On March 8, 2006, we learned that- "The city will disclose what it has spent on Toronto lawyer David Estrin and his consultants to fight its border battles ...city solicitor George Wilkki said Tuesday...
Onorio Colucci, acting city treasurer, said billings related to Estrin and his associates are spread through the mayor's office and the city's legal department, requiring some effort to assemble.
"We have asked staff to put that together and will have that shortly," he said...
Mayor Eddie Francis said he has no problem releasing amounts related to Estrin's expenses."
Contrary to expectations, the bills must be HUGE!!! Over 2 months have passed and still no disclosure that I have seen. The adding machines in the City Finance Dept. must be working overtime to total all of the fees spread throughout the TWO locations.
Until those figures are released, I shall mark off each day on the calendar that I have set up on this BLOGsite. Actually, we probably should start a contest with the winner being the one who guesses the actual day.
My guess is May 23 ie after the Rail lands by-law hearing is over (but probably before the month-end invoice from David for the hearing fees for him, his associate and the expert witness) and after the informal roundtable meeting with various associations and the Governments on the border. There is a need to bury the bad news with lots of good news right before our big Birthday bash on the 24th!
A reader writes:
ReplyDeleteHere's the short answer: NEVER! The Mayor's office will continue to hide the real costs of Estrin/Schwartz by spreading it around in the "border file". For example, the Tecumseh meeting 3/23/06...did Estrin get his 500 an hour to sit there for 5 hours? How about Schwartz?
The new talking point from City Hall is "We've always been consistent on the border...". Laughable. The only thing they have been consistent about is the complete lack of transparency and reliance on spin and obsfucation.
Here's a good one, Joe Blog...The City paid X Millions for a plan whose stated "first phase", "fast track" "linch-pin" was the Schwartz Bypass...in Sam's report it states clearly that with or without a crossing at the central location, the bypass is needed immediately... For months we heard about the war-time urgency and community destorying back-ups and how every other community got their bypass, and how this was going to fix the problem etc. etc. Heard them mention the bypass lately? The bypass would have similar major impacts on Spring Garden and Bellewood subdivisions as the route being proposed by DRIC, so it doesn't really go with their new "consistent" stand on protecting residents...
Our only real hope is that someone will challenge the Mayor in November and atleast shine a light on City Hall's enormously wasteful and counter-productive posturing on the border file.