresh ideas to council? Term limits are not a new idea and are used with some frequency in Democracies around the world. Term limits guarantee that councils do not become dominated by senile“flat-earthers”<br />
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When the question came up for committee discussion, it was if the city council “truck” was stuck on the top of a manure pile…and you were asked to help push it off as city council drivers spun the wheels and shot it right back in your face. It’s time for city voters to reverse the spin!<br />
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All of the political “spin” was negative….but what would you expect. With the lucrative part time job on council, why would councilors vote themselves out of this windfall? It doesn’t matter what is best in producing vibrant leadership for the city. Opponents said, 1) in a democracy, no candidate should be denied the right to run for office, and, 2) turfing office holders out after 12 years would result in too many inexperienced members. They didn’t mention that shooting the idea full of holes would guarantee the positions of the council dinosaurs. Holy Cow…the most powerful politician in the world, the USA president is limited to 2 terms or 8 years and thus an inexperienced president is elected every 4 or 8 years….but inexperienced office holders are incapable in running Oshawa’s business? Get real! <br />
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In terms of democracy, I don’t know why politicians are so keenly jumping on this track when they failed to insure the most basic and fundamental democratic right in regards to the general vote plebiscite question, the right to be informed which Canada’s Supreme Court has indicated is a citizen’s basic right and a most basic requirement for democracy to function in Canada. They said it was not their responsibility to inform voters about the question. Ludicrous! What would be your reaction if your child failed a test because the teacher refused to teach the content of the test?<br />
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Politicians cannot tackle this question of term limits because of conflict of interest problems. The Ontario Municipal Act prohibits them from voting on issues in which they have a pecuniary interest. Now that the issue has arisen, I suggest that council must now hold a plebiscite on this question to let the people decide. The result would then be forwarded to the Provincial Government to encourage them to introduce legislation allowing term limits. The idea of term limits was discussed, but unfortunately not adopted, in government proceedings leading up to recently introduced revisions to the Municipal Elections Act.<br />
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The second idea introduced by Councillor John Henry would have politicians themselves divvying up the city and appointing themselves to their favoured wards. This goes against everything we believe in our representative democracy and also the chief rationale given by council for adopting the general vote. They said that ward voting led to councillor’s parochial views in only being interest and engaged in their own communities without taking a city-wide view, a red herring flouted by ward system opponents prior to 1985 when I brought ward politics to the city. I don’t know how new arenas downtown and in the north end, new firehalls in the developing parts of the north end, rebuilding and renovating city hall downtown, etc. squares with the idea of parochialism since these expenditures required majority council votes. Council then is unlikely to undermine the chief rationale they gave for changing the election system….they can’t very well appoint ward representatives now that they have just thrown them out. <br />
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And why would Councillor John Henry vote continually and on every question to throw out ward representation and want to return it now? With no ward responsibilities, Henry must realize that his workload will be substantially reduced as he won’t have to deal with any constituency problems and thus will be able to devote more time to his other endeavors. <br />
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The idea, though, is philosophically ludicrous. In a democracy, don’t voters directly elect their chosen politicians to represent their specific interests? It’s only in autocratic totalitarian police states that despots, dictators, fascists are appointed to look after the “people’s interest.” While city bylaw officers with police and locksmiths in tow raided UOIT student bedrooms rifling panty drawers for leasing documents might be close to these kinds of regimes, we’re not quite there yet!<br />
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So why would Councillor John Henry introduce these ideas to committee? He knew they wouldn’t fly. He also knew that none of his fellow general vote competitors on city council would support his or any other councillor’s good ideas.<br />
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Now the real question. Was John Henry really sincere about these ideas that he probably doesn’t support….or did he simply want to grab the press?<br />
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Good Ideas John…but no kudos from me! You just wanted the press!<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-72545112937673566772009-11-22T16:47:00.001-05:002009-11-22T16:48:13.029-05:00Eye on City Hall<br><br>I am pleased to report that I have been asked to write a weekly newspaper column called "Eye on City Hall" to be published every Monday in the Oshawa/Durham Central newspaper. In addition, I have been asked to host an internet radio progam on the same topic which you can hear every Monday starting November 30 from 6 to 9 pm. My commentary will be interspersed with the regular top popular music that you can listen to anytime while working on your computer. If you don't get the newspaper, it can accessed at http://www.ocentral.com/newspaper/index.html and the radio station can be accessed at http://www.ocentral.com/thewave/<br />
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In both of these mediums, you will find Information, Analysis, Comment, and unfiltered opinion similar to the items you find on this website.<br />
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I shall continue to write on this blog as usual as time permits.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-45925648602933422362009-10-24T14:54:00.011-04:002009-10-24T15:07:22.676-04:00Letter to Minister regarding Review of Ontario Municipal Election Law<br><br>Hon. J. Watson,<br />
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing<br />
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cc.<br />
Hon. D. McGuinty<br />
Premier of Ontario<br />
<br />
Mayor and Council,<br />
c/o Oshawa City Clerk<br />
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Dear Sir:<br />
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<u>IMMEDIATE ATTENTION PLEASE</u><br />
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I write to you once again regarding the general vote that Oshawa City Politicians have implemented for the election of our next municipal council.<br />
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This change was made following a convoluted plebescite question on the 2006 ballot in which the public were poorly informed. In point of fact, the <a href="http://www.motionbox.com/videos/4c9fdcb41510e6c3">Mayor publicly acknowledged at a Council Meeting that it was not the city's responsibility to provide voter information on this question</a>, saying this was up to private individuals who felt strongly about the issue. This, as you know, is contrary to Municipal Election Law which prohibits 3rd party campaigns. Oshawa Politician's lack of interest in communicating basic details as to what the question meant, what difference it would make to voters, why a change was needed, and why the question was asked, and their failure to ask a straight-forward question certainly demonstrated 1) they were not interested in an informed voter result, and 2) they manipulated the question and the voters to get a desired result.<br />
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City politicians were able to implement this change unilaterally without review to any external body like the OMB because they kept their ward structure even though these will not be used for election purposes. Only changes to ward boundaries are appealable and so Oshawa kept its ward boundaries to avoid any external objective review of the change.<br />
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Federal Members of Parliament have an average constituency size of 107000 and serious consideration is being given to reducing this significantly with the introduction of up to <a href="http://www.intelligencer.ca//ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2142666">36 more seats across the country</a>. Does it make any sense then, that Oshawa's Municipal Politicians should have constituency sizes of about 165,000 or 50% larger than those of our Present Federal Members of Parliament. For a government that is supposed to be closest to the people, this makes no sense at all and simply takes our local government farther away from the people than our Provincial and Federal reps.<br />
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In fact, as I have communicated to you in the past, this large constituency will make our local government less accountable, less representative, less responsive, less inclusive, and less democratic. The huge ballot will produce an impossible task for voters in making informed ballot choices. Name recognition rather than service to the public will be the chief prerequisite for election success. This, of course, will present huge benefits to the incumbents...which is the reason why they favour it. The general vote serves the politicians---not the ratepayers.<br />
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In my communications with you, I suggested 1) that ward elections should be mandated for cities in excess of 50,000, or 2) that municipal election law should be updated to allow for municipal political parties including fundraising/reporting provisions, as well as ballot party identification for party approved slates. As you know, municipal political parties, similar to Vancouver's, are necessary to allow the general vote to work in large cities if they are being allowed to implement that form of election. Democracy requires an informed public and Municipal Political Parties present the only way for citizens to become properly informed under such a system.<br />
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In communications with you, you assured me that reviews of legislation governing municipal elections were underway and further assured me that serious consideration would be given to reviewing this issue.<br />
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The deadline for information to get to Municipal Clerks is rapidly approaching for any legislative changes to be implemented in respect of the 2010 Municipal Elections and I ask you to postpone Oshawa's proposed change in voting system to the 2012 Elections if your department is unable to meet the presently mandated timelines.<br />
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Your action NOW is vitally needed to ensure a fair and democratic 2010 election process for Oshawa City Council.<br />
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I would appreciate feedback on the current state of review of the legislation affecting this very important question.<br />
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Bill Longworth,<br />
www.oshawaspeaks.ca<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-41656801683809391592009-10-08T23:22:00.000-04:002009-10-08T23:22:52.853-04:00Position of Local Councillor should be wiped out!<br>The following <a href="http://newsdurhamregion.com/opinion/article/136965">story has been reprinted</a> from Oshawa This Week<br />
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Oct 08, 2009 - 04:30 AM<br />
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By David Conway <br />
Former Oshawa Regional Councillor<br />
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As an Oshawa taxpayer and presumably a municipal voter, you may recall the referendum in the 2006 municipal election regarding the choice to continue with the ward system or change to the general vote system in electing our councillors. It was worded in such a way that if you wanted to retain the ward system you had to vote "no" to the question.<br />
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It was clever on the part of councillors who wanted the general vote system and it worked, mainly because most voters do not like to take a negative approach to the polls and therefore are inclined to vote "yes" even though they may not realize it may be detrimental to their best interests.<br />
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Now voters will be going to the polls in 2010 to elect seven regional councillors and three local councillors on a city-wide "general" vote.<br />
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This brings me to my topic question -- if local councillors were elected to serve two wards each in addition to the individual wards served by regional councillors, and those wards are no longer significant, then why do we still need local councillors?<br />
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With a city-wide vote in place all seven regional councillors will be elected to serve the entire city. What, then, is the purpose in electing three additional councillors to do the same thing?<br />
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I remember when Bill Longworth worked so hard to bring the ward system to Oshawa that there was considerable opposition but eventually it was approved. With Regional council in existence at the time it was apparent that a regional councillor's work would have to be considered a full-time position.<br />
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This precluded anyone with a full-time job in their own careers from offering their services as councillors. For this reason, and I am sure I am correct in this, five positions were made available for "local councillors" who did not sit on regional council and could therefore serve on a "part-time" basis as most meetings were held in the evening hours.<br />
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That has now changed to the extent that local councillors are now basically "full-time" councillors and some meetings are now being held during daytime working hours. The intent to have local councillors serving on a "part-time" basis has been abandoned. The significant increase in pay to local councillors substantiates that statement as well as their claim that it was twice as much work to look after two wards so the pay increase was merited.<br />
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It would seem to me that there is now no basis for electing seven regional councillors and three local councillors in a "general" vote system when all that is needed is seven regional councillors who collectively will be looking after the needs of all citizens of Oshawa.<br />
