The plot thickens. Twenty-four hours after losing a vote to table a motion to remove four remaining members of the Toronto Community Housing Corporation board over misspending allegations, Rob Ford got his way at an emergency meeting of council called last night to revisit the matter.
It happened at the stroke of midnight after an, at times, breathtaking debate that began some seven hours earlier.
Councillors Maria Augimeri and Raymond Cho and the remaining two tenant representatives on the TCHC board have officially been, well, thrown under the bus following a 25-18 vote. No other way to describe it, really. But we’ll get to that in a minute.
Wednesday night’s meeting also turned up some new revelations about the leak of City Auditor Jeffrey Griffiths report, the one that uncovered questionable spending on the part of some TCHC employees and started the ball rolling on l’affaire TCHC (can we call it that now?)
The auditor has come under fire by some on the left who have not-so-indirectly suggested, albeit in twisted language, that Griffiths or the mayor’s office had something to do with the leak of the TCHC report. Griffiths has denied it under questioning from Adam Vaughan on the matter.
But more smoke on that count.
Turns out Councillor Mary Fragedakis, a member of the city’s audit committee, tried to scrape together an emergency meeting of the committee to discuss Griffith’s report after it surfaced in newspaper reports.
Only, the other members of the committee, councillors Josh Matlow and Mary-Margaret McMahon, weren’t so keen to meet. Neither was the audit committee chair and the mayor’s deputy, Doug Holyday who, apparently took his cue on whether a meeting should be held from Griffiths himself. Matlow and McMahon were in Holyday’s office at the time.
Holyday tells me he phoned the auditor for “advice” on the question and that the auditor told him that no meeting would be necessary. Huh? You’d think the powers that be at City Hall would be sufficiently freaked about how the auditor’s report was leaked in the first place and in a hurry to deal with it officially by convening a meeting of the audit committee, but apparently not.
Strange that a councillor should be taking that kind of direction from a bureaucrat who some on the left now are calling on the carpet for the fact the not one, but two of his reports have mysteriously been leaked to the press before the audit committee or council has had a chance to deal with them, and that, in the first 100 days of the Ford administration. The leaks are unprecedented, to be sure. Coincidence?
Well, let’s just say the TCHC report was a fortuitous turn for the mayor, one that has neatly provided the opportunity to stack the TCHC board of directors with those who will no doubt be enthusiastic to do his bidding on the social housing front. This TCHC mess may just be the mayor’s out of that $774 million budget pickle the city’s in for 2012.
Let me explain. Holyday says there’s no plan to privatize TCHC’s operations, even the mayor himself has used the “P” word. But that’s not really the issue, since some TCHC management operations are already privatized.
There’s money, big money, to be made from development of TCHC land is the bigger point of this twisted narrative.
There’s a lot of TCHC housing stock that’s outlived its usefulness. But unlike his predecessor David Miller, Ford won’t be so inclined to squeeze affordable housing concessions from developers when it comes time to redevelop those sites, like was done with Regent Park, Alexandra Park and the planned redo of Lawrence Heights.
Those kinds of mixed housing plans for Toronto’s social housing neighbourhoods are as good as dead.
Fast forward to last night’s meeting: it’s unclear why Augimeri, Cho and the remaining tenants reps had to be forcibly removed from the TCHC board. The mayor and his supporters on council have provided only vague explanations on that front about the need to restore “public confidence” and wipe the slate clean.
Only, neither Augimeri or Cho or tenant reps have been fingered for any of the questionable spending found in Griffiths’ review. In fact, both Augimeri and Cho, who had been appointed to the board only last December by council, had yet to take part in even one meeting of the board – save for the emergency session held to discuss Griffiths report. Perhaps they’re viewed as obstructionists, then? No doubt.
If the mayor was indeed concerned about “public confidence,” why then did he vote against motions to post the expenses of TCHC board members and staff earning more than $100,000 a year? The mayor also voted against a motion aimed at setting up a lobbyist registry for the TCHC. Those don’t seem like the actions of a mayor concerned about public confidence and accountability, but as long as he’s got council’s mush middle in check, Ford can pretty well do what he pleases. Some would call that a dictatorship, but let’s not go there.
Instead, let’s turn our attention to the man now in charge of the works at TCHC, the entire $6 billion operation, at least for the short term.
That would be one Case Ootes, the former Mel Lastman crony, and Ford’s new go-to guy.
The choice of Ootes doesn’t exactly inspire confidence on the housing front. His voting record on affordable housing, public housing and the sale of public assets when he served as councillor, is abysmal. I’m looking at list here of some dozen occasions in which Ootes voted either against repairs to social housing or developments for new rental units.
The former Leaside pol with the outwardly mild disposition, is respected by both right and left (mostly) on council. But that impression of Ootes, at least among lefties, changed in his latter political years, when Ootes openly fought with the Miller regime on a number of issues, including the setting up of a lobbyist registry.
Of course, there was the infamous MFP computer leasing scandal at City Hall during which Ootes was Lastman’s deputy at all relevant times. Is wasn’t one of the hands caught in the cookie jar, but his new gig will come with a six-figure salary.
The mayor declined to say how much (being a personnel matter and all), but it didn’t go unnoticed that Ootes received a nice tidy severance of some $99K and change for his years of service on council post-retirement last year. Gravy?
Augimeri suggested Ootes would be willing to volunteer his services to the TCHC, being the stand up kind of guy that he is. Don’t bet on it.
