{"id":23354,"date":"2011-10-31T11:07:24","date_gmt":"2011-10-31T15:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=23354"},"modified":"2013-01-21T13:12:11","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T18:12:11","slug":"lorinc-one-year-with-rob-ford-and-a-little-more-math","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/10\/31\/lorinc-one-year-with-rob-ford-and-a-little-more-math\/","title":{"rendered":"LORINC: One year with Rob Ford (and a little more math)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Spooked by a middle-aged woman who looked like she just flounced off the set of an amateur Wagner production, Mayor Rob Ford seems to have neglected the remedial math homework I assigned a couple of weeks ago in this space.<\/p>\n

Case in point: on Friday, Brother Doug helpfully emailed around a lengthy list of year one accomplishments \u2013 real and imagined \u2013 that claims, right near the top, that the Ford administration saved the taxpayers a whopping $899,000 by reducing councillors\u2019 annual office expense budgets from $50,445 to $30,000.<\/p>\n

To get $899,000, one multiplies 44 times the difference between $50,445 and $30,000 (brackets first). Alas, most councillors don\u2019t spend the whole sum \u2013 not even close, as we can all see from the\u00a0 councilor expense disclosure<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s tease apart this claim.<\/p>\n

Under the profligate ways of l\u2019ancien regime, the maximum councilor expense spend would be $2.2 million (that\u2019s 44 x $50,445 if you\u2019re following along). But as the spending disclosure report clearly indicates, the total expense outlay for 2010 was just $1.55 million (I\u2019m rounding). The maximum allowable under the new system of fiscal Fordism is $1.32 million. In other words, the real savings is just under $230,000, which is a much, much smaller number than $899,000.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Indeed, if one takes Ford\u2019s anniversary boast about office expense budgets on its face, one would be compelled to conclude that every councilor had maxed out their spending, including \u2013 shuffle\u2026mutter\u2026 \u2014 one Doug Ford of Etobicoke North.<\/p>\n

Oops.<\/p>\n

Seriously, the mayor\u2019s circulated list of achievements includes the headlining items (cancelling the vehicle registration tax, eliminating councilor snacks, making the TTC an essential service) and a few that have nothing to do with him (establishing a consultation strategy for a parks plan and a management strategy to contain the billioemerald ash borer). It also cites the strong-arm moves \u2013 e.g. the creation of Giorgio Mammolitti\u2019s childcare task force, which meets in private, and the \u201cforced\u201d resignation of the Toronto Community Housing Corp. board \u2013 that have given the Ford administration its well deserved reputation for bullying and opacity.<\/p>\n

The list includes a few bloopers \u2013 e.g., the short-lived tenure of the mayor\u2019s special advisor on the arts (i.e., the National Ballet\u2019s Jeff Melanson, who apparently enjoyed the gig so much he actually left the city<\/a>).<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s this chestnut about the Core Services Review: \u201c$25 million in savings\u2026by rationalization of service delivery in a manner which does not affect front line services.\u201d The city, it should be noted, paid $3 million for KPMG\u2019s premium advice, so the cuts to date appear to have cost the city 12 cents on the dollar.<\/p>\n

But what about the rest of it, Mr. Mayor? Aren\u2019t you the guy who boldly promised during last year\u2019s election<\/a> to slash $3-billion in gravy-train spending \u2013 which is just south of the quantum of the city\u2019s annual property tax revenue \u2014 over four years without touching service levels? By his own admission, Ford has achieved just 3% of what he\u2019d pledged to chop in the first year of his tenure. Given that those modest cuts are giving council a case of the willies, it\u2019s hard to see how he\u2019s going to come up with the remaining 97% without a whole lot of magical thinking.<\/p>\n

Here are a few realty-based year-one numbers to leaven his rah-rah entries:<\/p>\n

$55, 327.63<\/strong> \u2013 amount of fundraised cash he\u2019s paid lawyer Tom Barlow to fight a compliance audit of his campaign finances, notwithstanding his claim that he abided by those same rules;<\/p>\n

$110,008.65 <\/strong>\u2013 value of the goods and services Ford\u2019s campaign purchased from Deco Labels and Tags, the family company, during the campaign;<\/p>\n

$77,722.31<\/strong> \u2013 amount a Ford family holding company advanced to the campaign to pay for early expenses, despite provincial election rules that clearly state that such outlays must be paid from a bank account;<\/p>\n

$500,000<\/strong> \u2013 amount authorized by the Toronto Port Lands Corp. to pay for consultants\u2019 studies for a new waterfront plan, even though the agency\u2019s mandate is explicitly restricted to leasing and remediating city property;<\/p>\n

$13,362.25<\/strong> \u2013 amount of the waived City of Toronto fine levied against the Ford campaign for almost 500 violations of the election sign bylaw;<\/p>\n

$1,579.15<\/strong> \u2013 amount the mayor\u2019s office quietly paid Deco in March for 20,600 business cards, a purchase not subject to an open tender, as per city regulations, nor disclosed in the mayor\u2019s published expense reports until it came to light in a Globe and Mail access to information request;<\/p>\n

$0<\/strong> \u2013 the amount Brother Doug purports to spend on his office expenses, notwithstanding an explicit city policy that members of council must disclose on all office-related expenditure paid for with private funds.<\/p>\n

All these numbers do seem to be adding up to something significant, although that particular sum has nothing to do with keeping political promises.<\/p>\n

photo by Sean Connors<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spooked by a middle-aged woman who looked like she just flounced off the set of an amateur Wagner production, Mayor Rob Ford seems to have neglected the remedial math homework I assigned a couple of weeks ago in this space. Case in point: on Friday, Brother Doug helpfully emailed around a lengthy list of yearContinue reading “LORINC: One year with Rob Ford (and a little more math)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[94,2195,1349,17854,18742,14697,16543,18744,5239,313,18481,4686,1463,426,16989,227,7178,18741,18745,18661,19,17243,18743,391],"class_list":["post-23354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-2010-election","tag-bank-account","tag-cent","tag-compliance-audit","tag-deco-labels-and-tags","tag-doug-ford","tag-ford-administration","tag-front-line-services","tag-giorgio-mammolitti","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-jeff-melanson","tag-kpmg","tag-lawyer","tag-mayor","tag-national-ballet","tag-rob-ford","tag-sean-connors","tag-special-advisor","tag-the-core-services-review","tag-tom-barlow","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-community-housing-corp","tag-toronto-port-lands-corp","tag-usd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLORINC: One year with Rob Ford (and a little more math) - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/10\/31\/lorinc-one-year-with-rob-ford-and-a-little-more-math\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LORINC: One year with Rob Ford (and a little more math) - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Spooked by a middle-aged woman who looked like she just flounced off the set of an amateur Wagner production, Mayor Rob Ford seems to have neglected the remedial math homework I assigned a couple of weeks ago in this space. 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