The True Value of Social Media to Newmarket Politics

I read Mayor Tony Van Bynen’s latest column published in the Era with great interest.  Although it wasn't intended as such, the column, entitled “Is there accountability with social media,” is an excellent reminder how lucky we are in Newmarket to have a politician like the Ward 6 Councillor, Maddie Di Muccio.

Now I unreservedly confess to being a fan of Maddie Di Muccio ever since she stared down old-boys club and beat them at their own game during the 2010 election.  It took a lot of guts for her to win.  And she has been showing her strength and smarts ever since. 

Today, while Tony Van Bynen is mewing about “inaccurate comments and skewed perspectives”, we are also cognisant that he hasn’t faced anything nearly as vile that Di Muccio has encountered via on line attacks. 

When was the last “hate-group” set up on Facebook against any member of Council other than Di Muccio, (as was set up in 2011)?

And which other councillor, other than Di Muccio, was the subject of various hateful email campaigns? 

How about negative comments about any other council member’s children or spouse?  (I am certain that even the most partisan of observers would agree these attacks are the most hurtful and vicious of all the things posted on social media this term). 

Certainly no other council member has been the subject of a You Tube attack ad and subsequent smear campaign (engaged by the local newspaper, most shamefully), as Councillor Di Muccio has.

And despite everything, she preserves and continues to do her job. 

And what a job she has done! 

In the history of this town has any one person done as much to improve the openness and transparency of our municipal government? 

Here is a partial list of just a few of the accomplishments that she has championed and achieved:

1)      On line recording of all meetings of Council (and not just the meeting where things get rubber stamped, but also the committee meetings when issues are discussed, debated, and amended) so residents can confirm that their elected official is working for them.  

2)      All council votes are now recorded and will be available for the public to consider.  At election time, we won’t have to take an incumbent word that he/she was a good representative.  We finally have a way to check his/her record for ourselves.

3)      She championed for Ombudsman of Ontario oversight of municipalities and linked her name to this cause.  This is finally something that province will enact soon.  When she tabled a motion to get Newmarket Council to accept Ombudsman oversight voluntarily, the vote went against her but she kept fighting for what she saw as very important for taxpayers. 

4)      Council member expense reports are now posted on line for the public to scrutinise.  I would like to have more detail on this report but even having the basic expense information posted is quite an accomplishment.  Previously, council members would regularly spend up to their expense account limit without a second thought.  Today, these same council members are competing to be the lowest spender of the bunch. 

5)      She surveyed the public about on-line voting and she was very open about posting the results of the survey so members of the public could see the data for themselves.

6)      She is the only member of council who regularly posts blogs about local issues and isn’t afraid to provide her own opinion as opposed to a sanitised version you get with other council members.

7)      She peeled back the curtain on controversial matters such as the soccer club bail out.  These are big issues around town but the public wouldn’t have known about them without Councillor Di Muccio releasing this information.  In the past, controversies at Newmarket Council were swept under the rug with closed door, secret meetings. 

8)      In the three decades that I have lived in Newmarket, I have never seen so many people engaged in municipal politics as I do today.  I think the reason being, love her or hate her, is thanks to Councillor Di Muccio. 

Most remarkably, Di Muccio accomplished all with this without any obvious allies on council.  (When it came to voting for an Integrity Commission, every one of her colleagues did so with apparent glee). 

But with her effective use of social media, and by getting the public to side with her, she was able to win the day more often than she lost.  So while some are complaining about social media, Di Muccio is getting the better of them.  That is the sign of a tremendous leader. 

Which brings me back to current Mayor Tony Van Bynen; where is his list of accomplishments?  Famously, (and thanks to Di Muccio’s social media) we all know the single motion that Van Bynen tabled this term.  Is that his only achievement?

As any surgeon or tradesperson will tell you, having the right set of tools and knowing how to use them makes a person more skillful and effective at their job.  There is a lesson for our Mayor in that analogy.   He needs to quit whinging about social media and start learning how to use it.

