{"id":7240,"date":"2009-10-15T14:16:16","date_gmt":"2009-10-15T18:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=7240"},"modified":"2013-01-21T12:54:44","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T17:54:44","slug":"how-to-succeed-in-advertising-by-taking-municipal-governments-for-suckers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/15\/how-to-succeed-in-advertising-by-taking-municipal-governments-for-suckers\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Get Ahead in Advertising (by taking municipal governments for suckers)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo by torontocitylife<\/a>.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Transit shelters require concrete pads (bases) underneath them. Astral pays for those. The garbage bins they’ve designed<\/a> also need concrete pads, when they’re not being installed directly onto a standard sidewalk. Astral \u2014 as per their contract with the City \u2014 is supposed<\/em> to pay for those, too.\u00a0 But perhaps due to the fact that a bottoming-out ad market has harmed the profitability of the overall deal, they’ve taken an attitude of “yeah…. no.”<\/p>\n

Just so there’s no doubt, here’s what the contract [PDF<\/a>] says:<\/p>\n

4.13\u00a0 The Company agrees, where required by the General Manager [of Transportation Services] and subject to obtaining all necessary Permits, to install and maintain, at its sole expense, concrete pads satisfactory to the General Manager when required and in accordance with the specifications attached as Schedule “A” to this Agreement as a base for Elements installed under this Agreement and to apply for all necessary Permits required to do so.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Schedule A is the first appendix to the contract and contains the diagrams and specifications for all the street furniture elements; Astral has fought against public disclosure of this and other sections, and I am expecting a decision<\/a> from the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner\/Ontario by the end of the month.)<\/p>\n

The cost of all the pads for Astral’s bins comes out to “no more than” $6 million.\u00a0 Yesterday, Council’s Government Management Committee adopted a report [PDF<\/a>] recommending that the City settle with Astral for an undisclosed amount.\u00a0 The Star<\/em>‘s Paul Moloney discovered<\/a> that this amount is $3 million.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Today should have been a happy day, as yesterday \u2014 Wednesday, October 14, 2009 \u2014 also marked the conclusion of the ten-year SilverBox contract that the Lastman administration bound the City into with OMG\/Eucan\/EcoMedia: companies that, respectively, had ties with the mob<\/a>, rigged public consultations<\/a>, and shook down arts groups<\/a>.\u00a0 The City has given EcoMedia, the current and final company, until December 31st to get the SilverBoxes off the streets.<\/p>\n

This deadline has, however, put the City in yet another hostage situation, as they’re once again too frightened to say no to a contractor who could potentially withdraw their services.\u00a0 That is, Astral won’t install any more bins until the City ponies up for the pads, and the City is anxious to resolve this “dispute” quickly, lest there be a gap between EcoMedia removing the SilverBoxes and Astral replacing them.<\/p>\n

Over the past decade, the City chose to let OMG\/Eucan\/EcoMedia repeatedly<\/a> renegotiate<\/a> the SilverBox contract for less and less money each time (and even more than once had to pay the companies millions of dollars due to supposed damage<\/a> caused by City snow plows) so as not to risk the companies suddenly\u00a0 ripping out all the bins.\u00a0 Similarly, Astral has now opted to get 3 million bucks out of the City by, uh, asking for it.<\/p>\n

The Star<\/em> got some great quotes:<\/p>\n

– “Astral thought it was additional work; the city felt it was included in the original contract. But we made an agreement that we would split the cost.” \u2014 Gary Welsh, General Manager of Transportation Services<\/p>\n

– Councillor Mike Del Grande, a committee member, said the settlement was sold as a small price to pay to maintain a good relationship with Astral.<\/p>\n

– “You can certainly conclude that there was a disagreement and there’s a proposed settlement, so obviously there was a difference of opinion.” \u2014 Alain Bergeron, Astral Media’s Chief Marketing Officer<\/p>\n

Now keep in mind that a large part of the argument for having privatized street furniture in the first place was that the City couldn’t come up with the few hundred thousand dollars necessary to purchase their own garbage bins once the OMG contract ran out.<\/p>\n

How many more times do we have to go through this?\u00a0 Denzil Minnan-Wong was right, and Mayor Miller was wrong.<\/a><\/p>\n

Jonathan Goldsbie is a campaigner with the Toronto Public Space Committee<\/a>, which he assures you is no longer a group “wrapped up in [its] own bureaucracy<\/a>.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo by torontocitylife. Transit shelters require concrete pads (bases) underneath them. Astral pays for those. The garbage bins they’ve designed also need concrete pads, when they’re not being installed directly onto a standard sidewalk. Astral \u2014 as per their contract with the City \u2014 is supposed to pay for those, too.\u00a0 But perhaps due toContinue reading “How to Get Ahead in Advertising (by taking municipal governments for suckers)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4078,"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":[21759,50,2],"tags":[11,13366,9489,13368,3143,13371,408,4351,4817,2347,13373,5216,13370,426,1435,657,13369,636,13367,416,13372,405,435,5887,391],"class_list":["post-7240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-infrastructure","category-politics","tag-ad-creep","tag-alain-bergeron","tag-campaigner","tag-chief-marketing-officer","tag-contractor","tag-councils-government-management-committee","tag-councillor","tag-ecomedia","tag-gary-welsh","tag-general-manager","tag-how-to-get-ahead-in-advertising","tag-jonathan-goldsbie","tag-lastman-administration","tag-mayor","tag-mike-del-grande","tag-miller","tag-office-of-the-information-and-privacy-commissionerontario","tag-ontario","tag-paul-moloney","tag-pdf","tag-services-2","tag-the-star","tag-toronto-public-space-committee","tag-transportation-services","tag-usd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Get Ahead in Advertising (by taking municipal governments for suckers) - 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\/2009\/10\/15\/how-to-succeed-in-advertising-by-taking-municipal-governments-for-suckers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Get Ahead in Advertising (by taking municipal governments for suckers) - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Photo by torontocitylife. 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