Item 2 on tomorrow's Council agenda is the Community Improvement Plan .
The brilliant plan where home owners and business in town will cheerfully and generously pay increased taxes to provide grants and loans and tax relief to property owners within the Promenade Plan thereby revitalizing the down town and making it the pedestrian friendly hub of the community.
The report should be carefully read.
It's been in the works since it was adopted in September 2010. During an election campaign.
This year's budget includes $220,000. for the great give-away.
$148,000 of that was "obtained " from Smart Centres during the term before last.
Staff forecast the plan will require $200,000 from taxes in future years. No details of how that estimate came to be.
Also, applications in 2014 are expected to be handled by existing staff but additional staff are anticipated to be needed in 2015 and future years.
No numbers or details are available to indicate future cost of the new Department of Largesse Distribution.
Scrutiny of the report reveals no input from the Town's Finance department.
Manager of Strategic and Long-term Planning authored the report.
The goal of which y'all may re-call is to provide "an exceptional quality of life for all "
The same consultant who recommended the McIntyre -Hillary theme to Council is involved in this ambitious plan to re-distribute our wealth.
The total report is 81 pages long. The Section written by Manager of Long Range and Strategic Planning is only 6 pages .
The rest is the Consultants' work and has already passed scrutiny of the Economic Development Advisory Committee.
We'll talk about this again.
Monday 17 February 2014
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21 comments:
Aargh !
Enough already !
Ok...got myself a new box of tissues...This Town business news is just as upsetting.
Show me the new jobs this Council has created. & then we might be able to talk about spending more money to restrict businesses in Aurora.
I think you need staff .....and a shredder.
There is a six page report No. PL 14-015 and dated February 18, 2014, already signed by Marco Ramunno, Director of Planning & Development Services and Neil Garbe, Chief Administrative Officer and prepared by Anthony Ierullo, Manager of Long Range and Strategic Planning.
Just above the two signatures are the lines:
"PRE-SUBMISSION REVIEW
Executive Leadership Team - February 6, 2014"
Appended to the above report are pages and pages of filler prepared by Sierra Planning & Management, the same source of the Promenade Study and I would suspect, without going to look this up, the Hillary Heritage Park. The motto for Sierra is "ADVICE STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION"
They advise, they devise, they strategize, they organize. The only thing they don't appear capable of doing is finding the dollars for all of these scatter-brained ideas.
I can't believe that this company only received $25,000 for their most recent work. Based on the amount of words on paper and the number of pages, the photos, the charts, the maps, the befores and afters, it would not surprise me if the figure was four times that amount, or are these all phases of an ongoing strategy that will permit them to bill Aurora for the next ten years?
It is becoming obvious to me that the Clerk should have been retained at his full cost, as his work was essential to the functioning of the town. But there are a number of people in several departments at "Management" level whose sole preoccupation is dreaming up schemes to keep their department heads happy, and whose existence they hope and pray does not become known to the public. I would assume that these people, as "Managers" are all present on the provincial government "Sunshine List."
I challenge any sitting elected representative or staff employee to come forward with a cost study and benefit report that makes financial sense.
21:17 The cost study will be $20,000. The benefit report would be another $20,000. And one that would make sense?....I'm going to have to defer that request until legal advises. But if you pencil in another $25,000 it should cover it.
OMG Evelyn, at the Artic event I was informed David Hesrd is to teceive a Heritage Award sometime this week.Will the Mayor be the one presenting? Wow, the drama continues.
7:13
It will have to be the Mayor. That would be Interesting - to see how he goes from bad cop to good cop in such a short time.
If you take Yonge Street from Wellington down to Kennedy you get a fair number of businesses that are in the planned revitalization area.
Two fairly senior staff should visit each business and talk to the owner. Ask how business was now compared to five years ago. Ask what improvements to their building's front might be made so as to make it more attractive and thus possibly lure customers.
Ask what improvements could be made to the sidewalks, would trees and other plantings help, also benches. What about parking and general traffic as these affected their stores.
Would they be interested in receiving loans from the town at low rates of interest so they could improve their public faces? What about grants, outright free money?
I have the feeling from whatever discussions staff have had with the community these have been with a fraction of a percent of the merchants.
You don't have to be a genius to carry out the sort of program I have suggested above and you might actually get to know what is really involved, not some questionable consultant's study.
Evidently, self-promotion pays off.
11:14 At least he does not hide like yourself.
FYI 11:14 He asked the nominator to retract.
10:48
That would be the communications geniuses. Perhaps it should all be referred, deferred for a new Council to manage. This one seriously needs help with finding out what residents want as compared to what a select few want.
Who are the civilian members on the Economic Development Advisory Committee and what are their qualifications for serving on it?
11:14
Using anonymous is not self-promotion. There was just a friendly joke that you missed You are starting to shoot at shadows.
"Using anonymous is not self-promotion"
Duh! Thank you, Captain Obvious. Mr Hesrd (sic) isn't anonymous, not by a long chalk.
Cllr Humfryes in the chair. I can't recall how well she has done with meetings. It will be a bit frustrating as I have passed several meetings counting the # of times she says, " Absolutely " and tonight she might not say too much. A mixed blessing.
@ 15:36
What in blazes are you nattering about ? Mr Heard has nothing to do with the Community Improvement Plan.
Try keeping up, 17:18.
You know something ?
Aurora's streets are just fine except for the regular traffic tie-ups twice a day. Every town experiences such jams. That whole program is simply window-dressing. Not needed and not likely to accomplish anything,
Actually 14:33 He helps improve the community but exposing some of these jokers and their exclusion with our money etc.
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