3 Big Stories at Last Night's Council Meeting (2 of Them Won't Be Reported in the Era)

I have been waiting this morning for Rogers TV to post the video of last night's council meeting so I could link to the key segments of the meeting.  Unfortunately the video isn't available yet and I have to get on with my work day. 

The Council meeting was remarkable for three reasons.

First, this meeting introduced new technology to Newmarket Council where all votes are finally recorded.  Residents will finally be able to see how their representative at Town Hall voted on any particular issue.  This information will be available on-line and the Mayor promises us it will be searchable. 

And while that is huge news, it wasn't the biggest stories of the evening. 

The biggest stories of the evening happened at inauspicious times during the meeting and I will eat my hat if the Era newspaper reports on either of these items.

Mayor Van Bynen and Sexism

 Council heard from a speaker on the matter of women in politics.  This speaker referred to the late-Shirley Chisholm who you can read about here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Chisholm  

Shirley Chisholm was a black, female congresswoman who ran to be the Democratic Party nominee for President in 1972.  She is often quoted for saying, "When I ran for the Congress, when I ran for president, I met more discrimination as a woman than for being black. Men are men."

Afterwards, Councillor Di Muccio thanked the speaker and offered some of her own experiences as a female politician. 

Of course, there has been allegations about Mayor Van Bynen being a misogynist, and I have written before that I believe he is more of a wimp than a misogynist.  But even I was second guessing when he interrupts Councillor Di Muccio mid sentence.  Clearly he is extremely uncomfortable with women discussing their experiences with sexism. 

Before anyone rushes to his defense saying that the Mayor was trying to keep the meeting on track, I ask you to look at the video (when it is available) regarding other speakers during this meeting.  He did not interrupt anyone else who spoke (other than to say, "You are out of time.")

The video evidence of Mayor Van Bynen's obvious discomfort while listening to a woman speaking about sexism is damning.  It begs the question we all should be asking:  Should a man with such prejudicial opinions on the topic of sexism be Mayor of the Town of Newmarket?    

On Council Transparency

Another item that will go unreported in the Era is the lengths that this Council plans to go through to hide the secrets of the soccer loan.  It should be as plain as the nose on every Newmarket taxpayer's face that this deal is a bad one for taxpayers.  We just don't know the reasons why it stinks (yet).

Thanks to Councillor Di Muccio, who reminds the CAO that is her job to ask these questions, the Soccer bailout is being kept alive.  But I question why she stands alone in asking these tough questions.  Shouldn't every member of this Council be asking who among the staff of the Town of Newmarket is being so cavalier with public funds and what is being done to minimize risks?

Not according to John Taylor.  He wants a report that lists all the documents that he has received so far from staff about the Soccer Club.  He misses the point that is obvious to the rest of us -- what's the point to giving the public a list of documents?  Why won't John Taylor and his allies make the secret documents that he wants to list available for the public to read? 

And more importantly, why won't staff answer Councillor Di Muccio's questions?  She reported last night that she has been waiting since June on some of these.  Some of the staff responses were so full of spin last night that you would think they were running in the next election.  Leave the spin to the politicians fellows.

Again, when the line of Councillor Di Muccio's questioning got the CAO squirming on the hot seat, Mayor Van Bynen stepped in to shut the Councillor up.  He justified his action by saying that Councillor Kerwin needed time to introduce his item of "new business".

And what was Kerwin's important new business item?  Just a thank you to a staff member.  Next time, Dave, have the decency to cede your time to the Councillor asking the questions that the public wants answered.  Kerwin could have sent a Hallmark Thank You card instead. 

Analysis of Jane Twinney's PCPO Nomination "Victory"

If your name is Vic, Farid, Peter, or Gila, (the names of the local PC's running in neighbouring York Region ridings), you are probably muttering some pretty dark curses for PC Party Leader Tim Hudak who ham-fistedly took the wind out of the sales of the PC Party fortunes in York Region. 

