The minutes of decisions taken by Municipalities serve a number of useful purposes – but illumination and elucidation of the matter under discussion is clearly not one of them.
On 5 March 2015 at York Region’s Committee of the Whole, Tony Van Bynen and John Taylor affected shock at the revelation that Newmarket had seen a derisory increase of 100 jobs over the five year period 2009-14 when the Region as a whole had added 77,000 jobs. They wanted Newmarket staff to do a double-check.
The story ignited quite the media firestorm. It was just as well I was sitting in the rafters, quietly observing things.
A report of that meeting is going up to York Region Council next week (26 March).
Anyone relying on the Minutes as written would have no inkling what was behind the obscure reference to “further consultation with local municipalities”.
If there is any merit in Minutes placing a decision in some kind of context (and I think there is), the Minutes could be amended by adding my words (below) in italics. I’ve spared the Mayor’s blushes by leaving out any reference to Newmarket.
12. York Region Employment and Industry Report 2014
Committee of the Whole recommends:
1. Receipt of the presentation by Doug Lindeblom, Director, Economic Strategy & Tourism and Paul Bottomley, Manager, Policy, Research and Forecasting.
2. Referral of the report dated February 24, 2015 from the Commissioner of Corporate Services and Chief Planner to a future meeting of the Committee to allow for further consultation with local municipalities who are invited to review the methodology used in the Report and to verify or recommend amending the number of jobs created by municipality over the period 2009-2014.
President Di Muccio
An interesting item on the agenda catches my eye. Former councillor Maddie Di Muccio, now reincarnated as President of the York Region Taxpayers Coalition, will be addressing the Regional Council meeting next Thursday (26 March) on municipal transparency and accountability. I am left wondering how this event will be recorded for posterity.
Elsewhere… I see that Newmarket councillors' expenses come up for scrutiny at the Town’s Committee of the Whole on Monday (23 March). Just my own view, but it seems to me President Di Muccio shouldn’t be financing personal vendettas using these “taxpayer dollars” we keep hearing about.
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