[pud99]

 

[pud99]

Clr Perks got in a good dig at RoFo in today's meeting.

Integ. Comm. report on Augimeri/Cusimano dust-up:
The Integrity Commissioner recommends that:
1. Council adopt a finding that Councillor Augimeri breached Article XIV of the Code of Conduct.
2. Council adopt the recommendation that no sanction be imposed on Councillor Augimeri.
3. City Council authorize the use of the Council General Expense budget to reimburse the complainant for actual and reasonable costs up to a maximum of $5,000 as provided in s. 11(2) of the Complaint Protocol.

RoFo tries to amend:
2. City Council request that Councillor Augimeri pay the legal expenses incurred by the complainant, an amount not to exceed $5,000 as provided for by the Payment of Costs Provisions of the Complaint Protocol and as determined to be reasonable by the City Solicitor.

Perks quotes from judgement in RoFo's COI appeal, that Council had exceeded its authority by trying to implement punitive measures, and that overstepping is the only reason Rob Ford is allowed to be Mayor today. If RoFo truly believes Augimeri should receive this punishment, then he ought to admit that his own punishment was also correct and he should resign, now. Yay Gordo!

Dense-head Mindless Wrong also tried to amend, so that the reimbursement to Cusimano would come out of Augimeri's office budget. Lost.

(RoFo also lost; recommendations carried without amendment.)

Altho' he does not seem to take advice often or well, the "Mayor" did so here: His motion, if it had passed, would have resulted in Council requesting, not ordering, Augimeri to pay Cusimano. In other words, if it had passed the motion would have put Augimeri in the position of having either to pay $5,000 from her own pocket or decline to do so despite being requested by a majority vote of Council - all while side-stepping the issue in the COI case, where the Court of Appeal ruled that Council does not have the authority to order a member to make a payment, since Augimeri would have been free to decline to accede to a request.

ETA: Perks was free to try to spin it that the "Mayor's" motion asked Council to do what the Court in the COI case ruled Council cannot do, but that was not so.

ETA2: And speaking of spin, the Fords mischaracterized the $5,000 payment, and (judging by their tweets) a number of CH reporters apparently have been sucked in on that. The "Mayor" and SlumDoug go on about the $5,000 as if it is to cover legal fees incurred by Augimeri (and then claim self-righteously that they have paid their own legal expenses, in fictional amounts ranging from $500,000 to $1,000,000). That is not so. The payment will be made to Cusimano, to cover legal fees that he incurred by hiring a lawyer to help him press his complaint to the Integrity Commissioner. (If Augimeri hired a lawyer to help her respond to the complaint then she would have to pay those legal expenses out of her own pocket.)

 

[Soop]

Jonathan Goldsbie ‏@goldsbie 4m
Was about to head to City Hall. Saw Mayor's Escalade parked across street from my house. Guess I'm in no rush.

Jonathan Goldsbie ‏@goldsbie 3m
(Checking the license plates of every Escalade I see has finally paid off.)

 

[FraudNation]

Jonathan Goldsbie ‏@goldsbie 4m
Was about to head to City Hall. Saw Mayor's Escalade parked across street from my house. Guess I'm in no rush.

Jonathan Goldsbie ‏@goldsbie 3m
(Checking the license plates of every Escalade I see has finally paid off.)

What a creepy stalker!!!1! Borderline illegality. How dare he. /unclutches pearl necklace.

 

[pud99]

 

[pud99]

 

[Lucinda]

I <3 Goldsbie

~~~

Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie · 1:52PM

If Ford is indeed adjacent to my house, per my understanding of the rules, I'd be allowed to charge at him and steal his phone.

~~~

ETA: Nice scoop, pud.

 

[aghost]

I left council shortly after it started this morning (the sound of robbie's voice only played a small part in me having to evacuate). Did he leave the session?

