"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

Saturday 27 December 2014

Nothing is free

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Love and Commitment Beats
All":

Can any one tell us how much Ms. Tyson is paid, and how much revenue the
gig will generate?
Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 27 December 2014 at  
08:29
*******************

The only two likely to know are the Mayor and Councillor Abel .The Culture Centre Board, in the negotiations for a new agreement allowed the town to appoint two members to the board.

Those two were it. The Mayor had been attending previously unbeknownst to anyone except the Board.

However the Board  did not agree to meet in public. They were using and spending half a million tax dollars but the taxpayer was not allowed to know their secrets.

The town also has the right to terminate the contract.

Nothing changed after the Mayor and Councillor  joined the Board. They kept the secrets as well.

Both would  know the cost of the gig. Ticket costs have to be public to be sold.

They could tell us they had a full house. But we would not know how many tickets were given away tok fill the house. They have all those friends.

They also solicit support from local business.

Imagine what it's like to be in business in Aurora. Every week a new non-profit organisation tagging them for a hand-out  .

The town does it too. That's how we are able to put on those special family events that are so  well received and don't cost the taxpayers a cent.


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is astonishing how many event tickets do get comped - there was one early event for an outfit in which there were probably about the same number of comped tickets as paid ones. Magna gets hit for every damn thing but so do small business owners in town.

Anonymous said...


I find it odious that our two most senior elected officials have been and continue to be a party to this secrecy.

This is simply unacceptable in a democratic society where the two used-to-death buzz words "transparency" and "accountability" are repeatedly uttered as being the only way to operate, with little relevance any more.

I would call upon the Mayor and Deputy Mayor to resign from this secret society forthwith and for the CC to provide to Council monthly operating statements of all financial transactions.

Its failure to do so would result in the immediate termination of the agreement between the parties and the CC could move into one of the adjoining buildings at a significantly reduced cost.

The town could then take back the building and turn it into the museum that was its original purpose and for which a $750,000 grant was obtained and a further $2,300,000 spent.

The new History Curator would then have the necessary space to create a splendid museum.

Anonymous said...

14:04, how's the weather in your version of Cloud Cuckoo Land?

Anonymous said...



14:04

Probably better than yours.

Anonymous said...

Actually 15:25 has a point! The idea is a pipe dream considering those 2 members of council helped draw up the plan and gave their seal of approval. The likely hood of those 2 having the courage to change a wrong is not likely.

Anonymous said...

@14:04
Someone should have asked about those secretive meetings - if they are still going on - during the election. Instead the opposition came up with easily deflected nonsense and lost badly.

Anonymous said...


It is only natural, and justly so, that "we the people" should question secret meetings when:

1. The mayor and deputy mayor are in attendance.

2. "We the people" are contributing cash and kind in excess of $500,000 per year.

Are (1.) above permitted to share the contents of these secret meetings with other members of council?

This is a case of smut and mould continuing to languish and no one appears to have the means to remove it.

At one time the deputy mayor led the motion to terminate the agreement but now he is embedded in it.

Anonymous said...

A "case of smut and mould," 19:56? Are they anything like hyperbole and codswallop?

Anonymous said...



21:04

I think they can both refer to some form of dirt.

Love your second word. Not seen often these days.