Internal Liberal polls indicate that the OLP is pulling 11 points up on the Newmarket-Aurora race, according to the Toronto Star.  If that is true then the only safe York Region seat for the Ontario PC's right now is Julia Munro's (unless Gila Martow can convince Prime Minister Stephen Harper to revisit Israel during the next Ontario general election campaign).  Could you imagine a scenario where the PC Party ekes out an Ontario Election victory when it can manage to win just one seat in all of York Region?  I can't. 

Just a few weeks ago, it appeared that PC support in York Region would have been buttressed by a hard-fought, but likely convincing Maddie Di Muccio win that would have brought in a thousand new members, hundreds of new volunteers, and lots of media coverage.

Thanks to Tim Hudak's fatally delicate ego, there has been lots of media but all of it bad and demotivating to the segment of potential supporters that would have been energised by the populist message of a Maddie Di Muccio campaign. 

The riding association announced that it had 740 members in January.  I have heard that some new memberships have been sold, but the sales have been but a trickle. 

There is no enthusiasm.  No positive press coverage, (news of Jane Twinney's acclamation was printed on page A7 of the Era, not the front page).  No wave of support to give the PC's momentum.

The number of people at Thursday's meeting was slightly more than a typical NAPPCA AGM but definitely considerably less than the numbers of the MPP's New Year's Levee.  

Some of the elderly faces in the room I have seen for years at these sorts of events and the NAPPCA Board members were out in force too.  There were prominent lookie-lous who everyone can identify as supporters of other parties.  And there was a smaller subset of people who were there for Jane, who were predominantly from Newmarket.  The Aurora segment of the Newmarket-Aurora riding was under represented. 

It wasn't who was present on Thursday night but who was missing from the meeting that should be noted.  No Tim Hudak, or any PC MPPs from other ridings such as Julia Munro or Gila Martow, not even other PCPO candidates turned out.  And Maddie Di Muccio didn't show which suggests that Jane's people believe that they can win with Maddie's supporters relegated to the sidelines. 

I didn't see anyone being accosted or followed around the room by certain PC members who took it upon themselves to challenge the loyalty of other long term PC members.  Not that it would surprise me.  To this observer, the room had an atmosphere of a high school clique desperately trying to maintain their "cool kid" status in the quad. 

It appears Stephen Somerville has very few friends left in this group.  The opinions varied from "He over-reacted" to more profanity laced assessments but of the people I spoke with there wasn't a single person to show him any degree of sympathy.  Politics can be very unforgiving.

But the main topic of discussion at DiNardos was, "Can Jane win?"  The problem that she will have to overcome is her voting record.  At this point, Jane Twinney has zero credibility as a conservative.  Here are just some of the inconsistencies to illustrate Jane Twinney's troubles representing the PC Party of Ontario: 

Issue	PC Party's Position	Jane Twinney's Voting Record
Tax hikes	The PCPO believes “can cut taxes so that people have more money to spend and businesses have more to invest"	Newmarket Councillor Jane Twinney has voted in favour of hiking property taxes at every budget except in 2012.
Transparency	Supports MPP Vic Fideli who released documents showing the government lied about deficit projections	Voted in favour of censuring Councillor Di Muccio when she courageously exposed that Newmarket Council was abusing its in camera meeting process.  Jane Twinney also failed to support making the details of the Newmarket Soccer Club bailout public.
Green Energy and Fit Program	“Ontario PC Party under Tim Hudak maintains its commitment to scrap the Green Energy Act. That means we would remove subsidies on wind and solar, we would restore locally based decision making and we would implement a moratorium on developments until health and environmental impacts are assessed." Statement from MPP Lisa MacLeod (Feb. 19, 2014)	Councillor Jane Twinney has repeatedly voted in favour of projects related to the Green Energy Act and the Fit Program.
Public Transit	PC York Region MPPs Introduce Back To Work Legislation To End Transit Strike.	While initially saying in her blog that she supported back to work legislation, Councillor Jane Twinney later flipped-flopped on the issue and voted against supporting the measure.  Without this back to work legislation resulted in a disastrous negotiation and today York Region Transit users pay among the highest public transit fares in the province and routes have been cut back.
Corporate "Welfare"	Tim Hudak has stated publicly that his party is against what he termed “corporate welfare” and the province must not help big corporations.	Newmarket Council voted to bail out the Newmarket Soccer Club to the tune of $2.8 million. Jane was among the 5 councillors who supported the bail out.
Public Sector Wage Freeze	The PC's continue to call for immediate legislation to freeze all public sector wages, union and non-union. They want to limit the independence of arbitrators as a way to keep wage costs down.	While being silent on this issue, it is well known that Newmarket employees have been given across the board wage increases and Twinney is part of the council that would have approved this measure.