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This result would not only mean a more streamlined and efficient City council but would save the taxpayers approximately $200,000 per year.<br />
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Since it is less than three months before potential candidates begin registering for the 2010 election, it is rather important that City council give some consideration to this issue at an early date.<br />
David Conway is a former Oshawa councillor.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-59359301599030891842009-09-14T17:37:00.016-04:002009-09-14T18:31:36.229-04:00Gross Mismanagement of our City Business, Conflicts of Interest, and Adoption of the "At Large" Vote to Protect Politicans from Electoral Defeat<br><br><span style="font-weight:bold;">The following is a citizen letter sent to the mayor and council which appears on a recent Finance and Administration Committee Agenda. You can read the original copy of this letter by clicking the title above and see the news articles the writer refers to.</span><br><br><br /><br />Sent: Wednesday, August 12,2009 12:30 PM<br />To : clerks<br />Cc: Mayor@Oshawa.ca<br /><br />Subject: Fw: Tax Information<br /><br />Attachments: Tax lnformation<br /><br />Attached is a recently published article that should be forwarded to everyone on Council.<br /><br />With respect to property taxes on a residential property assessed at $350,000, you will note that taxes in Vaughan, Markham and Mississauga are about the same in the $3,500 to $3,600 range. Toronto is lower.<br /><br />Now let's turn to Oshawa, we are 106% HIGHER than Toronto, 68% HIGHER than<br />Vaunhan, 74% HIGHER than Markham and 73% HIGHER than Mississaum.<br /><br />What is the secret to their substantially lower tax rates?? I believe it is primarily due to the fact they don't have the Oshawa Council managing their financial affairs.<br /><br />I wonder if they purchase fancy and "showy" sports cars for their Mayor? How do you really think hard pressed taxpayers feel when they see or read about our Mayor driving around in his "fancy" new "wheels", while they are suffering financial hardships and paying excessive property taxes in the current very problematic economy? <br /><br />Perhaps some recent negative newspaper articles may shed some light on this for you. If the Mayor is entitled to a vehicle, then by all means get him a new one at the appropriate time. That is not the issue - what is the issue here is why he would be authorized to purchase such a "showy" vehicle and set such a poor example in this economic environment? This is somewhat like "rubbing salt in a wound". Such a decision speaks volumes as to how you really care about how taxpayers<br />money is being spent. By the way, saying this "showy/fancy" purchase was made to show<br />support for GM and the Camero, which is to be constructed at the Oshawa plant, just doesn't cut it with me.<br /><br />I wonder if the other municipalities in the GTA pay the educational expenses for Councillors - expenses for an elected politician who could very well be gone at the next election! How do taxpayers benefit from this? Councillors are not permanent high potential staff being trained for future executive level positions! If they wish to improve their education, I strongly feel they should pay for this themselves - after all, they are the only ones who benefit! <br /><br />I would really like to see the related business case (cost/benefit analysis) presented to support approval of such expenses - if one actually exists. <br /><br />A related area of concern is that I understand Council approved having hard pressed taxpayers absorb these costs - what we have here is Council approving expenses for the benefit of Councillors on this Council!!?? Isn't this commonly referred to as conflict of interest? In any event, I assume you must have checked with your<br />legal area to ensure this was, in fact, appropriate?<br /><br />I could go on and on - and on and on - but what is the point - you just don't listen. The only thing that seems to get your attention is finding ways to get re-elected.<br /><br />When challenged on taxation, the City of Oshawa normally responds by advising Oshawa is "in the higher range" of property taxation in the GTA. This is extremely misleading as well as completely inaccurate - and if you do this again, you will be challenged in an appropriate manner. Stop trying to hide the true facts - rather, do what you are getting paid to do by more effectively managing the City's financial affairs and reducing our property taxes so they are in line with the other areas mentioned above. Most important of all, stop wasting our hard earned tax dollars!<br /><br />I have lived in Oshawa for nearly 4 years. I can assure you that if I had been aware of the excessive tax rates here, I never would have moved to this area. Oshawa sure doesn't deserve a "premium"!!<br /><br />The numbers mentioned above and outlined in the attachment speak for themselves. There is something dramatically wrong in Oshawa. How do you people sleep at night or "look in the mirror" - the greatest test of all - and live with what you see?? If this was a private business, most if not all of you would be terminated. <br /><br />Unfortunately, being "bullet proof' politicians, the only way we can get rid of you is to try to vote you out of office once every 4 years.<br /><br />You are all pretty "cute" - somehow you have manipulated the voting process whereby local Ward representation will soon be gone at the next election and Councillors will have no specific accountability to taxpayers in the local Wards. What a great way to "hide in the bushes" and avoid accountability to taxpayers. I do not recall ever having had a chance to cast a vote on this change and I can assure you that I RESENT THIS CHANGE AND AM 100% OPPOSED TO IT !!<br /><br />An extremely unhappy taxpayer<br />Ron Boulter<br /><br /><br><br><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Editor's Comment</u>...Do we need Oshawa City Council...<a href="http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/article/135131♦">Here is the dominant business decided at the last council meeting</a>...and we pay a third of our high municipal taxes to discuss this kind of issue...City Council and the city administration should be disbanded because all significant business is done at the Regional Level. We could save a significant proportion of our tax dollars!</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-67550025706621646362009-07-23T13:39:00.008-04:002009-07-23T14:19:51.194-04:00Why no upgrades to south Oshawa parks?---It's a function of theGENERAL VOTE...THAT'S WHY!<br><a href="http://newsdurhamregion.com/opinion/article/131578">REPRINTED FROM OSHAWA THIS WEEK</a><br />Jul 22, 2009 - 01:18 PM<br /><br />To the editor:<br /><br />Re: <a href="http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/oshawa/article/130771">Two Oshawa parks to get millions in upgrades</a>, July 19.<br /><br />Upon reading Friday's article regarding provincial funding for park renovations in the City of Oshawa, I was slightly confused.<br /><br />Why, when there are so many children who would benefit so thoroughly from a new park in the south of Oshawa, are millions of dollars being spent on upgrading parks in well-off areas of the city?<br /><br />I would like to give Mayor John Gray and council members the benefit of the doubt given that I am not familiar with their politics.<br /><br />Therefore, I will say that this must simply be an oversight.<br /><br />For surely, had the city realized the socio-economic benefits of choosing a park in such a location, they would have outweighed the city's need for a tourism boost.<br /><br />Once again, it just leaves me wondering, why?<br /><br />Bonnita Herriott<br /><br />Whitby<br /><br /><big><big><FONT COLOR="red"><u>Oshawa Speak's Editor's Comment:</u></FONT></BIG></BIG><br /><br />Everyone in South Oshawa must know that the city has plans to demolish The Civic and Harmon Park Arenas and potentially Children's Arena replacing these south end and central arenas with the new facilities in Oshawa's north end. They have already demolished North Oshawa Arena depriving those children in the most densely populated part of Oshawa from their arena to match their planned deprivation to children in South Oshawa. This is to be expected under the General Vote since Council members expect lower voter turnouts in the older and often poorer sections of Oshawa and thus feel no need to service these areas. They put all of their investments in the richer and higher voter turnout areas neglecting the needs of children most in need. <br /><br />Without ward representatives to fight for the rights of taxpayers in the South end, they will get shortchanged every time. <br /><br />No city council member lived south of King Street during Oshawa's 7 term experiment with the General Vote prior to 1985 while 8 out of 15 council members lived in the old Ward Six North of Rossland while 3 out of 15 members lived in one polling subdivision of about 100 houses at the East end of Regent Drive.<br /><br />Only the well-to-do areas get served under the general vote since that's where all politicians come from under that system. That's why the general vote is not used in any large city in Canada without the use of municipal political parties which are banned in Ontario.<br /><br />A city is often defined by its deprived areas which is still often Oshawa's general reputation which we have yet to completely shed from the past.<br /><br />The General Vote is widely used in the USA where every municipal jurisdiction is organized around Democratic and Republican Party Slates and Platforms which determine voter choices.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-67131854525077382062009-07-07T23:40:00.045-04:002009-07-12T18:39:44.281-04:00Oshawa's New City CenterCan't City Council Do Anything Right?><br /><big><big><FONT COLOR="red">City Council irresponsibly destroyed these</font></big></big>---<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SlTGVg4pklI/AAAAAAAAA8I/3wLEEX4xKmI/s1600-h/IMG_5926.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SlTGVg4pklI/AAAAAAAAA8I/3wLEEX4xKmI/s400/IMG_5926.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356123929757454930" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SlQvC0YOZnI/AAAAAAAAA7w/5sSadbbDpD8/s1600-h/IMG_5919.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SlQvC0YOZnI/AAAAAAAAA7w/5sSadbbDpD8/s400/IMG_5919.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355957582316856946" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><big><big><p align="center">To give us this $17 million</big></big><br /><b><big><big><big><FONT COLOR="red">Aluminum "Beer Can"</big></big></big></font></b><br /><big><big>as the focal point of our City Square<br>surrounded by existing architectural treasures<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SlSQFxjmLaI/AAAAAAAAA8A/X7fc4f2sKvg/s1600-h/Pic+new+city+hall.jpeg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 365px; height: 273px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SlSQFxjmLaI/AAAAAAAAA8A/X7fc4f2sKvg/s400/Pic+new+city+hall.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356064285726748066" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br>Prepare to be amazed<br>as Oshawa becomes Canada's laughing stock!</p></big></big> if we aren't already...what with<br />a) Cullen Gardens Miniature purchase<br />b) Only large city in Canada to use the General Vote without political municipal political parties which are outlawed in Ontario<br />c) <a href="http://www.motionbox.com/videos/4c9fdcb41510e6c3">The gall to hold a plebiscite and keep the question secret</a> from voters to avoid public debate and understanding of the issue<br />d) The highest property taxation in the GTA<br />e) Attempts to bar minors from purchasing spray paint and magic markers in a mistaken view that this will limit graffiti<br />f) Refusal to return Provincial Ombudsman documents and widespread distribution of these contrary to conditions by which the city was given the documents<br />g) Housing discrimination against College and University students<br />h) Discussions to demolish all existing older arenas except Donovan and replace them with new facilities in the North end thus depriving South end children from easily accessible arenas<br />i) A mayor who has publicly chastised councillors for refusing to implement 9% tax increases<br />j) Giant fee increases for the use of taxpayer owned recreational facilties that will insure the facilities are under utilized<br />k) A <a href="http://newsdurhamregion.com/article/120874">giant run up of public debt</a> with the continual explanation that it will not impact on the tax rate (I'd like to know where the money comes from if not from taxpayers!)<br />l) A Mayor who claims the city is well positioned to be a leading growth center in Canada despite problems in the auto industry, record city unemployment, and record city debt<br />m) Discussions to sell public park space at give-away prices to developers<br />n) Rationale for destruction of public buildings is that they need repair or are energy inefficient---if all governing bodies used the same rationale, they would destroy the Parliament Buildings, the White House, Buckingham Palace and every other public building in the world. You would also destroy your house every time it needed a new roof!<br />o) City Council allowed destruction of the historic Rundle House which they featured on their Historic Walking Tours Brochure<br />p) Wastage of staff time and tax resources on such publications as Restaurants of the Downtown and the many other publications distributed widely simply to put out political messages at taxpayer expense<br />q) The Mayor and a staff delegation going to England for a week for the Sustainable Communities Contest to learn that Oshawa was the third best place of our size in the world in which to live---brag about that to your friends<br />r) The numbers of taxpayer paid political ads at Remembrance Day, Canada Day, Easter, Christmas, Labour Day, Valentines, etc. <br />s) The<a href="http://newsdurhamregion.com/opinion/article/120880"> destruction of city council chambers</a> and "A" wing <a href="http://newsdurhamregion.com/article/121475">without firm prices and designs for the replacement</a>...also hiding giant expenses behind <a href="http://www.oshawa.ca/agendas/City_Council/2009/20090302/CM0905.pdf">two city hall projects</a>...the refurbishment of Rundle Tower ($10Mill) and the <a href="http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/oshawa/article/120747">reconstruction of Council Chambers and "A" wing (presently $17Mill)</a>....the only purpose of this giant expenditure was to provide larger and more palatial office space for the politicians!