{"id":2516,"date":"2007-11-26T13:13:39","date_gmt":"2007-11-26T17:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=2516"},"modified":"2013-01-21T15:06:57","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T20:06:57","slug":"sponsor-a-councillor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/26\/sponsor-a-councillor\/","title":{"rendered":"Sponsor a Councillor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today’s Executive Committee agenda<\/a> is stacked. There’s\u00a0the capital budget<\/a>, union station revitalization<\/a>, increased funding to the lobbyist registry<\/a>, food vendor cart purchases<\/a>, Rob Ford’s spending habits<\/a>, discontinuing the purchase of Blue Jay tickets<\/a> and a proposal to endorse selling wine and beer at corner stores<\/a>, among other items to be considered.<\/p>\n

Buried beneath all of that is a report<\/a> from the Integrity Commissioner on sponsorships and donations to community events run by Members of Council. Under the current rules, councillors aren’t allowed to accept money for these events but that wasn’t clear to many (likely most) of them until more recently.<\/p>\n

In practice, community festivals, parties and barbeques have received sponsorship from local and not so local businesses forever. Whether it’s a grocery store donating hotdogs and burgers or a gas company providing the fuel for the barbeque, councillors rely on private funds to bring their neighbourhoods together.<\/p>\n

This makes the status quo essentially untenable. However, in searching out a new way forward, some very complicated questions arise and there are few clear answers. Commissioner Mullan<\/a> raises many of these questions but leaves them unanswered in his report to Executive Committee. At the conclusion of his report, the Commissioner also brings forward what I believe is an unsatisfactory recommendation.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Mullan recommends that while he and the City Clerk attempt to answer the questions he has posed, Executive Committee should recommend to City Council that the ban on contributions to community events run by Members of Council be lifted. This falls short for two reasons: First, Commissioner Mullan raises several key questions that obviously need an answer before the practice will be sufficiently transparent. Second, if Council is given the green light to suspend this rule, there’s no guarantee that they will implement any of the transparency mechanisms that should be part of a change to this policy.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the questions Commissioner Mullan raises.\u00a0How would\u00a0you answer?<\/p>\n

Should donations and sponsorships be limited to $500, the amount a gift to a councillor must not exceed from a single source over the course of a calendar year? How should donations and sponsorships be reported? Should there be different rules during an election year?<\/em><\/p>\n

To what degree should sponsorship be acknowledged?<\/em><\/p>\n

Should councillors run community events or should they be done through outside organizations (such as ratepayer groups)? If yes, what connection should a councillor have to the event?<\/em><\/p>\n

How should donations or sponsorships be accounted for? Should it go through the Member’s office budget? Should a new account be created? What happens to surpluses?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Family Day adds to financial burden<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Executive Committee agenda also includes a report<\/a> from Staff that says the cost of Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Family Day to the City of Toronto will be $2.3 million. This is mostly caused by services that are offered 24\/7 (EMS, fire, homes for the aged, etc.)\u00a0because statutory holidays are paid at a higher rate than regular days.<\/p>\n

As the saying goes…<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Toronto Star’s<\/em> Royson James went way over the line in a recent column<\/a>\u00a0that satirically called for the execution of every member of Toronto City Council. That column provoked the wrath of\u00a0Mayor David Miller\u00a0in the\u00a0form of\u00a0a harshly worded\u00a0letter to the editor<\/a>. As expected, James shot back with another column<\/a> in response to Mayor Miller’s letter in today’s paper. The lesson here is\u00a0found in\u00a0the adage “Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.”<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy <\/em>Three Triple R<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Today’s Executive Committee agenda is stacked. There’s\u00a0the capital budget, union station revitalization, increased funding to the lobbyist registry, food vendor cart purchases, Rob Ford’s spending habits, discontinuing the purchase of Blue Jay tickets and a proposal to endorse selling wine and beer at corner stores, among other items to be considered. Buried beneath allContinue reading “Sponsor a Councillor”<\/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],"tags":[3948,756,888,408,3216,425,22100,5134,7434,7437,7438,3915,2452,426,7435,2306,44,7436,227,339,19,894,341,391],"class_list":["post-2516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-city-clerk","tag-city-council","tag-commissioner","tag-councillor","tag-dalton-mcguinty","tag-david-miller","tag-editor","tag-executive-committee","tag-family-day","tag-food-vendor-cart-purchases","tag-gas","tag-integrity-commissioner","tag-lobbyist","tag-mayor","tag-mullan","tag-premier","tag-queens-park","tag-questions-commissioner","tag-rob-ford","tag-the-toronto-star","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-city-council","tag-toronto-star","tag-usd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSponsor a Councillor - 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\/26\/sponsor-a-councillor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sponsor a Councillor - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0 Today’s Executive Committee agenda is stacked. 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