{"id":2479,"date":"2007-11-15T13:21:49","date_gmt":"2007-11-15T17:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=2479"},"modified":"2007-11-16T00:39:33","modified_gmt":"2007-11-16T04:39:33","slug":"lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/","title":{"rendered":"Lobbying for a registry: Exhibit B"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/118\/303287835_f75c5d3080.jpg?v=0\" style=\"width: 500px; height: 333px\" height=\"333\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/inquiry\/inquiry_site\/index.html\">MFP scandal<\/a> is Exhibit A in the case for a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/lobbying\/\">lobbyist registry<\/a> at the City of Toronto. Exhibit B was presented yesterday by <a href=\"httphttp:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/councillors\/kelly1.htm\">Councillor Norm Kelly<\/a>, who shilled for lobbyist Arthur Potts on behalf of a German streetcar manufacturer in a letter to TTC chairman <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/councillors\/giambrone1.htm\">Adam Giambrone<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/servlet\/story\/LAC.20071115.BARBER15\/TPStory\/National\/HYOntario\">According to<\/a> the Globe and Mail&#8217;s John Barber, Councillor Kelly sent the letter, co-signed by his colleagues <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/councillors\/stintz1.htm\">Councillor Karen Stintz<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/councillors\/digiorgio1.htm\">Councillor Frank Di Giorgio<\/a>, and edited by Potts, seeking a re-opening and amendment of the terms of the TTC&#8217;s request for proposals issued for streetcar purchases. Amending the terms of the RFP to Potts&#8217; specifications would allow <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vossloh-kiepe.com\/\">Vossloh Kiepe<\/a>, the German company that retained Potts to lobby on their behalf, to bid. Vossloh Kiepe needs the new terms because that firm doesn&#8217;t build entirely low floor streetcars, as the RFP demands. Vossloh Kiepe&#8217;s model has a series of stairs and ramps.<\/p>\n<p>While Councillor Stintz tried to stick to her story that more competition is better, she admitted to Barber that she hadn&#8217;t read the engineer&#8217;s report that cited significant problems with models built by Vossloh Kiepe. Among those problems are that the Vossloh Kiepe model was more likely to de-rail and would have insufficient power to climb the hills of Toronto.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s hard to believe that anyone thinking in the public interest would actually propose that the TTC consider purchasing a model of streetcar more likely to de-rail and unable to climb Toronto&#8217;s hills. That leads me to believe that maybe Kelly and Stintz weren&#8217;t thinking in the public interest when they signed the letter to Giambrone. And the City&#8217;s database listing election campaign donors doesn&#8217;t make me think differently. According to the City&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/app.toronto.ca\/EFD\/search.do\">web site<\/a>, Potts, who was also mayoral candidate Stephen LeDrew&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Stephen_LeDrew\">campaign manager<\/a>, was a donor to both Kelly and Stintz in the 2006 election. Although the donations were fairly small ($150 and $200 respectively), if this isn&#8217;t an example of bought influence trumping the public interest, it certainly looks like it.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately Giambrone wouldn&#8217;t have any of it and backed his more than competent engineer. End of story. Vossloh Kiepe is <em>fertig<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>However, this reinforces the importance of a lobbyist registry. Most decisions that lobbyists are retained to influence at City Hall are nowhere near the scale of the streetcar contract and will never make the news &#8212; just look at how long it took for people to realize that MFP had become the albatross it was. To ensure those contracts that aren&#8217;t attention-grabbing in and of themselves have the proper scrutiny, it&#8217;s important to know who is influencing them. The only way to do that is through an open and transparent lobbyist registry. The good, honest and hard-working lobbyists (which is most of them) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.publicaffairs.ca\/popup\/letter.shtml\">agree<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But, you ask, Toronto has a lobbyist registry, doesn&#8217;t it? Not exactly. Right now it&#8217;s a <a href=\"http:\/\/wx.toronto.ca\/inter\/it\/newsrel.nsf\/7017df2f20edbe2885256619004e428e\/332aa090e7b78d658525727b00518d17?OpenDocument\">lobbyist registrar<\/a> who <a href=\"http:\/\/www.canada.com\/nationalpost\/news\/toronto\/story.html?id=ee173bca-a5bb-4371-8938-cb89d0264dd4\">doesn&#8217;t have the money for a registry<\/a>. On a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/councillors\/delgrande1.htm\">Councillor Mike Del Grande<\/a> motion, Council approved <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=2158\">barely one third<\/a> the budget the registrar requested to get the registry up and running (talk about knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing.) Now, although every component of the registry is prepared to launch, the registrar doesn&#8217;t have the money to make it operational.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, the Budget Committee saw the error of Council&#8217;s way and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.canada.com\/nationalpost\/news\/toronto\/story.html?id=a53be887-e3ed-48e5-9743-1cb30c3864ca\">recommended to Council<\/a> earlier this week that the lobbyist registrar&#8217;s budget be almost doubled to the $710,000 needed to make the registry run.