<br />t) A Mayor who calls some of his fellow council members "Stooges" <br />u) A council that is becoming increasingly dysfunctional and unproductive as it moves to the general vote where every incumbent will be opponents of every other council member<br />v) Oshawa's new downtown arena set to lose another $300,000 to be billed to the taxpayer<br />w) A Mayor arguing citizens must pay $1.50 per withdrawal for "the convenience" of having ABM's placed in public places...he believes everything should be a "profit center" for the city...be damned the public interest<br />x) The city's use of an accounting system that is designed to hide the true costs of all projects since no master accounting ledger is used to track costs for any project and costs for individual projects are hidden across a myriad of ledger sheets with inadequate descriptors to obfuscate costs.<br />y) The city's wastage of countless tax dollars and staff time in preparing useless flyers, brochures, press releases, etc. and entering meaningless contests like the "Sustainable Communities" contest where every entrant is a winner<br />z) We could cite further examples of ineptitude ad nauseum<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><big><big><FONT COLOR="red">How will the "beer can" fit with these?</font></big></big><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Click on following visual of buildings surrounding<br>"THE BEER CAN" for a larger view!<br /></u><br /></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SlQtFNVtSOI/AAAAAAAAA7g/RwMNKw8sG7M/s1600-h/City+Square+Collage+rev.+in+jpeg.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 299px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SlQtFNVtSOI/AAAAAAAAA7g/RwMNKw8sG7M/s400/City+Square+Collage+rev.+in+jpeg.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355955424353667298" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-12601415934866410682009-07-03T12:45:00.009-04:002009-07-03T13:02:52.067-04:00Taxes in Oshawa are too high<br>Reprinted from <a href="http://newsdurhamregion.com/opinion/article/129983">Letters to Editor, Oshawa This Week,</a> July 2<br /><br /> <br /><br />To the editor:<br /><br />When are the people of Oshawa going to stand up against the council and fight the taxes in Oshawa?<br /><br />I live in a 1100 sq. ft. home in north Oshawa and my taxes are $4,062 per year.<br /><br />This is outrageous.<br /><br />I tried to sell my home last year and every comment on why I couldn't sell was the amount of my taxes.<br /><br />My taxes are soon going to be more than my mortgage payment.<br /><br />Sandy Matthews<br /><br />Oshawa<br /><br /><FONT COLOR="RED">Editor's Comment---Perhaps one of the reasons why city council introduced the General Vote <span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>which guarantees their re-election is to protect their jobs</u></span> even in the face the huge public debts they've generated and their generally incompetent management of city business.</FONT COLOR="RED"><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-53204407111829797882009-07-03T09:41:00.005-04:002009-07-03T13:03:55.507-04:00City doesn't have track record to manage harbour<br><a href="http://newsdurhamregion.com/opinion/article/129582">Reprinted from July 2, 2009 Oshawa This Week</a><br />Guest Columnist Adam Mercer<br /><br /> <br /><br />Few people in the City of Oshawa would deny that the harbour should be well-managed by an agency with the money and clout to do a good job for the people footing the bill; the taxpayers of Oshawa.<br /><br />In a recent opinion column, Councillor Brian Nicholson essentially posed the question, "Why will the federal government not honour the recommendations of David Crombie and let the City of Oshawa manage the harbour or appoint a body to do so?"<br /><br />Seriously? Does council as a whole not understand this? Staying informed about events in the city over the last year or two should provide the answer to that question with little difficulty, but in case anyone has forgotten ...<br /><br />The City of Oshawa has a habit of making business decisions that don't make much sense to an outside observer. The Cullen Miniatures are still out there being stored at the expense of the City of Oshawa. There was never a plan worked out as to what to do with these things once the city owned them. If they cannot plan something like a $250,000 investment, why should they be handed millions in federal cash to do whatever they want?<br /><br />Taxpayers are also on the hook for something between $14 and $17 million for the cost of rebuilding City Hall. Oh, and there are all the other building projects that have happened in the city that were such a great idea we have had to remortgage the only asset the City has that makes money, our local PUC.<br /><br />If that were not enough to discourage anyone from allowing the City to take over the management of the harbour, the recent discord among members of council itself might be the straw that broke the camel's back. Between accusations made regarding hidden agendas, letters being hidden from public view, the now infamous "stooges" comment and the massive mishandling of the Ombudsman's report on some of the activities of council, it is hard not to see why there are questions about Council's ability to function on any major question. <FONT COLOR="RED">(Editor's Comment---Don't forget that Council actually voted to refuse voters information about the rationale, impact and ramifications of the change to the General Vote---a system not used in any large city in the country. If the general vote was better, don't you think it would be used widely?)</FONT COLOR="RED"><br /><br />That's especially valid when it concerns an issue as economically and environmentally sensitive as the harbour.<br /><br />From the Federal Government's perspective, it is looking to hire the caretaker of an important public asset in the Oshawa Harbour. Our council is confused because it is not even on the short list despite making poor business decisions, mortgaging the City's assets to spend more than it has and it seems incapable of unifying long enough for a photo-op.<br /><br />If we have to look for positive and important accomplishments, there is always the massive PR effort to bring Kiss to Oshawa.<br /><br />If you were hiring for an important position in your own company and someone dropped off a resume with highlights like that, would you even interview them?<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-53068370868601844832009-06-12T15:00:00.014-04:002009-06-14T18:45:28.499-04:00Welcome Back From Your Taxpayer-funded HolidayCouncillors<br>While Oshawa is suffering record unemployment and job losses, <a href="http://www.nationalpost.com/cars/story.html?id=1687800&p=1">extended GM summer closings</a> and the potential shuttering of GM, the highest taxes in the GTA, and a train wreck, many of our councillors have been holidaying at our expense in Whistler, British Columbia.<br /><br />They were there to attend the <a href="http://www.fcm.ca//CMFiles/EnglishFINALConference%20ProgramMay21LowRes1LDC-5252009-9779.pdf">June 4-8 National Conference of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities</a> (FCM). Of course they would have flown out a few days earlier and stayed a few days after to provide a decent holiday of sightseeing beyond what was provided by the conference. They would want to make the most of it as the holiday and expensive accommodation and transportation was paid for by Oshawa taxpayers who scraped together the tax dollars out of their empty pockets to pick up the politician's holiday tab.<br /><br />While in Whistler, our councilors no doubt took advantage of every learning opportunity provided by the conference.<br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">To be really valuable at this conference, our councilors should have organized a seminar showing their fellow municipal politicians across the country how to ram the general vote into their citizen’s throats as our city politicians did to guarantee their re-election and future attendance at many of these taxpayer paid FCM holiday junkets across the country. They could have counselled their fellow municipal politicians to design an incomprehensive plebiscite question designed to solicit the desired answer from unsuspecting voters and then keep the question secret to catch voters cold in the voting booth and refuse to provide voters information about the question so they could understand what they were voting for. They could have counselled politicians from across the country the strategy of how to introduce Oshawa’s new voting system that is not used in any large jurisdiction in the country. It goes without saying, of course, that the Oshawa’s system is not used because it is undemocratic, unrepresentative, and unaccountable, produces an unproductive council utilizing an incomprensible ballot with upwards of the names of 75-80 candidates for city-wide elections.</span><br /><br />Instead of this valuable service, no doubt our politicians took advantage to take <span style="font-weight:bold;">“study tours” featured on the conference program to the Olympic Sport Venues</span> including the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Whistler Sliding Centre</span> which will host the bobsled, luge, and skeleton events, the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Whistler Olympic/Paralympic Park</span> which will host the biathlon, cross country and ski jumping events, <span style="font-weight:bold;">Whistler Creekside</span> which will host the downhill skiing events, the <span style="font-weight:bold;">athletes village</span>, a slideshow/<span style="font-weight:bold;">video presentation about a 430-day Antarctic scientific mission</span> (not an Arctic Mission which would have at least been relevant to Canadians), and enjoyed a gondola or quad chair ride to the <span style="font-weight:bold;">top of Whistler or Blackcomb mountain</span> to enjoy a casual evening buffet of west coast cuisine and local entertainment (to insure our city politicians didn’t get bored, they were also able to traverse back and forth between the mountains in just 11 minutes on the new Peak 2 Gondola to enjoy the <span style="font-weight:bold;">breathtaking views </span>from both mountains), <br /><br />Additional tours with extra costs were organized to <span style="font-weight:bold;">Ancient Cedars Hike ($135)</span>, a driving and hiking tour to explore some <span style="font-weight:bold;">local waterfalls ($135)</span>, a <span style="font-weight:bold;">Squamish First Nations Cultural Centre Tour ($23)</span>, a <span style="font-weight:bold;">Zipline eco-tour ($145)</span>, a tree-trek canopy tour ($50), a <span style="font-weight:bold;">Whistler Village walking tour ($13)</span>, a <span style="font-weight:bold;">Lillooet Canoe tour ($135)</span>, an <span style="font-weight:bold;">ATV wilderness tour ($147)</span>, a <span style="font-weight:bold;">Whistler Art Tour ($33)</span>, and a <span style="font-weight:bold;">Horseback Western Ride ($100)</span>. By golly, with all of the banquets, tours, and activities, there was hardly any time for serious business. But hey, our tax dollars have to treat our politicians well don’t they?<br /><br />So you might be interested to know which of our city politicians took advantage of our largesse to entertain themselves on this junket. I shall find out for sure soon along with all of their expenses charged to city taxpayers but I did send an email to all city politicians asking if they were attending this conference, whether they were being accompanied by a spouse/significant other, and who was footing the bill. I also asked if they were going to write a report on this conference on their return documenting the new information they gleaned to introduce to Oshawa to provide taxpayer value for subsidizing the trip.<br /><br />I received responses from John Neal, Robert Lutczyk, April Cullen, Brian Nicholson, John Gray and John Henry, all of whom stated they were not attending the conference….Good for them!<br /><br />The others, <span style="font-weight:bold;">Nestor Pidwerbecki, Joe Kolodzie, Louise Parkes, Tito Dante Marimpietri, and Maryanne Sholdra</span> did not respond to my email. I must therefore <u>assume</u> one of two things…1) <span style="font-weight:bold;">They attended the conference</span> but wanted to keep it a secret as best they could, or 2) <span style="font-weight:bold;">They do not respect Oshawa taxpayers enough to respond to legitimate queries from them</span>. The truth will be discovered soon! I shall file a freedom of information request to establish who attended and the costs for each that has been billed to the Oshawa taxpayer.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-59590038329046577332009-05-01T18:14:00.008-04:002009-05-01T18:30:08.290-04:00City Lacks Openness with Voters<br><br>To the Mayor and Council,<br />c/o Oshawa City Clerk<br /><br />Hon. Dalton McGuinty,<br />Premier of Ontario<br /><br />Hon. Jim Watson,<br />Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing<br /><br />Mr. Andre Marin,<br />Ontario Ombudsman<br /><br />Local Press<br /><br /><br /><br />As a person who wants to follow the actions of city council and of the concerns of residents, I find it ludicrous that city hall buries citizen letters within the agendas and minutes in such a way that no interested citizen can see copies of letters directed to the mayor and council to read their concerns and suggestions. City Council is not a private club and all information should be open to the citizens except that which is allowed to be "private" by legislation. I find this council to lack openness in the extreme with the citizens.<br /><br />As an example of this, my letter addressed to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing in respect of suggested changes to the Municipal Elections Act is hidden as an appendix #9 at the bottom of the April 27, 2009 City Council Agenda and the lengthy letter is simply addressed as:<br /><br /> <blockquote><a href="http://www.oshawa.ca/agendas/City_Council/2009/20090427/2009-04-27_Council_Agenda_WEB.pdf">9. Bill Longworth submitting his recommendations to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing concerning the Municipal Elections Act, 1996, and recommending that Oshawa Council’s resolution to change to the general vote system of election be rescinded and that every municipality in the province with a population in excess of 40,000 people be mandated to elect their councils by the ward vote system of election. (All Wards)</a></blockquote><br />This may whet the appetite of interested ratepayers but there is no link for those interested to see the entire list of suggestions given when in the past such links were provided.<br /><br />Is this city council's attempt to limit public input and discussion to the administration of this city.<br /><br />Please provide me the bylaw addressing this change of policy or was it simply made by seat-of-the-pants political reasons to stifle citizens?<br /><br />It seems to me that we have two municipal GTA governments that garner national press exposure because of their inane actions...namely Oshawa and the City of Vaughan.<br /><br />I am requesting that the Oshawa City Council be more open with the citizens of this city who are charged with the responsibility of electing a vibrant council for this city. <br /><br />A vibrant democracy only thrives in the presence of information, something this city continues to deny.