"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Wednesday 4 January 2012

The Twilight Zone

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Weirder and Weirder":

No one at that auction would read this blog, is my sense of what I hear around town.

******************

I guess we can assume from this comment, there was indeed a silent auction  to raise funds for the July 1st Parade. And that people at the auction which raised funds would not wish the fact to be divulged.

As we explore further, our findings become ever weirder

We know the  July 1st Parade event at the Legion  on March 27th,  was a fund-raiser. It was announced  from the Chair by the Mayor in a public meeting on camera and recorded in the minutes.

We have a record of  the CAO being directed by Council " to ensure financial controls are in place through the appropriate departments including authorisation to raise funds and that they be properly directed "

Despite that direction, we have a  later record of  CAO and  Treasurer denying authority for obtaining an accounting

Now we have a  comment that confirms there was a silent auction and those  involved would not choose to acknowledge the fact in this blog.

It's not a  surprise. No proceeds from the event were acknowledged from the event.

Instead the Town provided alternate funds from the treasury for the 2009 July 1st Parade.

In 2010, we upped the amount to  $12,000. and provided an additional $2,000 for the self-styled best volunteer to hire a person to assist in organising the Parade.

On March 24th when Council directed the CAO to be responsible for financial control of  town resources and other funds raised,the official responsible for ensuring council's direction is carried out, was absent. That was the Town Clerk.

The Treasurer; was on his way out without pleasant thoughts of his latter day experience with Mormac regime.

The new town solicitor was appointed that night and in his place at the meeting.

The motion to direct staff to control July 1st funds was likely scribbled  on a scrap of paper by Councillor MacEachern and passed, sight unseen, by Council.

It was regular practice in that Council. The newbies had no idea it was not regular municipal practice. Advice to that effect was likely greeted with a long-suffering glance and tone and promptly dismissed,as out of order.

Motions and amendments were regularly passed, sight unseen ,by council or staff.

The  Treasurer ,who later responded to my effort to obtain an accounting for funds raised under the auspice of the Town, with the statement,  he had no authority to inquire into  disposition of funds raised by the Christmas Dream Team,  AKA as July 1st Parade Sub- Committee of  Leisure Services Advisory Committee,  and no funds had been issued by the town to the Dream Team, was not a town town employee on March 24th 2009.

Even as I relate the facts,I appreciate the nightmarish quality of the story

I often refer to this period in the town's history as The Twilight Zone,

We have not yet emerged into the light.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Astonishing what damage a determined group of councillors, staff and hangers-on managed to inflict on the town. More so when you consider that there were only a couple of dozen who knew what they were doing. They took Aurora hostage and are still trying to do it again.

Anonymous said...

This is a quotation from a biography of George F. Kennan, possibly the most noted political strategist of the 20th century. He wrote what became the policy for the United States and its NATO allies, containment of the U.S.S.R., a policy that lasted for forty years until the U.S.S.R. broke apart.

It particularly applies to all democracies.

"Politics, whether within or among nations, would always be a struggle for power. It could never in itself be a moral act. It followed that government was "a sad necessity and not a glorious one." Politics might, from time to time, draft moral men into government, but even they would never be "wholly unsullied," for although an individual might remain uncorrupted by power, he would have to surround himself with others who were."

Anonymous said...

"I guess we can assume from this comment, there was indeed a silent auction to raise funds for the July 1st Parade."

I think that you cannot make that assumption. I believe that the poster is trying to say that those that were in attendance at the auction are not the same people that would read this blog. Meaning the attendees are more than likely supporters of Morris, St Kitts, et al and they would not read your blog, or if they did they would not post a reply.

Anonymous said...

You do mean " The Scheme Team ". do you not ?

Anonymous said...

Sometimes simple and direct is the correct route to take, Just ask Councillor Gallo about that auction in front of witnesses so that he cannot cut and run. He claims his religion does not allow him to lie { The Auroran }. It could be quite illuminating.

Anonymous said...

As you deduce, the silent auction was a highly clandestine affair. Participants were advised to assemble at various darkened locations around town, then blindfolded and transported to a secret location. One participant said the trip felt like it took about 20 minutes and that, upon arriving, she was led down a flight of stairs into what seemed like a basement. The walls and floor were concrete; the air had a musty odour. Their blindfolds removed, the bidders found themselves in a room that was totally dark. A muffled voice described each item being auctioned, whereupon each bidder was directed to write his or her bid on a steno pad held by a shadowy figure wielding a tiny penlight. When bidding was completed for all items, the participants were again blindfolded and transported back to their points of origin. Within a week, the winning bidders were contacted by phone (that muffled voice again) and told to place the appropriate amount, in unmarked bills, in an envelope and leave it in the notch of a tree near the band shell in the Town Park. The items were delivered to the winners' homes between 2 and 4 a.m. I trust this will confirm the suspicions of the conspiracy theorists.

Anonymous said...

These items can raise substantial funds.I do know an item donated to the Christmas Dream raised $550.00.

Anonymous said...

to Anonymous 4 January, 2012 8:06 PM

BRILLIANT!!!!!

I think that there are some here that would believe you however.

Anonymous said...

To put this into perspective, you have to look up the photos Christopher took on the evening of election day entitled 'working girls'. It showed Sher, P. Morris and the Jam Lady wildly soliciting drivers to vote for their ticket while their ' security guy' took pictures with his cell phone of 'enemies'. That was at the corner of Yonge and Wellington and there wasn't an elephant to be seen.

Anonymous said...

I have (locked away in a mason jar on the front steps of Funk and Waginells' home) a copy of the silent auction items and the reserve prices.

Interestingly I see the big ticket items include:

. sod from the soccer field re-turfed by artificial grass

. leftover cement from the chicanes in the NE quadrant

. leftover bits of the median removed to allow the left turn into Longos

. the hertitage plaque that was supposed to be installed at the Toyota dealership

. fences used to keep out the undersireables at the Jazz Festival

. empty scotch glasses from the scotch tasting at the Cultural Centre

. a beret worn by Chirs Ballard at the QYR fund raiser

. Christopher Watts' signed box of DOS 5.0 3 1/3" diskettes with a coupon to get 5 1/4" diskettes free

. a Dick Illingworth rope tie

Anonymous said...

Thank you 12:10 P.M
Now I know what to say when people ask what Morris and her minions accomplished.