 

[stoobiedood]

Altho' he does not seem to take advice often or well, the "Mayor" did so here: His motion, if it had passed, would have resulted in Council requesting, not ordering, Augimeri to pay Cusimano. In other words, if it had passed the motion would have put Augimeri in the position of having either to pay $5,000 from her own pocket or decline to do so despite being requested by a majority vote of Council - all while side-stepping the issue in the COI case, where the Court of Appeal ruled that Council does not have the authority to order a member to make a payment, since Augimeri would have been free to decline to accede to a request.

ETA: Perks was free to try to spin it that the "Mayor's" motion asked Council to do what the Court in the COI case ruled Council cannot do, but that was not so.

It's true that the motion was to "request" -- that distinction was the reason the city solicitor advised the speaker that the motion was in order. But Perks was right to expose that RoFo was hypocritically attempting to punish Augimeri. The intention is the same, whether the means is an unenforceable order or merely a request that could be ignored. It's the same degree of technical nicety that got RoFo off the hook in his appeal. Perks's point was that if RoFo felt a monetary punishment was good for Augimeri, it should have been good for the MINO.

Dense-head Mindless Wrong was even more obvious in speaking to his own amendment -- at least twice, he used the words "punish" or "punishment," and so did at least one other councillor during the debate.

ETA2: And speaking of spin, the Fords mischaracterized the $5,000 payment, and (judging by their tweets) a number of CH reporters apparently have been sucked in on that. The "Mayor" and SlumDoug go on about the $5,000 as if it is to cover legal fees incurred by Augimeri (and then claim self-righteously that they have paid their own legal expenses, in fictional amounts ranging from $500,000 to $1,000,000). That is not so. The payment will be made to Cusimano, to cover legal fees that he incurred by hiring a lawyer to help him press his complaint to the Integrity Commissioner. (If Augimeri hired a lawyer to help her respond to the complaint then she would have to pay those legal expenses out of her own pocket.)

A couple of councillors made the point that filing an integrity complaint is dead simple and does not require a lawyer's advice. Cusimano probably ran straight to a lawyer to talk about defamation suits and got advised to try the IC route first. If someone can't manage to shepherd an IC complaint through the process of getting an apology without needing a lawyer, you gotta wonder if they should be making decisions on $9B budgets. The thing is, Cusimano did break the election laws, in a big way; Augimeri overstepped in calling him a "criminal" in the strict legal sense that those laws are not part of the criminal code. If she had simply called him a law-breaker, I don't think he'd have had a leg to stand on. And for him now to be asking taxpayers to pay his (probably unnecessary) legal bills? Unsavoury gravy!

 

[pud99]

I left council shortly after it started this morning (the sound of robbie's voice only played a small part in me having to evacuate). Did he leave the session?

He was in and out of the chamber (e.g., he was not there when Perks was going at him), but generally he was there until the lunch recess.

 

[r937]

Check out how red his eyes are.

couple bowls of hash will do that

 

[Jado]

couple bowls of hash will do that

Lol was waiting for someone to say that

 

[Bob But Not Doug]

I know the pool is closed or whatever, but I'm going to guess that Ford gets 34.1% and barely squeaks out the win in a three-way split with Tory and Chow. My reasoning? People are stupid, greedy and have short memories (also, Tory sucks and Chow is running a terrible campaign). I also think a lot of people here are really suffering from wishful thinking about Ford's popularity.

Yes, this is an attempt at a jinx, but I am worried.

 

[JWBF]

View attachment 31935

DoFo's blood pressure must be through the roof. Check out how red his eyes are. Not good.

Could be some sort of chemical refreshment or crying because of all the victimization of the Ford family values.

 

[Videodrome]

I know the pool is closed or whatever, but I'm going to guess that Ford gets 34.1% and barely squeaks out the win in a three-way split with Tory and Chow. My reasoning? People are stupid, greedy and have short memories (also, Tory sucks and Chow is running a terrible campaign). I also think a lot of people here are really suffering from wishful thinking about Ford's popularity.

Yes, this is an attempt at a jinx, but I am worried.

That is under the assumption that Rob doesn't completely screw up before October 27. However, Tory could have another "faith based schools" moment as well.