<br /><br />It was undemocratic for the city to place the election system plebiscite on the last ballot and then refuse to provide information to the citizens about the question because the<a href="http://www.motionbox.com/videos/4c9fdcb41510e6c3"> mayor publicly stated at city council, that it was not city council's responsibility to provide information</a> on a question they had asked...and this denial of information is continuing to this day.<br /><br />I am also sending this letter to the Premier, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and the Ontario Ombudsman with whom this city has recently been involved in a major conflict in <a href="http://www.ombudsman.on.ca/media/44240/oshawa2-en.pdf">refusing to return documents</a> belonging to his office<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-25102842761243810482009-04-04T19:48:00.040-04:002009-04-05T15:51:44.681-04:00VOTES submission to Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing who have called for public input into review of Municipal Elections Act, 1996<br><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Please note...click title to submit your own suggestions to minister</u><span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Hon. J. Watson, Minister<br />Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing<br />13th floor, 777 Bay Street<br />Toronto, ON M5G 2E5<br /><br />Dear Sir<br /><br />RE: <u><span style="font-weight:bold;">Review of Municipal Elections Act 1996</span></u><br /><br />Below I have enumerated a number of changes to be considered by your ministry as they review and revise the Municipal Elections Act, 1996. I have brought some of these suggestions to your attention in the past and have been assured that consideration would be given under this upcoming review. Some of the suggestions below are new but all have been precipitated by the City of Oshawa’s determination to revert to the “at large” or “general” vote which has proven very unsatisfactory to Oshawa in the past but does serve the politicians to secure their council seats until their death or resignation. Integral to all of the suggestions I have made below is the most basic democratic principle that, “the political system should serve the people…not the politicians.”<br /><br />Oshawa City Council has voted to revert to the general vote for the election of the 2010 City Council. At 160,000 population, this would mean that the constituency of each local and regional councillor for the city would be about twice the size of our Provincial and Federal Politicians. This makes no sense for a government that is supposed to be closest to the people.<br /><br />Bill 130, as it stands, allows all municipalities in Ontario to introduce the general vote unilaterally without possible appeal to any independent body as long as ward boundaries are not altered. Oshawa city council voted to revert to the general vote but to keep, but not use, their existing wards thus avoiding an OMB appeal. This was in all likelihood an unanticipated action by the drafters of Bill 130.<br /><br />Oshawa’s experience with seven General Vote councils prior to 1985 was:<br /><br /><blockquote>A) Vast areas of the city became unrepresented on council as all political power became concentrated in a few of the richer areas of the city (half the politicians lived in one defined ward while 1/5 lived in one polling subdivision in a second ward)<br /><br />B) Because of the concentration of political power to specific communities, city council became less inclusive, less representative and less diverse<br /><br />C) The general vote produced huge ballots (the last 11X17 inches with close to 100 names) making it impossible for voters to make informed choices. Because of the impossible task of making informed choices, voters tended to vote for the names they’d seen before…the incumbents. As a result, all change in political leadership over Oshawa’s 7 general vote councils came as a result of death or resignation of incumbents and not one incumbent was defeated out of the 107 possible seats over that period. Half the city was not represented in any of those general vote councils.<br /><br />D) Because political leadership could not be changed by the vote, an aging city council became less responsive and less accountable to voters and suffered from the lack of fresh leadership. Eight aldermen out of 14 were defeated under Oshawa's first ward vote.<br /><br />E) Name recognition, rather than service to the community, was basic to getting elected so grandstanding, backbiting, bitching and bickering became the method by which politicians tried to grab the press to enhance their name recognition. Council became a dysfunctional rather than productive place at the expense of the city’s health.<br /><br />F) Politicians tended to deflect their interests away from serving individual constituents instead favouring the interests of large groups with the hopes that these groups would encourage their city-wide membership to support the “friendly” politicians They also tended to favour the interests of potential political donors to help them fund their expensive political campaigns.<br /></blockquote><font color="#9900FF"><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>In light of the foregoing, we would ask the following</u>:</span><br /><br /><blockquote>A) That Oshawa’s change to the general vote be rescinded and that every municipality in the province in excess of 40,000 population be mandated to elect their councils by ward vote.<br /><br />B) That failing the mandating of ward voting for large municipalities, that legislation should be drafted allowing for the formation of municipal political parties including<br /><br /><blockquote>• Political party fundraising and reporting legislation<br /><br />• Political party approval and submission of slates of candidates to carry the party banner<br /><br />• Provision to have political candidates identified as independents or with a party on municipal ballots<br /><br />• Legislation allowing for private caucus meetings for party incumbents</blockquote>C) That Legislation be introduced limiting municipal politicians to two consecutive terms to allow for the introduction of fresh ideas and fresh leadership<br /><br />D) That municipal communication requirements be more rigidly defined to insure that voters are sufficiently informed re the ramifications of any plebiscite question being asked by a municipal council<br /><br />E) That municipal political campaigns be publicly funded consistent with the vote success of candidates as only incumbents at present are able to secure political donations. All such private donations should be prohibited and past surplus monies raised by politicians and kept by the clerk should be folded into city revenues or returned to the donors.<br /><br />F) That consideration be given to eliminating local councils and local civic administrations where the municipality is part of a regional government. Elimination of this redundant administrative duplication would generate significant cost savings to the municipal taxpayer with the upper senior tier easily accommodating the existing minor responsibilities of the lower tier<br /><br />G) That in the event that lower tier civic administrations are not eliminated, that local councilors in these administrations be eliminated as redundant.</font><br /></blockquote>I would be pleased to attend and provide input or testimony at any meeting or session where the issue of ward vs general vote is being considered or discussed or where further input is requested for any of my suggestions.<br /><br />In support of the above requests, we have provided links below my signature to some important supporting information appearing on our website www.oshawaspeaks.ca<br /><br />Sincerely,<br />Bill Longworth<br />Chair VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-serving politicians)<br />159 Spirea Court,<br />Oshawa, Ontario<br />L1G6S8<br /> <br />905 579 3971 (home)<br />905 809 1875 (mobile)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Links to Additional Supporting Information</u></span><br /><br />• <a href="http://www.motionbox.com/videos/d39dd8b11e195a">Bill Longworth, Feb. 5, 2007 presentation to City Council arguing for retention of ward voting in Oshawa</a> <br /><br />• <a href="http://www.motionbox.com/videos/1f9cdbb5191fe192">Bill Longworth, April 30, 2007 city council presentation re. problems with the general vote</a> <br /><br />• <a href="http://oshawaspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/06/every-oshawa-resident-has-to-watch-this.html">Mayor explains City Council has no duty to inform voters of plebiscite details </a><br /><br />• <a href="http://oshawaspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/09/open-letter-to-premier-of-ontario.html">Open Letter to Premier </a><br /><br />• <a href="http://oshawaspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/12/request-to-canadian-civil-liberties.html">Letter to Canadian Civil Liberties Association</a><br /><br />• <a href="http://oshawaspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/10/votes-files-complaint-with-ontario.html">VOTES files complaint with Ontario Ombudsman re Oshawa General Vote plebisite process</a> <br /><br />• <a href="http://oshawaspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/11/dangerous-precedent-for-ontario-voters.html">Letter to Editor of 250 Ontario newspapers explaining the need for change</a><br /><br />• <a href="http://oshawaspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/11/legislatative-changes-required-to-make.html">Letter to J. Gerretsen and Premier McGuinty asking for legislative changes to allow for municipal political parties if Oshawa’s General Vote Bylaw is allowed to stand</a><br /><br />• <a href="http://oshawaspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/02/open-letter-to-minister-of-municipal_03.html">Letter to J. Gerretsen quoting parts of 1985 OMB finding (M840053-March 21, 1985) directing ward vote to be implemented in Oshawa</a><br /><br />• <a href="http://oshawaspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/10/is-vote-joke-in-oshawa.html">Council votes to deny providing information to public about general vote</a><br /><br />• <a href="http://www.motionbox.com/videos/d39ad9b513165a">Bill Longworth argues for disbanding Oshawa Civic Administration and complete integration of entire Civic Administration into Durham Region to dismantle a redundant level of government and its unneeded expense to city taxpayers</a><br /><br />• <a href="http://oshawaspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/12/why-ward-system-is-bestand-why-then-did.html">Why ward system is best and why then did city council vote for the general vote </a><br /><br />• <a href="http://oshawaspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/09/open-letter-to-premier-of-ontario.html">Letter to Premier suggesting Province employ Oshawa’s “NO COST” plebiscite process to provincial electoral reform question</a><br /><br />• <a href="http://oshawaspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/04/councils-confused-vote-and-they-say.html">Council gets stymied by its own plebiscite-type question—the type of question they insisted was easy to understand and couldn’t possibly confuse the public</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-33263180855694602632009-02-18T15:42:00.008-05:002009-02-18T16:42:21.533-05:00City Councillor's Travel Budgets<BR><span style="font-weight:bold;">The following letter to the editor has been reprinted from Oshawa This Week with the author's permission<br /></span><br /><br />To the Editor,<br />Oshawa This Week<br /><a href="http://newsdurhamregion.com/article/119177">Feb. 9 Letter to the Editor<br /></a><br />In reading the February 6th article with respect to granting further tax payer's money for Oshawa council's travel needs, I think Oshawa tax payers should be outraged not just at increasing travel budgets, but even considering sending City personnel to Whistler, BC for a conference. <br /><br />Do these councillors not get it? In these difficult times, with layoff notices now counting in the thousands, council should be looking at reducing spending on things such as travel not increasing it. <br /><br />Councillor Parkes says it is essential to attend these FCM conferences because "...it's where they learn best practices and keep up on what is happening in other municipalities." Well, certainly these “best practices” from previously attended conferences does not seem to have benefited Oshawa tax payers as we now have the highest municipal tax rate in Canada. This has occurred due to this Council’s breath taking spending spree over the past number of years on arenas and recreational centers to the tune of $84 million, $10 to 12 million on the new City Hall and of course $250,000 on miniatures which are in City storage with no buyer to be found. <br /><br />Current debt load for the City is over $105 million with the interest cost alone projected to be over $12 million for 2009. Council has also drained most of their reserve funds and the Oshawa PUC, so nothing for a rainy day which everyone now knows is upon us. We are only weeks away from knowing what are tax increases are going to be for this year, which is going to be a struggle for many Oshawa families.<br /><br />If Councillor Parkes and her like minded colleagues want to know what is going on in other municipalities that have “best practices” in place, they should pick up a telephone and talk to them about it and not go on a tax payer paid boondoggle.<br /><br />James Sprague,<br />Oshawa<br /><br /><u><span style="font-weight:bold;">Other published Letters to the Editor by Mr. Sprague</span></u><br /><BR><a href="http://newsdurhamregion.com/article/102745">Councii has duty to be open with citizens<br /></a><a href="http://newsdurhamregion.com/article/102304">Council keeps making same mistakes</a><br /><br /><br><br><span style="font-weight:bold;"><U>Site Editor's Comment</U><BR><br />The Toronto Star recently published an <a href="http://www.thestar.com/article/587807">article</a> listing Poland as a week-long conference destination for some Oshawa politicians. This would allow city politicians of Eastern European Heritage free holidays to their homeland at taxpayer's expense. How long will city taxpayer's tolerate politicians deciding where they want to travel and then fabricating justifications for taxpayers to pick up the tab to get there? All international and out-of-Province Conferences should be barred from public funding. Taxpayers cannot afford to be constantly sending politicians on these junkets. Taxes are high enough without letting politicians holiday and party at our expense.<br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-87621718328216042802009-01-31T11:53:00.019-05:002009-02-02T00:44:36.020-05:00Too much Spin! Let's be real!Oshawa City politicians are forever stretching the truth about Oshawa...and we've had enough. Let's <U>make</u> it great rather than <U>saying</u> it's great. We'll all recognize our greatness when we achieve it.<br /><br />We're <a href="http://www.oshawa.ca/awards.asp">forever being told that Oshawa </a>is the <a href="http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/November2007/28/c4934.html">third best place to live </a>in the world, that it won design awards for our tax draining <a href="http://newsdurhamregion.com/article/96425">GM Centre</a>, <a href="http://www.oshawa.ca/whatsnew/MRLegendsAthleticBusinessAwardNov30.pdf">The Legends Centre</a> and the <a href="http://www.oshawa.ca/whatsnew/MRSOCCDesignexchangeaward.pdf">South Oshawa Community Centre</a>, has won marketing awards for its downtown restaurants, and that we'll a GDP growth leader in Canada through 2011.