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Morning Brew: Ford donation controversy grows, Perks says he'll file a complaint, TTC attacker named, ROM goes green, and the University line takes a March break
Rob Ford could be in more political hot water for soliciting donations to his football foundation from lobbyists. Coun. Michael Thompson says it's time the mayor handed over control of the charity, which raises cash for sports equipment, to someone outside city hall. A statement from the mayor's chief of staff Mark Towhey said the foundation has attempted to remove all lobbyists from its mailing list after integrity commissioner ruled in 2010 the practice is an "improper use of influence."
Also on the topic, coun. Gord Perks says he'll personally file a complaint if a member of the public does not. Perks says "no elected official should solicit money from someone who does business with the government. Under any circumstances, ever." Could this be the start of more trouble?
Toronto police have released the name of a suspect they're seeking in connection with a stabbing on the subway Wednesday. Cassim Celani Cummings is wanted for attempted murder, aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, and failing to comply with probation, after allegedly stabbing a commuter in the neck near Davisville station. Cummings was reportedly harassing riders before the attack.
The ROM could get a green border, complete with trees and urban furniture, if revitalization plans get the go-ahead. The landscaped area will follow Bloor St. east from Philosopher's Walk, round the corner, and down Queen's Park. The museum still needs to find sponsors for the project. Is this a good idea? Could the area use more green space?
The University line will be closed this weekend (Saturday and Sunday) for major signaling upgrades. The subway will terminate at Union and St. George until Monday at 6am. Shuttle buses will operate on the route. The line will be closed for on at least one weekend day for the rest of March.
Also in closures, the intersection of Spadina and Lake Shore Blvd. will be partially closed for construction work today through Sunday. The ramp to the eastbound lanes of the Gardiner will also be closed.
IN BRIEF:
- Scarborough fire leaves 5 homeless, kills 3 dogs [CBC]
- Toronto's mayor doesn't speak for the city on transit, says Metrolinx [Toronto Star]
- Phaneuf, Kadri lift Leafs past Isles, 5-4 in OT [CBC]
Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.
Image: "Endangered Species 64" by Dominic Bugatto/blogTO Flickr pool.
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Seriously, I do not care at all about Rob Ford, find him mediocre as a politician and his personality does him very little good. But this is right below the plastic bag tax as something I am even remotely concerned about. The Star needs to give up their little crusade and actually go back to respecting its own journalistic reputation forged over the decades.
I highly doubt their own writers are comfortable with this complete character assassination the editors have them spending their valuable time on. There are real stories that need reporting on, whatever happened to that? Did we as a society give the impression that we are not only tolerant, but rather encouraging when it comes to wanting even the tiniest morsel of potentially harmful dirt on a guy who was democratically elected and will have to face that electorate again in less than two years? Aren’t we rather concerned with all the legal time and money being spent on trying to remove a guy who has really done nothing to warrant being removed? Please, for the love of all that is good in our city, give it a rest.
Its about whether or not it is legal, and whether or not it is right. Elected officials should absolutely not be soliciting lobbyists for money. Lobbyists care only about whatever they are lobbying for, and if they feel that they can get a bit of an inside track to the mayors office by donating to his personal charity, they will.
This is not an altruistic practice, it is intended to gain influence with the mayors office.
but yeah, who cares!
But you should still care, because being the worst mayor in North America is not healthy for the city and unfortunately Ford continues to have the power to screw things up. See: Gardiner, transit, planning, urban livability, casino, future revenue sources, etc.
It's therefore not a "witch hunt" that the media (and no, it's not just the Star) can't ignore his failings. No one likes hearing about it anymore, but that doesn't make it go away.
The football foundation thing is a case in point. Let's face it, Ford supporters are not very bright. They were more so at the time of the election but the smart, true conservatives have long ago left the bandwagon. The Ford fans who remain are pretty stupid as far as cities and governance go. Such is democracy.
It's perfectly fine for politicians who have money to do charitable things with it. It's admirable in fact. Bloomberg in New York does a huge amount of giving (http://www.mikebloomberg.com/). But they are supposed to do it with their own existing money, not solicit for it. Any raising of funds by a sitting politician is rightly assumed to be a form of campaign fundraising. It cannot be otherwise. Look, here is an excerpt from Rule 35 of the US Senate Ethics Committee (which was the easiest to find political rulebook):
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1. (a)(1) No Member, officer, or employee of the Senate shall knowingly accept a gift except as provided in this rule.
...
3. A gift prohibited by paragraph 1(a) includes the following:
(a) Anything provided by a registered lobbyist or an agent of a foreign principal to an entity that is maintained or controlled by a Member, officer, or employee.
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It doesn't matter that the entity in this case is a football charity, the point is that this is Rob Ford asking lobbyists to contribute to an entity that is controlled by Rob Ford. If he really cares about the kids, the solution is easy, just hand over all control of the charity to a third party while he is in office. Done and done. But Ford is so fucking dense, as are his supporters, that they can't see this.
Toronto needs a smart mayor. It's fine if s/he is a conservative mayor. But s/he has to be smart, and respectable. Get Ford Out.
As such, bringing up the issue is going to strengthen Ford Nation because conflict of interest is not an issue to them, whereas funding of a charitable football organization is. The Star and various commenters on this site play right into Ford's arms by arguing with logic that Ford supporters can't even relate to.
Maybe the best way to explain this is with analogies. For instance, if you're a student, you have an exam coming up and the grading teacher asks you to mow their lawn, how would you feel *as a student* about this? Can you just say, "The teacher's lawn has nothing to do with the exam", and tell the teacher that you don't feel like mowing it? How can you know that your grade will not suffer because you denied something that is *supposed* to be a completely distinct issue but is not?
