City Council — February 2014
February 19 + 20, 2014
60 posts
Toronto City Council meets today! Expect dull procedural stuff in the a.m., a long delay coming back from lunch due to hockey, then stuff.
Coun. Frank Di Giorgio rises to clarify a Toronto Star article in which he feels he was quoted out of context.
Norm Kelly moves that council go in camera (private) to consider the taxicab review item.
Mammolit is wearing an orange T-shirt over his dress shirt. I didn't catch why. Big fan of the Netherlands?
Perks rises and says he no longer has questions that require council to go in camera. Kelly withdraws his motion. We're staying off camera.
Question running through my mind as I listen to council's debate on the taxi industry: does it really need to be this complicated?
Rob Ford and Doug Ford vote against requiring cabs to have snow tires in the winter. http://t.co/TR3CQZpLm1
Motion to set June 30, 2024 as deadline to transfer existing cab license to new license passes 31-12. http://t.co/mDeCsMgAKd
I haven't followed this process especially closely but as a humble suggestion to colleagues: don't lead with the vomit fee.
Motion to ask province to ensure all cab drivers are paid minimum wage and get employment protections PASSES 36-7. http://t.co/bsUQkUYQpF
Vaughan motion to endorse goal of achieving "inclusive and accessible" taxicab fleet PASSES 41-2. Di Giorgio & Mammoliti oppose.
Taxi item as amended passes 36-7. Applause from the gallery. Long time coming. (Stintz notably opposed.) http://t.co/8VZnI1al7J
Drivers seem happy. Cab companies seem mad. At a glance, that seems to put this on the right side of justice.
Comment from Gail Souter, owner of Beck Taxi: "it tells me Toronto is closed 4 business. Socialism lives in Toronto." https://twitter.com/GailBeckSouter/status/436265828506673152
TTC election up now. Minnan-Wong nominates Augimeri. Rob Ford nominates Doug Ford, in place of Glenn De Baeremaeker.
Norm Kelly nominates Josh Colle for TTC chair. Mayor Ford still wants to get his brother's name on the ballot.
Nominations now closed. Augimeri vs. Colle. One will become TTC chair. Both will give a five minute speech.
Augimeri says she's a "very pro-subway person" but liked fully-funded LRT.
Augimeri says being chair now is about a short mandate. Says she'll run the meetings well. No intention of tearing things up.
Colle says role is about being more than a caretaker, because TTC chair will face critical issues over next few months.
Colle says he is not a "career politician", touts his private sector experience. Says it's not just about subway-vs-LRT - customer service.
Speeches done. Colle vs. Augimeri vote starting. I'd give the slight edge to Colle, but hard-right councillors could go Augimeri. For spite.
The selection process for chair isn't a secret ballot. So I'll be able to do a chart showing which councillors voted for which candidate.
Vote is taking a while so started browsing Toronto Open Data on Pet Licenses. Is "Pixiebob Longhair" a real cat breed?
Augimeri: 23 votes; Colle: 21 votes. Augimeri pulls out the victory and becomes TTC chair.
Council debate on social media. Integrity Commish says councillors should have separate Twitter accounts for councillor work and campaigns.
I get the rationale, but I'd rather not have to follow dozens of extra accounts this year.
Doug Ford isn't running for MPP. Ontario to lose out on billions in private sector subway funding.
Doug Ford is asked who else is working on his brother's re-election campaign. "The people," he says.
Not going to repeat Rob Ford's story about using his wealth to be nice to people.
Meanwhile, Josh Matlow makes a joking reference to having the highest Klout score among councillors.
During council's twitter debate, Mihevc suggests that maybe Adam Vaughan is @cityslikr. (I'm 99% sure he's not.)
Council's debate on Twitter is 140-million characters long.
Speaker Nunziata just suggested Perruzza do community theatre. I once set one of his speeches to background music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLGF4e2aMv4&noredirect=1
Council votes 35-4 to dial down some of the staff recommended restrictions on social media use during campaigns. http://t.co/VyQdqyFcu3
Doug Ford is speaking out against expanding the boundaries of a BIA. Dunno why. Here's a letter he wrote: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2014/cc/comm/communicationfile-45452.pdf (PDF)
Backstory on Ford BIA thing. Letter from Doug Ford to council: https://fordfortoronto.mattelliott.ca/misc/biabattle/fordletter.pdf (PDF); Peter Milczyn response: https://fordfortoronto.mattelliott.ca/misc/biabattle/milczynletter.pdf
(Mildly interesting: Doug Ford's letterhead still includes Amin Massoudi's email address.)
Council votes 37-4 to allow early beers this weekend for the Olympics. Against: Del Grande, Rob Ford, Shiner, Parker.
Of note: there's no early Olympic booze for people in Wards 9, 11 and 24. Sorry guys.
That really did happen. Rob Ford explained that he got nailed by a red light camera so voted against a motion about red light cameras.
Councillors Parker and Minnan-Wong vote against a council request to maintain Canada Post services. Everyone else votes for it.
Remaining on the agenda: an item about electric bikes, held by Mike Del Grande, plus four other minor items.
Electric bikes up now. Mike Del Grande immediately starts asking staff questions about yesterday's taxicab debate.
Del Grande asks if e-bikes should be "in bike lanes for safety purposes." People are talking. Del Grande gets mad.
Del Grande: "This place is just... terrible! Terrible in terms of manners. Terrible in terms of respect." Nunziata agrees with him.
Now Nunziata has asked Rob Ford to chair the meeting so he'll stop talking during the debate.
Debate about e-bikes continues but few seem to care. "Is that a sports pool going on back there?" asks an exasperated Janet Davis.
Del Grande makes impassioned speech in favour of allowing e-bikes in bike lanes.
He argues the accessibility angle, but also seems concerned about slow-moving e-bikes competing with cars for road space.
Del Grande yelling at Janet Davis. Now he's doing his Janet Davis impression. He is very grumpy.
Karen Stintz talking now. She used to have an e-bike. She was riding it when she got her ticket for going through a stop sign.
Council votes 21-18 to allow e-bikes in bike lanes. http://t.co/F9Ah0f9YEg
Oh wait - they're revoting on the e-bike thing. Here we go again.
Re-vote carries 23-17. E-bikes legal in bike lanes. http://t.co/XpKhCt0lF6
Coun. Mike Del Grande's letter to constituents. "Please become a more informed electorate." http://ward39.blogspot.com/2014/02/councillor-del-grandes-letter-to.html
Council debating internet voting for people with disabilities. I do not know why we can't just have internet voting for everybody.
Councillor Moeser wants to know if the city can verify whether someone has a disability. No, says the City Clerk.