<br /><br />It's about time that city politicians got down to brass tax to work toward solutions to our problems rather than spending inordinate amounts of costly staff time in entering contests and spending our tax money on spreading the word through news services and image marketers. Action is far more important than words!<br /><br />Nowhere are we being told by city politicians that <a href="http://www.thinktorontohomes.com/blog/2008/4/3/taxes-hit-you-where-you-live.html">we have the highest property tax in the GTA</a>, that we have the <a href="http://newsdurhamregion.com/article/113947">highest EI spike </a>in Canada and that <a href="http://newsdurhamregion.com/article/114813">welfare rolls </a>are on the rise. No where are we being reminded of the <a href="http://www.thestar.com/News/article/267665">Cullen Gardens Miniatures fiasco</a>, the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOQ8oLcE8bA">sorry state of the downtown</a> and its <a href="http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/oshawa/article/118111">business failures </a>often attributable to city staff red tape, or to <a href="http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2007/10/31/police-raid-student-houses-in-oshawa/">raids on Durham College/UOIT students residences</a> to seek housing agreements. Nor are we reminded by the mayor of his pleas for increased taxing increases to cover wild council spending sprees. Lastly, we are not reminded by the Mayor and Council of our future city council voting system that is not used in any large city in the country. Worst of all, we are not told that council refuses to communicate important information to its citizen. When city council voted to hold a plebiscite on our municipal election system, they refused to tell us the details of the plan, what the change would do for the city, why we needed a change, or indeed what the question meant as <a href="http://www.motionbox.com/videos/4c9fdcb41510e6c3">the mayor said it was not council's responsibility to inform voters about the question</a>. They worded the question in a convoluted and difficult to understand way and kept it a secret until voters were confronted with it in the voting booth...Democracy requires an informed public and council strategized to limit public information. <br /><br />Oshawa City Council demolished North Oshawa Arena and City Hall because of forward maintenance costs. ><font color = "FFOOOO"><strong><u>They have now voted to demolish Civic Auditorium</font color="FFOOO"> with the same rationale</u></strong>. "These buildings are old," they argued, "and costly to maintain."<br /><br />City Hall's solution was to demolish the older buildings and replace them with new claiming significant savings. "Spend $50 million plus all the financing costs on <a href="http://www.newsdurhamregion.com/article/29251">General Motors Center </a>to save $1 million on Civic Arena repairs," they said, "and spend another $50 million plus financing costs on city hall rebuilding and refurbishing because "A" wing had a leaky roof.<br /><br />The North Oshawa Arena demolition, the City Hall demolition, and Rundle House demolition were all done by the same contractor who will undoubtedly be awarded the contract to demolish the Civic as well as <a href="http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:PYWn7WSqlkIJ:www.oshawa.ca/agendas/Community_Services/2008/04-08/CS-08-36_Facility_Rationalization.pdf+oshawa+ice+pads&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=ca">Harman Park Arena and Children's Arena </a>when they are scheduled for demolition.<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.motionbox.com/videos/0698ddb41e1de28f">questionnable decision to demolish Oshawa's real estate assets</a>, and strategically replace them with new arenas in the richer areas of Oshawa thus depriving children in the older areas of community ice facilities raises other questions. How is it that the one contractor is demolishing all of these buildings? Were they put out to tender? Were they tendered as a group even though council had not yet voted on their demolition? If they were were put out to individual tender, how come one contractor was able to come in with the lowest tender on all? Of course far more serious questions arise which I shall let astute readers identify for themselves!<br /><br />In any case, the common rationale given by politicians and staff for the demolition of the old and replacement with the new was to save on maintenance and repair costs. This would lead to a belief that maintenance and repair costs would be negligible on the new facilties which have been <a href="http://www.oshawa.ca/whatsnew/MRLegendsAthleticBusinessAwardNov30.pdf">widely acclaimed by the city for their quality of design and construction</a>. In reality, and not at all communicated to the public by the politicians, is in its first three years, the Legends Centre has undergone major repairs with the disintegration of terrazo flooring in some parts of the facility and at the present time the <a href="http://www.newsdurhamregion.com/news/oshawa/article/118238">walking track has been closed because of leaking roof problems</a>. This is the very problem politicians claimed of "A" wing of city hall. They voted to tear that down! I wonder now in the interests of consistency whether they will take the same decision on the Legends Centre.<br /><br />In the interests of "truth" and not the political "spin" justifying all of the expenditures, the pictures following will be proof positive about questions of "quality" and of the need for continuing maintenance and repair in even our newest facilities. If our newest facilities need ongoing maintenance and repair, what is the merit of the city hall argument to demolish and replace to avoid upkeep costs. It's like rebuilding your house when it needs to be shingled!<br /><br />But hey!!! This city hall "bomb and rebuild" rationale keeps us on top of the heap as the highest taxed region in the GTA. It justifies our motto, "Prepare to be amazed!"<br /><br /><strong><u>With such questionnable decision making and such wastage of citizen's hard earned tax dollars, <a href="http://www.motionbox.com/videos/4c9fdcb41510e6c3">no wonder that city council bunch wants to isolate itself from public accountability with the self serving general vote </a>that protects their jobs until they die or retire.</u></strong> <br /><br /><br><br><font color = "FFOOOO"><U>Our "best-design-in-North-America" Legends Centre from December to March each year</U>...I don't suppose city officials informed the judges of this major design flaw! They "snowed" them as they continually "snow" Oshawa taxpayers!</font color="FFOOO"><br><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SYSEaPRwurI/AAAAAAAAAwM/ckN4qz1Uaz0/s1600-h/IMG_5091.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SYSEaPRwurI/AAAAAAAAAwM/ckN4qz1Uaz0/s400/IMG_5091.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297504648007039666" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SYSEZ3EMD7I/AAAAAAAAAwE/pmTtklELYHk/s1600-h/IMG_5059.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SYSEZ3EMD7I/AAAAAAAAAwE/pmTtklELYHk/s400/IMG_5059.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297504641507659698" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SYTXAjNL9yI/AAAAAAAAAwc/m-M71oo9uEM/s1600-h/IMG_5124.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SYTXAjNL9yI/AAAAAAAAAwc/m-M71oo9uEM/s400/IMG_5124.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297595466145068834" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SYSEaCjG4WI/AAAAAAAAAwU/Ont3Uc2CCpY/s1600-h/IMG_5060.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SYSEaCjG4WI/AAAAAAAAAwU/Ont3Uc2CCpY/s400/IMG_5060.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297504644590133602" /></a><br /><br /><br><br><font color = "FFOOOO"><U>Our "best-design-in-North-America" Legends Centre has numerous cracks in the terrazo of the main hall</U>...This looks like a "quality issue in this 3 year old building...perhaps the floor was laid on an unstable base and will only get worse over time! This absolutely destroys the merit of Council's rationale about destroying older buildings to avoid maintenance costs! <U>Perhaps this defect continues under the ice pad floors!</u></font color="FFOOO"><br><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SYYT2caDolI/AAAAAAAAAw0/NWIwTCE6YKI/s1600-h/crack+in+terrazo+floor+4+jpg.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SYYT2caDolI/AAAAAAAAAw0/NWIwTCE6YKI/s400/crack+in+terrazo+floor+4+jpg.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297943837707313746" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SYYT12X6r5I/AAAAAAAAAws/nDuAPK3vkJw/s1600-h/crack+in+terrazo+floor+3+jpg.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SYYT12X6r5I/AAAAAAAAAws/nDuAPK3vkJw/s400/crack+in+terrazo+floor+3+jpg.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297943827497791378" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SYYT1FmGLnI/AAAAAAAAAwk/5R6g0_ZGfz0/s1600-h/crack+in+terrazo+floor+1.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SYYT1FmGLnI/AAAAAAAAAwk/5R6g0_ZGfz0/s400/crack+in+terrazo+floor+1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297943814403927666" /></a><br /><br /><br><br><font color = "FFOOOO"><U>Our "best-design-in-North-America" Legends Centre has already replaced this hallway of terrazo leading into the pool changerooms in this 3 year old building</U></font color="FFOOO"><br><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SYYT2q9MZZI/AAAAAAAAAw8/cfelsJ_x0es/s1600-h/Replaced+terrazo+floor.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SYYT2q9MZZI/AAAAAAAAAw8/cfelsJ_x0es/s400/Replaced+terrazo+floor.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297943841612785042" /></a><br /><br /><br><br><font color = "FFOOOO"><U>Our "best-design-in-North-America" Legends Centre has giant cracks in the concrete sidewalks leading to the main door</U>...This looks like another "quality issue" in this 3 year old building...perhaps the whole structure was laid on an unstable base and will only get worse over time leading to perpetual and major repairs...perhaps even demolition of an unstable building! Sections of this concrete sidewalk have already been replaced once again leading to a major defect in council's thinking...they wanted to avoid ongoing maintenance costs in older buildings by demolishing them and rebuilding...So much for that brilliant idea that has cost taxpayers plenty!</font color="FFOOO"><br><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SYYT3LnaQ3I/AAAAAAAAAxE/QEN87XrhHKk/s1600-h/Cracks+in+sidewalk.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SYYT3LnaQ3I/AAAAAAAAAxE/QEN87XrhHKk/s400/Cracks+in+sidewalk.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297943850379789170" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-91942847280440076942008-12-27T12:13:00.025-05:002008-12-27T14:42:45.744-05:00Why the Ward System is Best...and why then did city council want the general vote<br><br>Why did the general vote question arise out of the blue from the politicians? Why did council not provide information about the change to every household? Why did council not make this an important issue for public debate before the vote? What are the benefits to Oshawa of the change? What is the rationale for the change? Why did some council members press so hard for the change?...How will the change help Oshawa? Why? Why? Why? Too many questions….and not one answer!<br /><br />Why did council ask the plebiscite and not tell us any of the aforementioned details. The answer is easy...They wanted the general vote because it insures incumbent's re-election and so they designed a difficult and convoluted question that nobody understood, kept the question as quiet as they could to avoid public discourse and discussion, and kept the question secret to confront voters for the first time in the voting booth. Realizing that "YES" answers are more likely from those who don't understand the question, they designed a question where a "YES" vote favoured a rejection of the ward system...a system that no one had publicly faulted. They did all this because they wanted a system that served politicians rather than the people. <a href="http://www.motionbox.com/videos/4c9fdcb41510e6c3?type=sd">The Mayor even stated publicly that it was not city council's responsibility to inform the public </a>about details of the question council itself had decided to ask voters. Incredible! If council wanted a considered and accurate measure on the question, they would have provided information. Because council didn't provide the information, they showed they didn't care about an accurate measure of public opinion...they just cared about introducing a voting system that would serve their personal interests...and so they designed a strategy to fool voters into giving politicians the answer they wanted... Incredulous! <br /><br /><a href="http://www.motionbox.com/videos/d39edeb21e1f5a">Even more important--- politicians knew that there was no justification beyond their political self interest for asking the question and implementing the general vote and that no student of Canadian Municipal Politics could ever be convinced that it was best for large cities like Oshawa.</a><br /><br />In Niagara Falls, Ontario, during a 2000 ballot pebiscite, the majority of citizens voted in favour of retaining the ward system. But because less than 50% of eligible voters turned out at the polls, the city council was legally able to ignore the results of the plebiscite. They ignored the plebiscite because they favored the general vote. Here in Oshawa, politicians supported the non-binding plebescite result because they favoured a change to the general vote. In 1985, Oshawa City Council ignored a plebiscite favoring ward voting because they wanted to retain the general vote. How politicians handle non-binding plebiscites has nothing to do with democratically upholding the public will but rather what action supports Council's desired outcome.