It's the same with soliciting donations. Giving money to the football foundation is nothing bad per se, but the power play that comes out of a dependency relationship is. Lobbyists just want their issues to be discussed without prejudice, students just want to be graded based on what's on their exam papers. Avoiding this "conflict of interest" scenario is wrong because it's an abuse of power and puts the targeted people on the spot.
And we all know how well Rob Ford is able to separate work from private matters.
Didn't he almost get ousted for this?! WTF
You cannot solicit donations from lobbyists. This is pretty simple. When a lobbyist gives money to a city employee, it's not a donation, it's an investment.
How is Ford too dumb to clean up his act by now?
I remember before the last election how the left called ford supporters and people from the burbs stupid and idiots. I personally know people that voted for Ford inspite to shut up the down towners. Now looking at this thread looks like history is going to repeat itself. It isn't only ford who doesn't learn from their mistakes.
Before the left brought all the law suits against ford polls were really low. If the left had just left him alone he would of been a one term mayor. But that fact is we will win the next election.
If soliciting donations was a violation, why wasn't that part of the original case? Again, correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't everything be fine as long as ford declares a conflict in any item dealing with people he solicited or anyone who donated?
You find him *mediocre*? Geez, I'd hate to see you you find as incapable or incompetent.
On the conflict of interest matter: The appeal court simply ruled that the Integrity Commissioner overstepped her authority in ordering that he repay the money, which in their view completely negated the fact that he voted against requiring himself to do so - in other words, they didn't consider the issue of whether he was "guilty" or not - they just determined that the question was irrelevant because Leiper didn;t have the authority to demand repayment. However, the appeal court didn't challenge the lower court's finding that Ford was willfully and deliberately ignorant about the conflict rules, so there's no way he was innnocent - he was just lucky not to be found guilty because he didn't know the rules in the first place.
In the libel case he was found not liable for defaming Foulidis, not the same as being found innocent (a finding that doesn't actually exist under law)
On the audit, there was a finding that he violated the rules: the committee just chose not to pursue the matter, on basis that the errors were not significant and possible inadvertent.
How you equate that to being found innocent, is beyond me - but then, is consistent with the simple-minded thinking of many Ford supporters. The saddest part for me is that the bar is set so low for him that essentially, unless his mistakes get him tossed out of office, his supporters believe that means he is 100% in the right.
That said, I don't actually believe the man is corrupt - an incompetent buffoon, yes, but not corrupt.
More than likely, Ford would have to:
- appoint someone else to run the foundation. Could not be a family member. Could be a friend, but needs to be someone who is clearly not under his direct influence.
- rename the foundation. Call it the City Youth Football Foundation or something but it can't say "Rob Ford" in its title
- stop soliciting for it while in office. Period. People (even lobbyists) could give to it unsolicited since he no longer controlled it, but he could not solicit for it because that would reestablish the connection that the first two steps just worked to sever.
it just looks so bad when he asks for money for his pet cause because it creates the expectation of a return favour. It very well might not be illegal or even officially unethical based on any current rules, but the optics are terrible. I'm not making this up out of thin air - read this article from the NY Times and then tell me how a politician can ever encourage giving to his favourite cause without someone questioning the appropriateness of it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/us/politics/06charity.html
Ford needs to stop the antics, pretend he has learned something, and at least try to be Mayor for a year, see how that goes. There is no way for him to win if he keeps repeating the mistakes that got him into nonstop trouble for two years.
Just off the top of my head: none have ever been arrested for DUI, none have ever lied about uttering threats, none have ever called the cops on Mary Walsh, none have ever stated that cyclists who die after being struck by cars are entirely at fault, none have ever been found guilty of conflict of interest, none have avoided the responsibilities of their office to go on a cottage vacation, none have appropriated city funds for the personal use of their football teams.
So, I guess I *would* like you to go on. Except for Smitherman, since, well, he seems a pretty run-of-the-mill dreadful career politician.
And for crying out loud, I grabbed the US Senate rules because they were the first I found on a google search. Like that gets Ford of the hook - it was just a quick example of how all political bodies set ethical standards, standards that clearly go against what RF does on a daily basis. IF YOU ARE THE MAYOR OF A HUGE CITY YOU DON'T SEND OUT MASS MAILINGS SOLICITING FOR A CHARITY THAT YOU CONTROL THAT IS NAMED AFTER YOU. PERIOD.
As an employee of the citizens of Toronto it makes perfect sense that we hold Ford to a basic business reciprocity standard, and demand that he understands and follows the rules. Not only does this increase our confidence in his ability to govern, it allays any fears of potential corruption or legal liability.
So quickly we Torontonians forget about the MFP scandal.
Plus the guy has to raise money somehow. Sure, he comes from a wealthy family, but politician's have the RIGHT to fundraise and not have to dip into his own money. And who cares about these rules, they're nonsensical.
People just don't like him because he won, and the reason he won is because he's going to find all the gravy and cut it. And that makes people mad. So once all this blows over, he'll get back to work and find the gravy and cut it, you wait and see.
Ford stands for justice, and the left simply can't stand that because it goes against their nature. The mayor looks out for the little guy and saves money everywhere he goes. Listen to his radio show and you will understand what I already know. It's common knowledge The Star only hires socialists now, and all they know how to do is witch hunt. Take five seconds and read the SUN, will ya, and maybe you will learn how ethical journalists operate for once.
Hey Mike,
What if I handed it over to YOUR Mom? What if I ALREADY handed it over to her? And she LOVED it??
Oh yeah...
Little awkward, no?