It would appear that pressure to make City Hall more transparent is beginning to work – I received two reports (linked below) without having to ask for them via a Freedom of Information request. Now, having said that, the reports do not appear to breakdown the expenses, but I did not really ask for that. If you recall my request was for:
The Mayor’s office had expenses totalling $588,801 for 2006, up from $567,119 in 2005 but under the budgeted amount of $613,639.
Councillor’s and Mayoral travel expenses totalled $35,958 for 2005, including the Mayor’s $12,043 in travel expenditures. 2006 figures will be released to council, according to Mr. Collucci, in the next month.
Now I have no comments on the expenditures claimed at this time, but I do have some questions regarding travel expenses, which I sent back to Mr. Collucci, if they included lodging, dining, and other incidentals – I’ll keep you posted on that. Additionally, the Mayor’s expenses are not broken down, but again, I did not ask for this and have asked for this information.
Truth be told, I’m pleasantly surprised to receive this information so quickly. What I truly would like to see is this information posted on the City’s website, in a place easily accessbile, such as the Civic Corner, or City Financial Documents, as they do in Halifax and Toronto – but hey, one step at a time.
Do you see a difference?
January 29th, 2007, city council passed the following motion (note the bolded sections):
“That City Council ACCEPT the transfer of the operating entity known as the Capitol Theatre and Arts Centre (Windsor) along with the transfer of all capital and current assets of the organization to the City of Windsor for the purpose of preserving this community cultural asset; and
That the Chief Administrative Officer BE DIRECTED to work with the current Board and staff of the Capitol to bring about an orderly transition and dissolution of the operation with full disclosure to the Chief Administrative Officer; and further,
That the Chief Administrative Officer BE DIRECTED to perform due diligence on behalf of the City and bring back a report to Council regarding costs associated with the facility, options for it’s future use, as well as suggestions for a new Board, with input from the Arts Council Windsor & Region and the various Theatre/Artists groups who utilize the facility.”
Now note the “updated” motion:
“That City Council ACCEPT the transfer of the operating entity known as the Capitol Theatre and Arts Centre (Windsor) along with the transfer of all capital and current assets of the organization to the City of Windsor for the purpose of preserving this community cultural asset; and
That the Chief Administrative Officer BE DIRECTED to work with the current Board and staff of the Capitol to bring about an orderly transition and √dissolution of the operation with full √ √that the Board provide full√ disclosure to the Chief Administrative Officer; and further,
That the Chief Administrative Officer BE DIRECTED to perform due diligence on behalf of the City and bring back a report to Council regarding costs associated with the facility, options for it’s future use, as well as suggestions for a new Board, with input from the Arts Council Windsor & Region and the various Theatre/Artists groups who utilize the facility.”
This is a very significant change to the motion, so I checked to see if councillor’s had amended the motion during the February 5th meeting and found no such amendment – the only one made was “to reflect that Councillor Dilkens disclosed an interest on Item No. 1 respecting Brentwood instead of Councillor Brister.”
This amendment is significant because it places the issue of “dissolution” from being shared with the City of Windsor, to solely borne by the Capitol Theatre. So out of curiosity, I emailed the City Clerk, as I may have missed something:
“I am writing to ask when council gave approval to amend the minutes of the January 29th meeting regarding the motion pertaining to the Capitol Theatre (CR46/2007). When was this authorization given, and by whom?
Thank you for your assistance in this matter.”
Yet another issue to keep you posted on. If my suspicions are correct, Mr. Arditti, in his blogs “Don’t Cry for Windsor, Councillor Valentinis” and “Do you understand the game yet?” could very well prove to be correct.
UPDATE:
I received a response from Brenda Andreatta as follows:
“Mr. Schnurr: no council approval was required. Council’s Procedural By-law allows the Clerk to make such minor clerical, typographical or grammatical corrections in form to any by-law, motion or resolution and/or minutes as may be required for the purpose of ensuring correct and complete implementation of the actions of Council. The change to CR 46/2007 was made in consultation with the Chief of Administrative Officer.”
Well, the by-law does say that:
“25.8 The Clerk shall make such minor clerical, typographical or grammatical corrections in form to any by-law, motion, resolution and/or minutes as may be required for the purpose of ensuring correct and complete implementation of the actions of Council. “
I wrote back to ask if removing an entire line in a motion is considered minor, since this “correction” changes the scope and meaning of the motion. I also asked if councillors were made aware of the change.
We’ll have to see what the response is.