<br /><br />A citizen group in Niagara Falls developed and published a document listing 99 reasons to keep the ward system. <a href="http://www.guelphcivicleague.ca/E-bulletin_Links/29_Reasons_Why_Wards_Are_Better_Than_An_At-Large_System_In_Guelph">Excerpted here are 29 solid reasons that pertain to Guelph...and to Oshawa </a><br /><br />You may also be interested to read the rationale for suggesting the general vote for London by its prime mover, <a href="http://www.guelphcivicleague.ca/page.php?p=44">Councillor Rocco Furfaro</a>. You'll see that they are about as significant as Oshawa Councillor <a href="http://oshawaspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/02/group-blames-pidwerbecki-for-change-in.html">Nester Pidwerbecki's rationale for suggesting the plebiscite question </a>for Oshawa. <br /> <br /><strong>REASONS WHY A WARD SYSTEM IS BETTER FOR GUELPH (AND OBVIOUSLY FOR OSHAWA)</strong><br /><br />1. Every area of the city deserves equal representation. <br />2. The ward system encourages councillors to become fully knowledgeable about the area they represent. <br />3. Running in a ward makes councillors more accountable to neighbourhood voters. <br />4. The at-large system gives an unfair advantage to wealthy candidates. <br />5. There is not, nor has there ever been, any public desire to abolish the current ward system. <br />6. The ward system works. City council has never offered any substantial evidence to the contrary. <br />7. Your vote carries more weight in ward elections. <br />8. Without a ward system, local politics will become more remote than ever before. <br />9. The ward system prevents the undesirable possibility of having all councillors come from the same area of town. <br />10. A council elected at-large is more susceptible to being influenced by non-territorially based special interest groups. <br />11. The city is growing and becoming more diverse. A ward system can best accommodate these changes. <br />12. The ward system gives us a diversity of opinion on council. <br />13. Election debates are unworkable in an at-large system. <br />14. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that “the cream rises to the top” in an at-large system. <br />15. Citizens who need help know exactly who to contact and can hold them directly accountable at election time. <br />16. Printing election materials and lawn signs for over 60,000 voters would be cost prohibitive. <br />17. Guelph is too large for councillors to have intimate knowledge of every neighbourhood in the city. <br />18. Ward elections allow candidates to personally visit each home in the ward, to speak personally with a member of each household they seek to represent. <br />19. An at-large election system means more candidates and longer ballots. This makes it extremely difficult for voters to thoroughly consider the issues or ask questions of each and every candidate. <br />20. In a democracy, it is important to make informed decisions. Ward elections, by facilitating face-to-face interaction between voters and candidates, help voters become better-informed. <br />21. In the at-large system, every councillor will be competing against every other councillor. That makes it more difficult for incumbent councillors to build mutual trust and camaraderie. <br />22. Federal, provincial, and regional elections are all based on the ward system. <br />23. In a city of roughly 110,000 people, it simply makes sense to have city politicians take responsibility for neighbourhood problems through a ward system. <br />24. The trend in Ontario, in Canada, and across North America is towards adopting ward systems. <br />25. Your councillor likely lives, drives, walks, and shops in your neighborhood. This gives councillors a better understanding of neighbourhood issues and allows them to be proactive in dealing with neighbourhood problems. <br />26. At-large systems only tend to exist very small homogeneous communities. Guelph does not fit this criteria. <br />27. Under the at-large system, there is a greater possibility of having a homogeneous group of people representing a heterogeneous city. <br />28. Newmarket is one of only three medium sized municipalities in Ontario that has an at-large system. The City is currently in the process of adopting a ward system after citizens voted to dump the at-large system in a 2000 referendum. <br />29. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. <br /><br /><strong>There you go Oshawa...you don't have to take my word for it that ward voting is best in serving the people. The initiative for change to the general vote comes from politicians who know that it secures and guarantees their political futures. Their private rationale is for a "self-serving" election system but their publicly stated rationale always falls far short of a full load. Why? Because a return to the general vote cannot be justified on any grounds by any thinking person. There simply is no public benefit of the general vote...but there are a number of deficits which have been cited in various posts on this site.</strong><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-91299097004669548462008-11-12T14:59:00.023-05:002008-11-12T16:20:50.170-05:00City Hall is scramblinginto Big Brother"Thought Control" Mode<BR><BR><strong><U>VOTES REQUEST TO<BR>ADVERTISE IN LEGEND'S CENTRE</U></strong><br /><br />From: Bill Longworth <br />Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2008 4:29 PM<br />To: Percy Luther, City Hall<br />Subject: Price for attached Advertising sign in Legends Centre<br /><br /> <br />Please provide a price for a <a href="http://oshawaspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/10/our-new-ad.html">2 ft x 3 ft advertising sign</a> in the Legend's Centre identical in price and conditions to the Colin Carrie sign mounted there. The sign would have the message attached.<br /><br />Bill Longworth,<br />www.oshawaspeaks.ca<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong><U>CITY REFUSES VOTES POLITICAL ADVERTISING</U></strong><br /><br />Subject: Price for attached Advertising sign in Legends Centre<br />Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:26:22 -0500<br />From: staff name removed@oshawa.ca<br />To: bill_longworth@hotmail.com<br /><br /><br />Thank you for your interest in advertising at the Legends Centre. Your request to purchase a 2’ x 3’ sign at the Legends Centre has been declined as the proposed messaging does not meet the criteria outlined in the City Sponsorship, Advertising & Donations Policy. Specifically, your proposed sign is not “consistent with the vision, policies and goals of the City of Oshawa” and “The City reserves the right to reject any or all unsolicited sponsorships, advertising and donations offered to the City and to reject any and all proposals”.<br /><br />Regards,<br />Staff name removed<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong><u>MY RESPONSE TO CITY REFUSAL<BR>TO ACCEPT "VOTES" ADVERTISING</u></strong><br /><br /><BR><strong><em>CITY REFUSES POLITICAL ADVERTISING IN LEGEND'S CENTRE BECAUSE IT DOES NOT SUPPORT THE CONTENT BUT ACCEPTS POLITICAL ADVERTISING WHERE IT DOES SUPPORT THE CONTENT...THEY WANT TO CONTROL THE POLITICAL MESSAGES CITIZEN'S RECEIVE!<BR><br>THEY WANT TO BE YOUR "BIG BROTHER"</em></strong><br /><br /><br /><strong>...But controlling the message you receive is nothing new for city council...remember <a href="http://www.motionbox.com/videos/4c9fdcb41510e6c3">they asked you a plebiscite question about voting reform and then refused to tell you what the question meant</a>, why it was asked, or what its impact on the city would be....REMEMBER? </strong><br /><br /><br />To: Mayor and Council--RE: Price for attached Advertising sign in Legends Centre<br />From: Bill Longworth <br />Sent: November 12, 2008 2:57:46 PM <br /><br /><br />To the Mayor and Council,<br />To writer of correspondence above...name removed<br /><br /><br />Please forward a copy of the city's Sponsorship, Advertising & Donations Policy along with the date it was enacted along with any revision dates. <br /> <br />In previous communications on Oct. 3, 2008, you suggested that Colin Carrie's sign in the Legend's Centre adhered to the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards without any reference to the existence of any controlling city policy and thus implied advertising was acceptable if it applied to that standard. My sign, though politicians do not like its content, does conform with that standard.<br /> <br />In <a href="http://oshawaspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/10/more-spin-on-political-signs-in-city.html">my return correspondence </a>to you I stated that, and I quote from the letter, "I am also interested to know whether advertising in public buildings is subject to any policies developed by the city and approved by council. If there are no such policies, I would judge this to be a severe shortcoming in civic political and administrative leadership." I didn't hear from you and thus assumed, <u>and still do</u>, that there was no such city policy.<br /> <br />In my <a href="http://oshawaspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/10/correspondence-related-to-above-item.html">Oct. 2 response to Percy Luther </a>to a letter I received from him that same day, I questioned advertising standards in the city in which I stated, and I quote, "If there are no advertising guidelines, this demonstates a serious deficiency in staff and political leadership in Oshawa." Again, I was not alerted to any policy guiding advertising in city facilities. Again, I assumed, <u>and still do</u>, that there was no city policy.<br /> <br />Despite two queries from me about city advertising standards, this is the first indication that there "may" be a policy. The title of this document though suggests that it applies to the city sponsoring, advertising, and donating, rather than the public advertising in city facilities.<br /> <br />In a public building purchased, operated, and managed with city taxpayer dollars, if the city is going to allow any political advertising, then it cannot discriminate against political signage simply because city politicians do not like its content. That is like refusing political signs from a political party because city politicians and/or staff do not support the political party philosophy, and thus will shield taxpayer's from it, but do accept advertising from political parties favoured by city politicians and staff, and will confront the public with it. In a public building you cannot refuse my sign and accept a political sign from the area MP because his office/philosophy, as you suggest by accepting his advertising, is "consistent with the vision, policies and goals of the City of Oshawa.”<br /> <br />I await reconsideration of my request to advertise in the Legend's Centre and I await receipt of the city's Sponsorship, Advertising & Donations Policy. <br /><br />Bill Longworth,<br />www.oshawaspeaks.ca<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-32189090597982924262008-11-04T18:03:00.023-05:002008-11-05T11:57:32.623-05:00OSHAWA--the "Waning Backwater of Democracy:" The "Poster Child" for "Old Politics"<br>I am struck this historic day when full democratic justice comes to American when they elect their first African-American president.<br /> <br />This has not come easily. Freedom from slavery with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Us_civil_war">Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation</a> in the 1860’s, the right to sit in the front of the bus as tested by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks">Rosa Parks </a>in 1955, the <a href="http://www.thestar.com/article/529317 ">universal right to vote </a>which is still being fought on some fronts, The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964">Civil Rights Act</a> introduced by John F. Kennedy in 1963 which allowed for <a href="http://www.thestar.com/article/529957">African-American’s Right to Vote</a> and the achievement of high office by US Secretary of State Codoleeza Rice, and Colin Powell former Secretary of State and Chief of Defense staff. With <a href="http://www.thestar.com/article/529957">universal black suffrage</a>, black politicians flourished at all levels in Congress, the House of Representatives, as Mayors, etc. All these individuals won their success on the backs of those who had fought and died for democracy and the right to vote.<br /><br />Things are still not perfect, according to complaints received by CNN about voter and registration problems, and long lines that test the patience of voters, but they are improving. Democracy is improving.<br /><br />This is in severe contrast with what is happening in Oshawa. Our city politicians have implemented the general vote system purportedly on the basis of the <a href="http://oshawaspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/10/electoral-reform-wipeout.html">confusing plebiscite question </a>on the last ballot…a question that council asked but one they refused to inform the people about. <a href="http://www.motionbox.com/videos/4c9fdcb41510e6c3">According to the Mayor, city hall had no responsibility to inform voters about their question</a>. He said this was up to interested citizens to fundraise and inform citizens about the question city politicians had asked. <a href="http://oshawaspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/11/legislatative-changes-required-to-make.html">What they Mayor suggested was contrary to Ontario Municipal Elections Law</a> but nevertheless it was the Mayor’s spin on whose responsibility it was to insure an informed electorate.<br /><br />So while American elections are getting more democratic and both Canadians and Americans are fighting abroad right now to bring democracy and representative government to Iraq and Afghanistan, our political system in Oshawa is becoming less democratic, less inclusive, less accountable, less representative, less responsive and less productive with the general vote which only serves politicians by guaranteeing their re-election until their death or retirement. This will give us aging, tiring and less energetic political leadership in Oshawa.<br /><br />We will have a system not used in any large city in the country. If the system was a good one, wouldn’t it be used widely in the country.<br /><br />The system will be more costly to the Oshawa taxpayer as the huge constituencies of all city politicians will be twice the size of those of our Federal and Provincial Government Members. The size of their constituencies of 160,000 people will give rise to demands for <a href="http://www.oshawaexpress.ca/Archives/2008/October/October%2029/October%2029%202008%20-%20Low.pdf">larger office space </a>(which has already happened with $14 million “reported” changes to Rundle Tower of city hall with an additional $12 million reported reconstruction of the demolished city hall wings and council chamber), demands for bigger salaries in light of the bigger constituencies, and demands for bigger political office staffs to handle the increased workload politician's will claim.<br /><br />Over time, all of the politicians will come from a few of the richer areas of the city leaving most areas unrepresented and forgotten and the huge general vote ballots containing upwards of 100 names will make informed voting impossible. Name recognition will be the only determinant of election so politicians will backbite, bitch, bicker, and grandstand to steal the press as well as spend exorbitant amounts of your scarce tax money in sending flyers with their names heavily displayed to all residents of the city….they will campaign to promote their names at your expense.<br /><br />Wake up Oshawa…don’t let them use you like this!<br /><br />We fought and died for democracy and are still doing so in foreign lands today…but city politicians are reducing this most cherished democratic right…the right of a meaningful vote to determine our political destiny in Oshawa! <br /><br />We are told that elections are won and lost by the questions people are asking as they enter the voting booth. The question will be obvious when they are confronted by the huge general vote ballot and most will be confronted by a task they don’t understand, names they don’t know, and an impossible task of selecting those to serve them best. At that point…many voters will be resentful about those that brought about this system. Our job is to make sure that people know this critical information.