 

The Definition of a Threat

A few days ago, I was included in a twitter conversation when one correspondent advised another that he better look up the definition of the word "threat". 

And as the week wore on, it dawned on me that perhaps certain people just don't comprehend what that word means. 

Here is some help from Merriam Webster Dictionary:

¹threat

noun \ˈthret\

: a statement saying you will be harmed if you do not do what someone wants you to do

Easy, right?

When Wolk and the Era accuse someone of threatening the family of Stephen Somerville, please fill in the painfully obvious gaps in your story for the rest of us. 

1) How exactly did the threatening party intend on harming the Somerville clan?
2) What demand did the threatening party make of Stephen Somerville in exchange for avoiding this stated harm?

If these accusers are so certain of their assertions, then surely to Betsy they can provide these simple details, right?  The fact that they have remained mum on this for over a month is the basis of suspicion for many of us.

Once we know the details of the threat, we can judge how seriously Stephen Somerville took the alleged threat.  We do know that this was supposedly uttered on February 5th and it wasn't until two-weeks later, on February 19th that Somerville dropped from the race.  In the interim, Somerville launched his campaign, his website and hosted a couple of social events to promote his candidacy - obviously not behavior typical of someone who feels his family is in peril. 

Or, the Era and Wolk can continue to play possum and wonder why nobody believes what they say any longer. 

On that note, it was gratifying to see a number of readers defend my right to post my blog anonymously.  Thank you for coming to my defense. 

I don't really mind if the Editor of the Era and/ or Wolk protest that when I write anonymously that I lack credibility because let's face it, their own credibility is certainly doubted right now. 

Like the Era Editor, we both publish editorial columns anonymously.  We both use sources that have asked not to be named.  I believe that I do a better job of verifying the truthfulness of my sources which is why no one ever challenges me on the facts of my blogs.  I also believe that I am more accountable to my readers in that I never edit the comment section (unless in the rare instance where I believe a comment crosses the line and becomes libelous) whereas the Era only publishes letters to the editor that represent their agenda.

But unlike the Editor of the Era, I have never called what she does "cowardly".  I recognize that we employ similar methods we publish (editorials written anonymously, using anonymous sources, and so on).  If my blog is cowardly then it is only fair to say that so is her newspaper.  And if my blog offers little to the debate as she says, then isn't the same also true of her words?

How to Ruin Frank Klees' Reputation in 10 Days

Fans of Rom-Coms will recall the famous Bullshit scene in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.  Matthew McConaughey's character takes his new girlfriend, played by Kate Hudson home to meet his parents and are surprised by calls of "Bullshit" emanating from the backyard.

It turns out the family is playing a card game called "Bullshit," a strategy game where players are required to bluff and lie in order to win.  If an opposing player suspects a lie, he yells out "Bullshit" and the accused player must then prove to all that he was being truthful.

And just like the card game, I've been calling "Bullshit" on the Stephen Somerville/ Darryl Wolk threat allegations and I eagerly await the moment when they will finally show their cards.    

In a bizarre twist, these two accusers are now seen to be punching well above their weight class, with new information published on line by the Era implicating MPP Frank Klees in this sordid tale. 

 

But are any of us willing to make the giant leap of incredulity required to buy their story?  

For instance:

1) Councillor Di Muccio is said to have threatened Stephen Somerville's family on February 5th but we are supposed to believe the threat was so terrifying to him, that Somerville then threw himself headlong into his campaign including throwing himself a launch party, speaking to media,  organising a campaign team, putting up a web site, and then, after all of that, determined, because of the threat, he had to drop out on February 19th.  He was so concerned about his family's safety that it took him two whole weeks to bow out of the race because that is how afraid he was about this so-called threat. 

