Government and Media --Cat and Mouse (no offense to cats and meeces) (Mississauga Musings)

Video "Allow the Ontario Ombudsman into Municipalities!" Please click here to go directly YouTube

When you're just this citizen researching municipal governance it's vital to read what the media gurus have to say about municipal this-and-thats. You see, I don't know how it's possible to adequately research municipal government without also documenting what the traditional media covering city hall is goin' on about.

Put another way, if you've set yourself a goal to research everything about Cats, then your job ain't finished til you're an expert on Mice as well. Fact is, there are important discoveries that can only be had by those willing to do bum-backwards research.

BUM-BACKWARDS RESEARCH

You can learn a lot about the Sun by studying planets, asteroids etc etc --anything but the Sun.

You can learn a lot about sea turtles by studying ocean gyres/currents, seaweeds, tiger sharks etc etc.

The conclusions you might draw from bum-backwards research may be inferential about the Sun or sea turtles but that's not just OK, it triggers new questions you may not have posed otherwise.

A question like:

What can "just this citizen" learn about Municipal Government by studying Media?

A lot of people know that Toronto is having this fiscal meltdown. OK. They at least know about it now.

I want to quote Royson James, (Toronto Star municipal/city hall columnist):

"Days before he was re-elected mayor, David Miller said: "Our city is stronger, thanks to sound fiscal management and new partnerships with the federal and provincial governments to bring hundreds of millions of dollars of new investment in policing, transit, child care and the waterfront."

(Paragraph 3)

Torontonians returned Miller to city hall. But within months, citizens were brooding over a very different Toronto, one where community centres are to be closed on Mondays, libraries on Sundays, sidewalks left snow-covered. What went wrong?

How do citizens go from "The future – Toronto by 2010 – looked great" to "within months", the Toronto Reality hitting The Fan?

But for me there's an even bigger question.

How could the Toronto major papers go from reporting a "stronger" Toronto "with sound fiscal management" to asking "What went wrong?"

In yesterday's Blog, I posed the question:

See if you can spot it --an Unintentional Oxymoron.

Royson James writes:

"City manager Shirley Hoy welcomes the scrutiny as a chance for vindication. Staff have fulfilled 80 per cent of more than 800 recommendations from the city's independent auditor general. Still, people don't believe."

Well, a reader did spot the James' oxymoron --a Toronto Star reader. Not fooled by "city's independent" check out reader, Jeff Woods' "11th" suggestion. Here ya go.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Watching over politicians

Aug 27, 2007 04:30 AM

10 things Miller needs to hear

Ideas, Aug. 25

It's nice to see that someone in Toronto is thinking about the big picture with respect to the city's fiscal future. It's too bad, though, that such ideas are not coming from our elected leaders. Unfortunately, most municipal politicians in our city seem to have two serious flaws: They downplay problems, even when they are staring us in the face, and they are encouraged (if not required) to focus on their own individual wards, often at the expense of the city as a whole.

What Toronto needs is an oversight body that is not afraid to recognize and quickly deal with problems before they turn into millstones around our collective necks. So to Royson James' 10 suggestions, I would add an 11th: Establish an arm's-length, non-elected board of directors for the city, with a diverse group of members drawn from across Toronto (including the education, social services, emergency services, youth, immigrant, medical, legal and business communities) that has the mandate – and the power – to shine light on what our politicians don't want us to see, and provide leadership when our politicians won't.

Jeff Wood, Toronto

Mr. Wood almost gets it. Almost, when he suggests, "Establish an arm's-length, non-elected board of directors for the city, with a diverse group of members..."

I say almost because if this committee is established such that Toronto politicians/bureaucrats select and reject membership in its "arm's length" board of directors... well--

Who do you think would be selected as a City at-arm's-length "citizen representative"?

Candidate One Interviewee who says:

"By and large, I believe that Council has done a good job in difficult times. I'm convinced it'll just take some tweaking here and there and at the end of the day I'm as dedicated to moving our wonderful city forward just as much as any one of you."

or:

The "Nutbar":

"By and large, I believe in Freedom of Information like in real Freedom of Information. The first thing this city needs to do is stop destruction of its records, emails, working papers and even its scribbly notes. Second? Open 'Em Up, please."

Discovered another Citizen's Blog "BookLust" just this morning. Cartoon created by Patricia Storms. Loved her Citizen at City Hall cartoon!

Imagine. Another "just this citizen" wanting to check out a City's Budget... What a "Nutbar"!

Signed,
The (The first thing this city needs to do is stop destruction of its records, emails, working papers and even its scribbly notes) Mississauga Muse
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CITYCLERKagendasminutes_060
"We must employ every possible tactic to dissuade those who try to silence us with fear"
---The Mississauga News Editorial (2007-03-24)