<br /><br />So who is responsible for the general vote? Who are the politicians who have voted to serve their own interests rather than the interests of the community? Who are the politicians that must be defeated? <br /><br />The answer! Mayor Gray and Councillior’s Pidwerbecki, Kolodzie, Parkes, Henry, Sholdra, and Marimpietri. Make a list—these self serving city politicians must be defeated for robbing you of your guaranteed community representation on city council and putting their own electoral interests above your interests and those of your community.<br /><br /><strong><u>POSTSCRIPT</u></strong><br /><br />Having now just finished watching President Elect Obama's victory speech, I am inspired to write this addition to the story above that I wrote earlier today.<br /><br />We have entered a new era...with new lessons for those who would lead. It is clear that people now expect honesty and integrity from their politicians. It is a new age of people power...yes we can!<br /><br />People know and expect that power is <strong>IN</strong> the people--not the politicians! It is <strong>FOR</strong> the people--not for the politicians. Politicians are to <strong>SERVE the PEOPLE--NOT THEMSELVES!</strong><br /><br />With the support of Oshawa voters, we expect to be able to mobilize this message to remove all politicians from city council who voted for an election system not used in any large city in the country...<strong>simply to serve themselves!</strong><br /><br />Barack Obama's election ushers in a new political era with generous skepticism toward "old politics" and "old politicians". With your help we can rid city council of this cancer and bring in a new age. <strong>Yes we can! Yes we will!</strong><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-34987237281325830402008-10-30T18:01:00.005-04:002008-10-30T18:38:30.719-04:00Our new ad<br>Oshawa politicians have allowed the <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SOLv4gwB09I/AAAAAAAAAZY/46JoJLbxGcE/s1600-h/colin_carrie_sign_%40_legends_centre.jpg">Colin Carrie political sign </a>to be remounted in the Legend's Centre. Our correspondence re this issue has been posted on this site. Following this unprecedented policy by city council to allow the posting of political signs on public buildings which is undoubtedly unique in the country, I am asking city council to post our ad under the same conditions. The precedent has now been set and there can be no excuse not to post our sign under the same conditions and in the same kind of prominent position. We shall keep you posted!<br> <br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SQou2qhRdsI/AAAAAAAAAa4/YCtFqql4Pio/s1600-h/Votes+ad.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 292px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SQou2qhRdsI/AAAAAAAAAa4/YCtFqql4Pio/s400/Votes+ad.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5263070631197505218" /></a><br /><br />You can increase the size of our ad to a readable size by double-clicking it. <br /><br /><strong>Might we also suggest you print this sign off and give it to your friends and neighbours or give them the link to this posting.</strong> Oshawa voters have to know the impact of the new election system on the city, on our taxes, and on our political leadership. Oshawa voters have to understand why politicians imposed a system not used in the country. It is an American system that requires the use of political parties to make it work. Municipal political parties are against Municipal Election Law in Ontario.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-33209412845996334482008-10-26T21:45:00.009-04:002008-11-03T11:00:24.845-05:00Latest on Cullen Gardens Fiasco<br>Council is considering a <a href="http://www.oshawa.ca/agendas/Finance_and_Administration/2008/10-21/FA-08-232_Disposal_of_Cullen_Miniatures.pdf">staff report </a>at their upcoming meeting to consider awarding a sales listing to a local realtor. <br /><br />Their efforts at <a href="http://oshawaspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/10/does-council-have-no-respect-for-our.html">national advertising </a>in the past at a cost of over $6000 produced one offer to buy for $30,000...<a href="http://newsdurhamregion.com/article/111078">not much for the city's $234,000 expensive and ludicrous purchase</a> based on an "insider" estimate of value of over $600,000.<br /> <br />Obviously the dearth of prospective buyers indicate the real value of the collection to underscore the naivety of council's judgement. Councillors who voted for this wastage of taxpayer money and those supporting this extravagance in wastage do not in my judgement exercise wise enough judgement to warrant them with trusteeship of our hard earned tax dollars.<br /><br />You can search this blog on the left sidebar using the keywords "cullen gardens" to read our complete list of stories about this fiasco.<br /><br />You will find many additional links in the articles including <a href="http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/breaking_news/article/92887">news articles </a>of the sales attempts to date.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-67711068829817336012008-10-06T11:21:00.009-04:002008-10-07T17:14:13.074-04:00MORE "SPIN" ...on Political Signs in City Buildings Why Don't they just "COME CLEAN"... with the facts?<br><br><strong><U>EMAIL RECEIVED RE POLITICAL ADVERTISING ISSUE REFERRED TO IN LAST TWO POSTS</U></strong><br /><br /><br />Subject: RE: <strong>To The Mayor and Council RE: Colin Carrie Sign</strong><br />Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2008 17:02:25 -0400<br /><strong><br />From: TAdams@oshawa.ca</strong><br />To: <strong>bill_longworth</strong>@hotmail.com<br />Cc: Political and Media Mail List deleted<br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>Mr. Longworth<br /><br />The City’s facility advertising is in compliance with the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards. Our advertising agreement with Colin Carrie has been in place since March 28, 2008. Unfortunately during the term of the contract, the sign was not removed when the federal election was called. We have since removed the sign and thank you for bringing this item to our attention. </strong><br /><br />Regards,<br />Tracy Adams<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong><U>MY RESPONSE</U></strong><br /><br /><br />RE: <strong>To The Mayor and Council RE: Colin Carrie Sign</strong><br /><br />From: <strong>Bill Longworth </strong>(bill_longworth@hotmail.com) <br />Sent:October 6, 2008 11:18:55 AM<br /><br />To: <strong>Tracy Adams </strong>(tadams@oshawa.ca); clerks@oshawa.ca (clerks@oshawa.ca)<br />Cc: Political and Media Mail List Deleted<br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>Tracy Adams<br />Mayor and Council c/o city clerk<br /> <br />Your response does not at all address the issue of political or religious advertising on civic buildings which by convention is not done anywhere to my knowledge. The Canadian Code of Advertising Standards speaks to the truth, accuracy, and fairness of advertising and is quite general in addressing itself to print and media advertising and does not at all address any special institutional requirements. For example, it does not address the posting of signs in Parliamentary windows yet one MP who posted a "political" sign was ordered to remove it since "advertising" is not allowed in Parliamentary buildings. The Code defines the basic requirements of advertising. Carrie's sign in the Legend's Centre was accurate, fair, and truthful...but it was not appropriate for posting in a civic building.<br /> <br />Oshawa's decision to allow political advertising is akin to a church building posting advertising for sexual services. The Canadian Code of Advertising Standards does not prohibit advertising for sexual services and such advertising is found in many publications which speaks to the "class" of the publication and the readership it wants to attract. It is just not done in churches because it is not in good taste in those institutions and does not reflect the values of the organization. Similarly, I would think it a severe disgrace, for example, if advertising for condoms were posted in the Legend's Centre, despite the fact it is permissable by the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards and encouraged by public health policy. Judgement always has to be exercised and there is a time and place for everything.<br /> <br />Your response does not in addition address the question of who approved this advertising. I have asked whether this was a staff decision, whether it was approved by council, or indeed whether it was on the independent direction of a politician. I am also interested to know whether advertising in public buildings is subject to any policies developed by the city and approved by council. If there are no such policies, I would judge this to be a severe shortcoming in civic political and administrative leadership. <br /> <br />This is a serious matter and I am requesting full disclosure on this issue to me. In addition, I am requesting notification to me that political advertising will no longer be allowed in city buildings.<br /><br />Bill Longworth,</strong>www.oshawaspeaks.ca<br /><br /><br /><br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-47403144060297093222008-10-03T16:58:00.003-04:002008-10-02T17:24:27.655-04:00Correspondence related to Oshawa Public Buildings being used for Partisan Political PurposesIssue Described in Sept. 30 Item Below<br><br>Subject: Colin Carrie Sign<br />Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2008 11:49:18 -0400<br /><strong>From: PLuther@oshawa.ca<br />To: bill_longworth@hotmail.com</strong><br />CC: council@oshawa.ca; BDuignan@oshawa.ca; sbertoia@oshawa.ca; JConlin@oshawa.ca; KFeagan@oshawa.ca; JSkelly@oshawa.ca; SKranc@oshawa.ca; LKnox@oshawa.ca; TAdams@oshawa.ca<br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><strong>Mr. Longworth.<br /><br />I am responding to your email of September 30, 2008 concerning a sign at the Legends Centre referencing the Constituency Office of Colin Carrie. This is to advise that the sign was permitted at the facility under an advertising agreement between Colin Carrie and the City of Oshawa. In accordance with the agreement, the City has removed the sign for the duration of the federal election campaign in order that all candidates are treated in a fair and impartial manner. <br /> <br />If you have any further questions please contact me.<br /><br />Percy Luther</strong> <br />Manager, Records Information Systems<br />City of Oshawa<br /><br /><br />RE: Colin Carrie Sign<br /><strong>To: Percy Luther and The Mayor and Council </strong><br /><strong>From: Bill Longworth </strong>(bill_longworth@hotmail.com) <br />Sent:October 2, 2008 4:56:42 PM<br />To: clerks@oshawa.ca; Percy Luther (pluther@oshawa.ca)<br /><br /><br />Cc: jgray@oshawa.ca (jgray@oshawa.ca); mshouldra (msholdra@oshawa.ca); npidwerbecki (npidwerbecki@oshawa.ca); bnicholson@oshawa.ca (bnicholson@oshawa.ca); jneal (jneal@oshawa.ca); tdmarimpietri (tdmarimpietri@oshawa.ca); rlutczyk (rlutczyk@oshawa.ca); jkolodzie@oshawa.ca (jkolodzie@oshawa.ca); jhenry (jhenry@oshawa.ca); acullen@oshawa.ca (acullen@oshawa.ca); bduignan@oshawa.ca (bduignan@oshawa.ca); sbertoia@oshawa.ca (sbertoia@oshawa.ca); jconlin@oshawa.ca; kfeagan@oshawa.ca; jskelly@oshawa.ca; Sandra Kranc (skranc@oshawa.ca); lknox@oshawa.ca (lknox@oshawa.ca); tadams@oshawa.ca; Durham OCentral News Joe (newspaper@ocentral.com); news rogers 1st Local News Producer (debra.hutchison@rci.rogers.com); news Rogers TV Supervising Producer (chris.janusitis@rci.rogers.com); news@citynews.ca (mediareleases@chumtv.com); news@ctv.ca (news@ctv.ca); "news@oshawaexpress" M " <news@oshawaexpress.ca>; " news@oshawaexpress.ca " <jessica@oshawaexpress.ca>; " newsroom@durhamregion.com " <newsroom@durhamregion.com>; " newsroom@kx96.fm " <newsroom@kx96.fm>; " newstips@globaltv.com " <newstips@globaltv.com>; " newswatch@chextv.com " <newswatch@chextv.com>; " the Star Letters to editor " <lettertoed@thestar.ca>; " thenational@cbc.ca " <thenational@cbc.ca>; communications@seangodfrey.org; mikeshields@ndp.ca"<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>Mr. Luther...It is rather unusual that political or religious advertising should be allowed on public property since these are both topics of public disagreement. This advertising is quite different than regular advertising such as for fitness centers, insurance companies and agencies, or Campbell's Soup. There has to be a standard. Would advertising for strip clubs or for sexual or escort services be allowed as a simple advertising contract, for example, or is there some standard and guidelines? If there are no advertising guidelines, this demonstates a serious deficiency in staff and political leadership in Oshawa.<br /> <br />As this instance of political advertising is a first for Oshawa public buildings, I have asked who made the decision and have asked that this information be publicly communicated. Political advertising in our public buildings implies funding support but as I suggested in my previous message, this would never indicate the Federal Party or the MP involved. This political advertising in Municipal Buildings is undoubtedly a "first" for any municipality in Canada and so the public has the right to know how and why the decision was made. I have asked whether it was a decision made by a politician, a resolution of council, or a staff decision. If a staff decision, I ask whether the decision was bounced off any politician. I do not believe any competent staff would see it as a simple advertising contract as you suggest without alarm bells going off and wonder whether a FOI request has to be filed to get to the bottom of this issue.<br /> <br />I ask also the date on which the sign was mounted at the Legends Centre be provided to me.<br /> <br />In your email to me, you indicate that the sign was removed in accordance with the advertising contract and so I ask if such removal is referenced in the advertising contract, why was this condition of the contract not carried out immediately when the Federal Election was announced.<br /> <br />The fact that the sign has now been removed indicates that it should not have been placed there during the Federal Election and I still insist not at all, election or not.<br /> <br />I also wonder whether this advertising cost will be included on the election costs reported by the Conservative Candidate to the Election Expenses Commission at the conclusion of the election as it did appear on the Legends Centre wall for a significant portion of the Federal Election period. <br /> <br />Bill Longworth,</strong> <br /><br /><br /><br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-70858972506784527752008-09-30T23:06:00.011-04:002008-10-01T02:36:22.799-04:00Oshawa Using City Buildingsfor Partisan Political Purposes<br><br>To The Mayor and Council,<br />c/o Oshawa City Clerk<br /><br />Local Media<br /><br />Local Federal Candidates<br /><br /> <br /><br />I am distressed, concerned, and aghast that Oshawa taxpayer funded public facilities should be used for blatant politicking on behalf of any Federal Political Candidate or Party.