 

2) Wolk is intentionally vague about what was actually said in the threat.   All we know is that the "threat" was based on exposing some plotting that Wolk and Somerville were engaged in to knock Frank Klees from his perch.  In order for the public to believe this, we need to imagine that Klees who is an 18 year veteran in this job, was either such a thin-skinned ego maniac that he cares about this sort of thing, or he was vulnerable to a coup d'etat at the hands of two bumbling fools like Wolk and Somerville.  Personally I don't buy for a second that Klees would waste a moment of time on some two-bit wannabes who were running their mouths.   

3) Wolk wants us to believe that Klees disclosed private details of a meeting between the MPP and Di Muccio on February 14th.  Again, I refer you to the length of time that Klees has been in office.  Would Klees risk his reputation and legacy by divulging this meeting to the likes of Darryl Wolk?  We would have to believe that Klees, who spearheaded the attacks on Ornge, would make such a blunder.  In an earlier blog, I once challenged Klees to reveal the name of a casino lobbyist he met with and Klees was outraged at my suggestion that he should breach the confidentiality of his meeting.  Based on my personal experience, I have no doubt that Frank Klees knows the privacy rules of MPP meetings and he isn't going to breach them.  

   

If Wolk's allegations about Frank Klees are true, then let's rename this episode, "How to Ruin a MPP's Reputation in 10 Days."  I am not willing to believe that Klees would take such a wild departure from his usual professionalism and aplomb to slum around with gutter snipes like Wolk and Somerville.  Why would he risk everything he has worked 18 years for to tarnish his legacy with the follies of Wolk and Somerville?    

This is why I continue to believe that this matter is a hoax.

And I think the Era has crossed a line by printing a story that the paper knows is very likely false.  

It is clear that by publishing this story with an extremely low probability of the allegations being true, that the Era has displayed its real agenda.  Just like its flagship newspaper, the Toronto Star which has waged an unrelenting war against Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, the Era has been engaged in a similar war of words against Ward 6 Councillor Maddie Di Muccio.  But where Rob Ford has given plenty of ammunition to his critics, by smoking crack, drinking and driving, and other bad behaviour, the same can't be said about Councillor Di Muccio.  She wants a smaller government and lower taxes and that is against the political agenda of the publisher and editor at the Era.  

This agenda has manifested itself in this article in a number of ways:

1) The newspaper "journalist" soft-shoes over the fact that there is no actual evidence of a threat.  No one has ever explicitly outlined the words that Di Muccio is alleged to have said to Somerville which is the most important part of this allegation; the words "I will kill/ maim/ injure your kids" must be proved to show that there was a threat to Somerville's family.  On this note, the police have not confirmed any threat nor does it seem that they intend to lay any charges.  The "journalist" gives all but a half sentence worth of ink to what the York Region Police determined.   So why speak of a threat if you can't tell us what that threat was?  

2) The Era story comes on the heels of news that Newmarket has fallen from 10th to 31st in the Money Sense Magazine Places to Live survey.  Mayor Van Bynen has hung his re-election bid on "Top Ten" and now he looks foolish.  So the timing of all of this by the Era is definitely suspicious.  This "news" story is a deflection of what is a major pie in the face of Mayor Van Bynen delivered by Money Sense Magazine.  

I use "journalist" and "news" in quotations because I think that is what the Era has devolved into -namely the propaganda arm of the Van Bynen administration.  Earlier, I issued a challenge to Era via Twitter to show me a single example where the paper ever printed a story that was even mildly critical of Tony Van Bynen.  To this point, there has been no reply.  Believe me, I've looked extensively and I can't find any examples.  

You have to believe that either Tony Van Bynen is infallible, never making mistakes, or he runs this town like a tin-pot dictator who boasts of polls that show his oppressed people are 100% behind him.

