{"id":2548,"date":"2007-12-05T16:20:56","date_gmt":"2007-12-05T20:20:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=2548"},"modified":"2007-12-05T18:12:50","modified_gmt":"2007-12-05T22:12:50","slug":"lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/12\/05\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-c\/","title":{"rendered":"Lobbying for a Registry: Exhibit C"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/252\/518007969_d1fe827de9.jpg?v=0\" style=\"width: 500px; height: 375px\" height=\"375\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t intend for this to become a recurring feature but it seems <em>Lobbying for a Registry<\/em> may be just that &#8212; at least until there&#8217;s a real <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/lobbying\/\">lobbyist registry<\/a> up and running.<\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s installment will either present a coincidence or the <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=2479\">beginning of a pattern<\/a>. Only time will tell which one it is.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/councillors\/photos\/kstintz.jpg\" align=\"right\" height=\"210\" width=\"160\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/councillors\/stintz1.htm\">Councillor Karen Stintz<\/a> demanded an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.insidetoronto.com\/news\/News\/NorthYork\/article\/33625\">apology<\/a> at the November 27 North York Community Council meeting after <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/councillors\/filion1.htm\">Councillor John Fillion<\/a> accused her and others who voted in support of a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/legdocs\/mmis\/2007\/ny\/bgrd\/backgroundfile-8559.pdf\">housing development<\/a> [PDF] in his ward (that he opposed) of favouring a lobbyist. Why was Councillor Stintz the first to her feet to decry Councillor Filion&#8217;s unparliamentary remark? Turns out, according to a well-placed source, the lobbyist on that file is the Lastman-era North York councillor <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/toronto_history\/councillors\/1998-2000\/berger1.htm\">Milton Berger<\/a>, who once represented what is now Councillor Stintz&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/wards2000\/ward16.htm\">Ward 16<\/a>. According to the City of Toronto <a href=\"http:\/\/app.toronto.ca\/EFD\/search.do\">election donation tracker<\/a>, Berger donated a total of $400 during the 2006 municipal election, all of which went to Councillor Stintz.<\/p>\n<p>While I wouldn&#8217;t draw the conclusion that a lobbyist&#8217;s influence dictated Councillor Stintz&#8217;s vote based on two $200 donations or on the unsubstantiated allegation of a spurned Councillor Filion, it underlines the need for more transparency in the government relations at Toronto City Hall. Thankfully, the City already makes it easy (though it is a relatively obscure link to find) to query an online database of election contributors. The next step has to be fast-tracking the lobbyist registry. It can&#8217;t come soon enough.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Miller Tames Office Budget Issue, For Now<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/councillors\/photos\/gmammoliti.jpg\" align=\"right\" height=\"210\" width=\"160\" \/>For a number of weeks, I&#8217;ve felt that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/mayor_miller\/index.htm\">Mayor David Miller<\/a> has been wearing far too much of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/councillors\/mammoliti1.htm\">Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti<\/a>&#8216;s disregard for the purpose of his office budget. While <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/News\/GTA\/article\/282265\">many councillors<\/a> need to do a better job accounting for the money they spend, Councillor Mammoliti&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/torontosun.com\/News\/TorontoAndGTA\/2007\/12\/05\/4708041-sun.html\">spending habits<\/a> are what get the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/councillors\/ford1.htm\">Rob Fords<\/a> of the world elected and keep words like &#8216;pig&#8217; and &#8216;trough&#8217; in the headlines. I don&#8217;t care if it is a &#8220;charity golf tournament,&#8221; there&#8217;s no reason in the world Councillor Mammoliti had to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.robford.ca\/expensedetails.asp\">charge five meals to taxpayers as part of organizing it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Then yesterday, Mayor Miller, who runs a <a href=\"http:\/\/network.nationalpost.com\/np\/blogs\/toronto\/archive\/2007\/12\/04\/city-to-examine-councillors-spending.aspx\">tight ship<\/a> when it comes to his own office budget, tamed this out of control news story when he announced that he asked the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/divisions\/city-clerk.htm\">City Clerk<\/a> to consolidate five mushy policies into one decisive document.<\/p>\n<p>Realigning the discourse on office budgets to one of policies that predate his mayoralty rather than individual lapses in judgement was a politically savvy decision by the Mayor. But now that His Worship has directed City staff to draw up a new policy, he&#8217;ll need to be ready for Round 2 of this debate when the policy goes before Executive Committee, then City Council. At that point, we will surely see motions to cut the amount allocated for office budgets and conduct random audits of councillors&#8217; spending in addition to several other sticky propositions.<\/p>\n<p>The only prediction I&#8217;ll make for the outcome of this debate is that Council will spend too much time debating this issue relative its importance.<\/p>\n<p><em>Photo of Members Lounge by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/angora\/\">Angora Bunny<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Photos of councillors courtesy the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\">City of Toronto<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I didn&#8217;t intend for this to become a recurring feature but it seems Lobbying for a Registry may be just that &#8212; at least until there&#8217;s a real lobbyist registry up and running. Today&#8217;s installment will either present a coincidence or the beginning of a pattern. Only time will tell which one it is. Councillor<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/12\/05\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-c\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Lobbying for a Registry: Exhibit C&#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":[2,20],"tags":[3948,756,408,425,5134,7532,3944,7534,6109,1969,2452,426,7533,7536,7535,416,7537,19,648,391,7538,496],"class_list":["post-2548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-urban-design","tag-city-clerk","tag-city-council","tag-councillor","tag-david-miller","tag-executive-committee","tag-filion","tag-giorgio-mammoliti","tag-job-accounting","tag-john-fillion","tag-karen-stintz","tag-lobbyist","tag-mayor","tag-milton-berger","tag-north-york-community-council","tag-online-database","tag-pdf","tag-spurned-councillor","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-city-hall","tag-usd","tag-world-councillor","tag-york"],"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 C - 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\/12\/05\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-c\/\" \/>\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 C - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I didn&#8217;t intend for this to become a recurring feature but it seems Lobbying for a Registry may be just that &#8212; at least until there&#8217;s a real lobbyist registry up and running. 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CouncillorContinue reading &quot;Lobbying for a Registry: Exhibit C&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/12\/05\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-c\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-12-05T20:20:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2007-12-05T22:12:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/252\/518007969_d1fe827de9.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\/12\/05\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-c\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/12\/05\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-c\/\",\"name\":\"Lobbying for a Registry: Exhibit C - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/12\/05\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-c\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/12\/05\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-c\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/252\/518007969_d1fe827de9.jpg?v=0\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-12-05T20:20:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-12-05T22:12:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/da656cba8e02a7aabb6c80c549dc7e72\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/12\/05\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-c\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/12\/05\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-c\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/12\/05\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-c\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/252\/518007969_d1fe827de9.jpg?v=0\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/252\/518007969_d1fe827de9.jpg?v=0\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/12\/05\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-c\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lobbying for a Registry: Exhibit C\"}]},{\"@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 C - 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\/12\/05\/lobbying-for-a-registry-exhibit-c\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lobbying for a Registry: Exhibit C - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"I didn&#8217;t intend for this to become a recurring feature but it seems Lobbying for a Registry may be just that &#8212; 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