David Miller recently surprised most Torontonians, and many other observers, by announcing that he will not run for a third term as mayor in next years municipal elections.
Many people are thrilled. I'm happy to see Miller depart. However, there's a huge mess left behind.
Now speaking of messes, the explosion at the Sunrise Propane facility - now a little over a year ago - made a big one. You may remember that Miller was away on vacation at the time - and decided not to come back to support Torontonians at that time.
Now what's really interesting. Stung by the criticism, Miller seems to have pushed the city into taking over the clean-up of the site. If you believe Miller, this was because Sunrise wasn't doing the clean-up. However, the company stated that they had not been allowed on site. The fire marshall would not allow access during the investigation.
Regardless, it seems that the city's rules for emergency procurement were not followed. Certain city managers can authorise emergency expenditures - without going through the normal tendering process.
However, they must report the emergency procurement to council (or the appropriate committee) at the very next meeting.
This constituent can find no record of a city manager making such a report. If so, this expenditure was not authorized.
The rush to push Sunrise out of the cleanup - and make it look like Miller was riding to the rescue - may cost the taxpayers big time when this gets to court.
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