 

These exclusively positive news stories about Mayor Tony Van Bynen puts him in the among the ranks of such beloved leaders like Kim Jung Un and Fidel Castro. 

How Van Bynen Failed Us - Let me Count the Ways

I am writing this blog in response to questions from a reader, John Heckbert.  John’s asked for more details about why Mayor Van Bynen’s administration was taxing us so heavily during the past two terms that Van Bynen has served as Mayor of Newmarket.  The simplest answer is likely the right one:  high taxes are necessary because Tony Van Bynen has been inept managing the public purse. 

Here are reasons why Tony Van Bynen has been a lousy mayor with an exceedingly long record of fiscal mismanagement:

1)      Each year that he has been mayor, Tony Van Bynen has passed budgets that include tax increases well in excess of the rate of annual inflation.  The only time that the annual tax increase was reasonable in comparison to the CPI was when there was an election in that year.

2)      During this same period of time most other municipal governments, including York Region and the School Boards, showed constraint in their tax policies.

3)      The Federal and Provincial levels of government actually implemented income tax reductions during this same period of time to help the economy.

4)      According to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Tony Van Bynen’s administration grew the expense side of the Town’s budget by almost $40,000,000 or a whopping 44% while Tony Van Bynen served as Mayor.  During this time, the Town’s population has only grown by just 8%.

5)      Salaries and expenses grew by 31% and the number of people on the “Sunshine List” grew at a staggering rate

6)      The Maystar lawsuit caused the cost of building the Magna Centre to spiral out of control.

7)      The escalating costs of the Old Town Hall which now exceed $10,000,000 well beyond original estimates

8)      Sole sourced contracts were awarded when competitive bids should have been sought.

9)      Water conservation efforts had the opposite effect than what was intended causing the cost of managing the town’s water service to skyrocket

10)   Our town library has a CEO and a co-CEO which is ridiculous considering the small size of the library.  It should have a General Manager only.  I am certain that this is just the tip of the iceberg.  There are likely numerous examples where employees are given inflated job titles and salaries and/ or duplication exists. 

11)   Significant resources spent on the business area on Main St. with very little to show for it

12)   Mayor convincing council to take the Marianneville developer to the OMB at a cost that is outrageous considering the likelihood of success

13)   Use of consultants that provided very little benefit to taxpayers

14)   Decision to give $2.7 million bailout to the Newmarket Soccer Club with very little chance of repayment

15)   He is easily distracted from delivering the core services of the Town – such as garbage pick up or snow removal.  Recently we have seen garbage pile up while he is tweeting about donating blood, for example, which demonstrates he isn’t aware of what is going on around him.

16)   The amalgamation of the fire departments into Central York Fire Services has been extremely costly for taxpayers costing us millions more than the previous Newmarket Fire Dept cost.

17)   He failed to schedule responsible maintenance of town owned facilities which resulted in unscheduled closures and emergency repairs at the Youth Centre, the Seniors Centre, and Gorham Pool.

18)   During his tenure, a significant number of employers along Harry Walker Parkway and along Davis Drive have left Newmarket which results in a weakened tax base and puts greater burden on residential taxpayers. Newmarket now has a 7.7% unemployment rate where the national average is 7%.

19)   During his tenure he ensured that Council members got their salary increases and maintained various perks despite calls to roll back.

The fact remains that while our taxes are going up and up year after year, the bumbling and fumbling of the Tony Van Bynen administration continues. 

All of these incidents are reported and available on line.  Voters will need to be informed and to make up their own minds on Tony Van Bynen’s tenure to determine if he deserves another four year term. 

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to write this list.  In my opinion this should serve as a good reminder to my readers as to why Newmarket needs a new mayor. 

If I have missed anything from my list, I hope my readers will add via the comments section of my blog.  To be fair, I wanted to list what I felt were accomplishments of Tony Van Bynen that demonstrate skillful management of public funds.  Unfortunately, I could not list any.  If you can, please add it to the comment section as well. 

Hopefully, this will spark a good debate on whether Van Bynen deserves a third chance in October.