Fort City Hall

Council meetings are nothing more than rubber stamps under Mayor David Miller

By SUE-ANN LEVY, TORONTO SUN

Last Updated: 25th September 2008, 3:39am

Coun. Brian Ashton summed it up perfectly yesterday when he contended that the monthly council meeting would be better described as the "Mayor's Monthly Meeting."

Instead of a forum to debate new city policies and offer status reports on key issues, council -- under the steadily evolving dictatorship of (King) David Miller -- has become merely an opportunity for the mayor to brief councillors on "those selected projects" he considers part of his mandate, says the veteran Scarborough councillor.

"I don't think the majority of council are engaged in any of these projects in a positive, creative way ... so council just sits and waits to be briefed on what the mayor's doing on a day-to-day basis," Ashton said.

Granted the Politburo has been working feverishly as of late manipulating the message to ensure only "happy talk" emanates from Socialist Silly Hall. I also know that many councillors -- apart from those lapdogs who play the game the mayor's way -- feel increasingly impotent by the day.

As one City Hall insider noted yesterday, "it's a whole new world here" -- and not necessarily a "brave" one.

Still, after returning earlier this week from 18 days overseas, even I was surprised to see a council agenda so thin and devoid of any issues, let alone explosive ones.

After all, this is the first council meeting since the end of July. Perhaps it escaped the Mayor and Co.'s attention there was a major propane explosion in the Keele-Wilson neighbourhood last month that uprooted thousands of people from their homes and resulted in the death of firefighter Bob Leek.

Perhaps they hope we'll all forget as well that starting Nov. 1, we'll be paying a new tax for the privilege of having our garbage picked up by Miller's union buddies. Or that nearly a year ago we were presented with the mayor's latest scheme to revitalize Union Station, but haven't heard a word since.

Also this month, the regular meetings of two key standing committees -- the Licensing and Standards and the Parks and Environment committees -- were cancelled. The rest of the committee agendas contained nonsense.

In fact, as has become the habit, any issue considered remotely sensitive is sent to Miller's powerful executive committee (and even there it's slim pickings), where the socialist automotons know they'd better nod and approve the items without question, or face banishment to the Hinterland.

And yesterday Miller's key item was his highly hyped Tower Renewal Project -- billed as an "ambitious new" project designed to renew concrete high-rise residential towers and which the mayor claimed won't cost the city a cent. (Yep and I'll place first in the Scotiabank half-marathon on Sunday.)

When I happened up to the council chamber at 3:20 p.m. yesterday -- after council plodded along debating the item for more than three hours -- only 17 of 45 councillors were in their seats. The discussion continued for 10 minutes before the quorum bells were rung.

Coun. Mike Del Grande says he's heard from a number of colleagues that they've just given up. "They say, 'what's the point?' ... everything's controlled ... they're just filling a seat," he said.

He has not given up. Still he suspects the pile of motions he's put on the council agenda today -- several related to better handling of emergencies like the propane explosion -- will be either "ruled out of order" or sent for no further action to the mayor's office.

"There's absolutely been a centralization of decision-making and control (in the mayor's office) that the public and council should be concerned about," contended Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong, noting all major issues bypass standing committees and go directly to the executive committee, where they're blindly adopted and "rushed through."

Ashton agreed that when an issue does appear at council "it's a fait accompli."

Coun. Case Ootes said he can't remember when he last got any status updates on key issues like the garbage tax or Union Station.

"Everything seems to disappear into a big black hole," he said.

"Instead of solving problems, they (the mayor's team) have decided to sweep them under the carpet by making sure there is absolutely no debate ... by not letting them on the agenda," added Minnan-Wong, noting that city staff jealously guard information as well.

"We used to get answers at City Hall and now we just get a blank wall."