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Newsstand: August 8, 2011
Here comes Monday, here comes Monday, right down Bummer Lane. In the news: sole-sourced contracts at City Hall are on the rise, listening in on Rob Ford’s phone calls, Toronto French people want to be all French, and the Sun to the rescue.
An investigation by the Star has revealed that a tidy chunk of change has been spent by City Hall on sole-sourced contracts. Since 2009, nearly $2.5 million has been spent by City staff without following proper purchasing procedures, including almost $1 million of that during Rob Ford’s reign. The purchases are spread among various departments, but the Parks and Recreation department clearly didn’t get the memo. They’ve racked up 21 improper purchases, according to the numbers dug up by the Star. In reaction to this revelation, some people offer explanations for the number of improperly processed sole-sourced contracts, like that they only make up 1.6 per cent of untendered purchases since 2010 (City spokeswoman), some people don’t comment at all (the mayor), while some use the word “flout” a lot (Paul Ainslie, councillor for Ward 43, Scarborough East).
Ever wonder who the mayor is referring to when he says he’s spoken to thousands of Torontonians on the phone, and they all condone his every policy move? Well, turns out at least one of those callers is ringing up RoFo’s office to double-check that she still has a spot reserved in the super secret heavy duty bunker beneath City Hall in case of an alien invasion. The mayor’s four-person team of phone answerers spends almost all day, every day answering calls and emails from taxpayers about real policy concerns like the recent decision on bike lanes, and misdirected cries for help like the woman who called about the shock treatments she thought she was getting from her TCHC bed. But unless you’re in the office to overhear the calls, you’ll never really know what they’re about because there’s no formal logging system. Staff just jot down “aliens” or “Doug complaint” onto a sheet and decide whether they should tell the mayor or not. Even if the system seems wasteful and less effective than say calling 311, we guess there’s no point in calling to complain.
Félicitations, Toronto francophiles and francophones! Work is underway on a new French Quarter of town where, apparently, the old one was, on Carlton between Parliament and Yonge. The plan is to make Sacré Coeur Church, at the corner of Sherbourne and Carlton, the central spot for the new area. So hopefully people who depend on the soup kitchen at that church are fans of French Onion.
Just when you though the city was in disrepair, with the falling glass and the looming service cuts, here comes the Toronto Sun to the rescue. While they don’t have any recommendations for the glass, the paper does have some suggestions for the mayor. Try and guess what they are before clicking the link. Come on, it’ll be kind of fun. A little bit.