<\/p>\n<p>Now it&#8217;s up to Council to not drop this ball&#8230;again.<\/p>\n<p><em>Photograph courtesy <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/wildsheep\/\">Sheep Chaser<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The MFP scandal is Exhibit A in the case for a lobbyist registry at the City of Toronto. Exhibit B was presented yesterday by Councillor Norm Kelly, who shilled for lobbyist Arthur Potts on behalf of a German streetcar manufacturer in a letter to TTC chairman Adam Giambrone. According to the Globe and Mail&#8217;s John<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Lobbying for a registry: Exhibit B&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4037,"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":[2,8],"tags":[629,7256,4309,3879,1815,7254,7253,408,1364,313,1694,1969,2452,6378,2469,7255,1435,4067,22085,6377,5203,7258,314,19,889,391,7257],"class_list":["post-2479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-transit","tag-adam-giambrone","tag-arthur-potts","tag-budget-committee","tag-campaign-manager","tag-chairman","tag-colleagues-councillor","tag-competent-engineer","tag-councillor","tag-engineer","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-john-barber","tag-karen-stintz","tag-lobbyist","tag-lobbyist-registrar","tag-mayoral-candidate","tag-mayoral-candidate-stephen-ledrews-campaign-manager","tag-mike-del-grande","tag-norm-kelly","tag-politics","tag-registrar","tag-stephen-ledrew","tag-streetcar-manufacturer","tag-the-globe-and-mail","tag-toronto","tag-ttc","tag-usd","tag-vossloh-kiepe"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lobbying for a registry: Exhibit B - 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\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lobbying for a registry: Exhibit B - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The MFP scandal is Exhibit A in the case for a lobbyist registry at the City of Toronto. Exhibit B was presented yesterday by Councillor Norm Kelly, who shilled for lobbyist Arthur Potts on behalf of a German streetcar manufacturer in a letter to TTC chairman Adam Giambrone. According to the Globe and Mail&#8217;s JohnContinue reading &quot;Lobbying for a registry: Exhibit B&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-11-15T17:21:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2007-11-16T04:39:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/118\/303287835_f75c5d3080.jpg?v=0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/\",\"name\":\"Lobbying for a registry: Exhibit B - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/118\/303287835_f75c5d3080.jpg?v=0\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-11-15T17:21:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-11-16T04:39:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/da656cba8e02a7aabb6c80c549dc7e72\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/118\/303287835_f75c5d3080.jpg?v=0\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/118\/303287835_f75c5d3080.jpg?v=0\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lobbying for a registry: Exhibit B\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/da656cba8e02a7aabb6c80c549dc7e72\",\"name\":\"Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73c02741f456d391a6979ebe8b8a600f?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73c02741f456d391a6979ebe8b8a600f?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/wire\/?author=37\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/adam\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lobbying for a registry: Exhibit B - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lobbying for a registry: Exhibit B - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"The MFP scandal is Exhibit A in the case for a lobbyist registry at the City of Toronto. Exhibit B was presented yesterday by Councillor Norm Kelly, who shilled for lobbyist Arthur Potts on behalf of a German streetcar manufacturer in a letter to TTC chairman Adam Giambrone. According to the Globe and Mail&#8217;s JohnContinue reading \"Lobbying for a registry: Exhibit B\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2007-11-15T17:21:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2007-11-16T04:39:33+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/118\/303287835_f75c5d3080.jpg?v=0","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/","name":"Lobbying for a registry: Exhibit B - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/118\/303287835_f75c5d3080.jpg?v=0","datePublished":"2007-11-15T17:21:49+00:00","dateModified":"2007-11-16T04:39:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/da656cba8e02a7aabb6c80c549dc7e72"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/118\/303287835_f75c5d3080.jpg?v=0","contentUrl":"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/118\/303287835_f75c5d3080.jpg?v=0"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/15\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-b\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lobbying for a registry: Exhibit B"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/da656cba8e02a7aabb6c80c549dc7e72","name":"Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73c02741f456d391a6979ebe8b8a600f?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73c02741f456d391a6979ebe8b8a600f?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/spacing.ca\/wire\/?author=37"],"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/adam\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4037"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}