Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Toronto Councillors Expense $117K In First Quarter

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and his brother, Coun. Doug Ford, spent nearly $1,500 of their own money to create a webpage for their “Cut the Waist” challenge that launched in January.

On Tuesday, the city released figures on the first-quarter spending of the 44 city councillors and the mayor, including the personal funds that the Fords spent on their website.

In terms of public funds, the city councillors and the mayor together spent $117,034.01 of taxpayer money on their office, constituency and other expenses. That works out to an average of $2,600.76 per elected representative.

About 28 per cent of the total expenditures related to communication costs.

According to the figures released by the city, Coun. Doug Ford did not spend any city money in the first quarter. He was the only councillor to not to do so. The mayor's office spent $3,822.98, with $2,222.60 going to office equipment and supplies.

Coun. Michelle Berardinetti had the highest expenses during the first quarter, which amounted to $11,060.91.

Berardinetti told the Toronto Sun that the costs were related to literature and magnets she sent out to constituents, though she had high school students deliver them to save money.

The mayor and his brother also disclosed the personal funds they had spent during the quarter.

They paid the Toronto-based Thirdeye Technologies Inc. $1,124.99, to build a website for their weight-loss challenge, as well as a $99.99 fee for web hosting and maintenance. With tax, their website bill came to $1,384.24.

And they paid the Mississauga-based Eyemagine Graphics Inc. $90 to create a banner for the website. That bill totalled $101.70, after tax.

Because the Fords split the costs equally, their individual share came to $742.97 each.

Original Article
Source: Huff
Author: cbc

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