<br /><br />The Legends Centre, funded by the Oshawa taxpayer, has a large metal political sign supporting Conservative Candidate, Colin Carrie, prominently and permanently affixed to the wall just inside the main entrance on the wall opposite the public library.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SOLv4gwB09I/AAAAAAAAAZY/46JoJLbxGcE/s1600-h/colin_carrie_sign_%40_legends_centre.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UuEm4XiFXok/SOLv4gwB09I/AAAAAAAAAZY/46JoJLbxGcE/s400/colin_carrie_sign_%40_legends_centre.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252023869610513362" /></a><br /><br />Anyone seeing this sign might reasonably believe Carrie, or the Conservative Federal Government, had a role in funding this facility for the Oshawa taxpayer. Indeed we all know that this facility was built at considerable expense solely by the Oshawa taxpayer, the highest taxed residents in the entire GTA. Indeed, even if the Federal Government was involved, the Government of Canada would be listed…not the party or the riding member.<br /><br />In any case, a significant proportion of Oshawa taxpayers do not support Carrie or his party and so it is radically unfair to use their taxpayer funded facilities to support candidates and parties that they oppose. By displaying Carrie’s sign, the City of Oshawa is publicly sanctioning him as our MP in Ottawa which is at odds with the viewpoint of many Oshawa taxpayers.<br /><br />Displaying a political sign, whether during a federal election or not makes a political statement that would not be made in any other public building in the country. Once again, Oshawa is living up to its motto, “Prepare to be amazed!”<br /><br />I request the details of how the decision was made to allow this partisan politicking on Oshawa Public Property. I am particularly interested in knowing whether this was a resolution of council, a decision of staff, or a unilateral decision of a politician like the mayor who was once President of the Oshawa Federal Progressive Conservative Association. <br /><br />I believe also that the individual(s) responsible should be publicly identified and disciplined for this gross lack of judgment, probably the only example of such lack of judgment in the entire country. <br /><br />I wonder, as well, whether the expense of this advertising and the cost of producing the metal plaque is being identified as an election expense on the part of the Conservative Candidate. I believe also that the offer for displaying Candidates signs should be made to all candidates if displaying political signs is now part of Oshawa public policy.<br /><br />Bill Longworth,<br />September 30, 2008<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-33823534781594610312008-07-19T19:32:00.026-04:002011-11-26T00:24:03.471-05:00Is Oshawa A War Zone?City Hall---Blow it up!<br />
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North Oshawa Arena---Blow it up!<br />
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Civic Auditorium---Blow it up!<br />
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Harmon Park Arena---Blow it up!<br />
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Children’s Arena---Blow it up!<br />
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The historic and architecturally significant Rundle House---Blow it Up! It doesn’t matter that it was featured on the city’s brochure, “Historical Walking Tours.”<br />
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We have political leadership in Oshawa that has a “Johnny-one-note” philosophy, “Blow it up!”<br />
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<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/J8gE8Ouc2cQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
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This council and their bureaucratic advisors are blind to any alternative except search and destroy. "Blow it up!"<br />
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There’s so much destruction of public facilities in Oshawa, it’s like we’re in a war zone! It seems Oshawa City Council is blowing up everything in sight and compounding debt upon debt in this most heavily taxed part of the GTA.<br />
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It seems we have more destruction of public buildings in Oshawa than you’d find in Afghanistan. We are in all likelihood approaching re-construction debts equivalent to theirs. And still the politicians continue to spend like drunken sailors. They spend millions to destroy our facilities rather than amortizing these same amounts into their future operating and maintenance costs.<br />
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And this crew of incompetents has protected themselves from public outrage being expressed through the ballot box by introducing the general vote to protect their political futures.<br />
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Let’s look at the reasons they’ve given for their decisions.<br />
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<strong><a href="http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/letters/article/102882"><u>City Hall</u></a></strong><br />
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<strong><u>The Spin</u></strong><br />
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We’re told that the roof leaks, we need a customer service center, and that the building is not handicapped accessible.<br />
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<strong><u>The Truth</u></strong><br />
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Politicians want more palatial office space for themselves and senior bureaucrats, more palatial council chambers, and a plaque listing their names for posterity on the project. <br />
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They claim ongoing maintenance costs while negating these costs in every building including brand new buildings. <br />
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These maintenance costs are insignificant compared to the rapidly escalating $14.5 million plus interest on the new construction. <br />
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The leaking roof (if this is true) and the accessibility issue are simple maintenance items. <br />
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While peeking in the customer service area while in city hall the other day, I didn’t see phones ringing off the hook but did see a lot of idle chatter in the minimally staffed department. When was the last time you phoned city hall? This is a glorified answering service which will result in calls being directed to departmental experts without any staff reductions in those sites. <br />
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As for the leaking roof, a Toronto Raptor game at the Air Canada Centre last winter had to be <a href="http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/286199 ">periodically interrupted to wipe up water </a>from roof leakage. <br />
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News reports say <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/2206106/Queen-refused-government-grant-because-of-2012-Olympic-Games.html ">Buckingham Palace </a>also has leaky roofs, peeling paint, and electrical and asbestos problems. Now, I wonder whether these problems are being repaired…or will did the powers that be follow Oshawa’s model and demolish and rebuild.<br />
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Even <a href="http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/463758">Parliament Hill is too costly for the taxpayers to maintain </a>and should be "blown up". Let's put Oshawa City Council in charge of making this decision for Canadians.<br />
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<strong><u>The Arenas</u></strong><br />
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The Civic, Children’s Arena, Harman Park Arena are all under study for demolition. North Oshawa Arena has already been demolished at a cost in excess of $1,000,000.<br />
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<u><a href="http://www.searchdurhamregion.com/links.php?q=oshawa%20arena%20closures&url=http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/oshawa/article/96812">The Spin</a></u><br />
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We’re told that we have a surplus of ice space in Oshawa and that the maintenance costs of the “old” buildings does not justify their existence.<br />
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<strong><u>The Truth</u></strong><br />
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An internet search shows the 51 <a href="http://www3.thestar.com/cgi-bin/star_static.cgi?section=sports&page=/sports/gta_arena_chart.html">City of Toronto arenas </a>average 42.6 years of age with five close to 60 years old, and there's not been a word about destroying any of these! <br />
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The Civic (1964), Harmon Park Arena (1970’s), Children’s Arena (1956), North Oshawa Arena (1960’s) are all “young” when compared with Toronto’s where they recently built their first arena in 30 years. <br />
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I was in Children’s Arena, Harmon Park Arena, and The Civic recently and noted their spotless and well maintained conditions. <br />
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These rinks are irreplaceable “neighbourhood” resources providing accessible recreation opportunities in these older areas for children less able to travel to out-of-area facilities. Political decisions centralizing arenas to the newer and richer areas (except for Donovan which is being preserved) are once again depriving children from South Oshawa and the densely populated Nonquon area the same opportunities as being provided to the newer and richer neighbourhoods.<br />
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For many years, vast areas of Oshawa were neglected under the General Vote Council and with the return of the general vote, politicians are now once again working to deprive vast areas of the city of community recreational facilities…in the very places they are needed most. Under the General Vote these areas will have no council representative to speak up on their behalf to insure that all areas of the city are serviced. <br />
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The most important point about arena facilities is that they should be strategically placed and equally accessible to residents of all parts of the city. <br />
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We are also the fastest growing part of the GTA and if we presently have surplus ice, this may not be the case in short order as the city rapidly expands. <br />
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And once again, raising ongoing maintenance costs for the older areas is a spurious argument since ongoing maintenance and opportunity costs accrue even to the newest facilities like GM centre (which generates losses of millions of dollars per year when interest expenses on its $45 million loan are topped up by the half million $ yearly operating losses).<br />
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Show me politicians anywhere in the country, if not the universe, who would level and rebuild their complete inventory of ice arenas in one fell swoop in a 5 or 6 year period and I will show you a bunch of fools unfit to govern.<br />
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If you are disturbed by Oshawa’s demolition of our arena facilities, you can <a href="http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/OshawaArenaClosures/signatures.html ">sign the petition to save Oshawa Arenas.</a><br />
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<strong><u><a href="http://www.heritageoshawa.ca/rundlehouse.php">Rundle House</a></u></strong><br />
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At a time when the world celebrates it’s history and heritage, it is abhorrent that we lose this treasure. Compare Oshawa’s main street with Port Perry, Port Hope, Unionville, Cobourg, and a myriad of others that <a href="http://www.heritageoshawa.ca/heritagewalk.html">treasure and enhance their image by preserving their architecture</a>. In Oshawa, we "blow them up" in attempts to replicate our embarrassing South Simcoe city entrance in other parts of the city.<br />
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I have been told on good authority by a sitting member of the city council appointed Oshawa Historical Society that city council could have easily saved this building by designating it a "heritage site" but that they didn't have the political will to do so. They bowed to the wishes of the hospital board rather than the interests of the city of Oshawa.<br />
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A number of alternative sites had been identified for the cancer hospice by interested parties and I have in my possession a letter*** from Victor Fiume, President of the Durham Region Homebuilder's Association which in a meeting with the hospital board offered to renovate the Rundle House suitable for the hospital use with "little or no cost" to the Hospital Foundation. Hospital Board members indicated they had no interest in saving Rundle House and thus the DRHBA funded an alternative project, a $400,000 renovation and major expansion of Hearth Place. (link to letter will be included once I arrange the letter to be scanned and hosted on the internet) <br />
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A photo video of all of these “bomb sites” is being prepared for posterity and will be appended to this story upon its completion. <br />
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We need reminders of the mentality of this council as we approach the next election when hopefully most of the bums will be turfed out of office.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5558542206873530380.post-48790512580427878292008-06-27T00:10:00.004-04:002009-04-04T17:07:50.718-04:00Every Oshawa Resident has to watch this video...The Mayor says city hall has no responsibility to inform citizens!<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" width="416" height="312" id="mbox_player_4c9fdcb41510e6c3"><param name="movie" value="http://www.motionbox.com/external/hd_player/type%253Dsd%252Cvideo_uid%253D4c9fdcb41510e6c3%252Caffiliate_name%253Dmotionbox" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullscreen" value="true" /><embed src="http://www.motionbox.com/external/hd_player/type%253Dsd%252Cvideo_uid%253D4c9fdcb41510e6c3%252Caffiliate_name%253Dmotionbox" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer" width="416" height="312" allowFullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" name="mbox_player_4c9fdcb41510e6c3"></embed></object><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Longworth
Chair---VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
905 579 3971</div>Site Administratorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10875957529020130816noreply@blogger.com0