Sudbury’s Elton John Ticket Scandal - Incredulous! AKA Greed

From The Sudbury Star,  February 29, 2008, by Denis St. Pierre

City spent $12,000 defending ticket scandal

After two weeks of steadfast resistance, several city councillors have lost their bid to keep secret how many tickets they received for Sunday’s Elton John concert.

As a result of a request filed by The Sudbury Star under provincial freedom-of-information legislation, the City of Greater Sudbury on Thursday released the number of tickets purchased by each council member.

However, the city maintains its secretive stance on other information being sought by The Star, such as the number of concert tickets that were available to the general public in the first place, as well as what councillors initially did with the tickets they bought.

Also in response to media inquiries, the city reported Friday that it has spent about $12,000 during the last few days to hire a private law firm, as well as a public relations company to help it deal with the ticket fiasco.

City council and its senior administration had kept secret the fact they were spending tax dollars to hire private lawyers and public relations experts to deal with the controversy. The issue was brought to the public’s attention this week after The Star uncovered e-mail correspondence between council and administrators discussing the arrangement.

The city already spends well in excess of $1 million annually on its own legal and public relations departments. While it reported it has spent about $12,000 to date for contracted legal and public relations work, the city would not disclose the names of the firms that have been hired, nor the billing rates being charged.

Although they still refuse to release significant information, city officials on Friday renewed their oft-repeated assertion that the ticket controversy should now be considered resolved.

“While the practice of providing tickets to city councillors is not unusual and has occurred in the past, the community response has been very clear.”

“While this matter has been a significant learning process for the city, we sincerely hope that the disclosure of this information will put this matter to rest,” said Mark Mieto, the city’s chief administrative officer.

The information released Friday by the city ends two weeks of secrecy by six city councillors regarding their ticket purchases - Joe Cimino (Ward 1), Jacques Barbeau (Ward 2), Ron Dupuis (Ward 5), Doug Craig (Ward 9), Frances Caldarelli (Ward 10) and Janet Gasparini (Ward 11).

The mayor and six other councillors had willingly divulged how many tickets they had purchased.

The city’s report confirmed information previously reported by The Star, that Gasparini was by far council’s biggest ticket buyer, having purchased 22 tickets. Gasparini subsequently sold six of those tickets to fellow councillors.

The ticket controversy began two weeks ago, when The Star reported that, contrary to the city’s initial assurances, politicians and some city employees had been able to jump the queue and gain preferred access to concert tickets.

Earlier this week, after enduring unprecedented public criticism and outrage, city council members reportedly gathered up as many tickets as they could and returned them for refunds.

In total, 71 of 120 tickets were returned and used in a hastily organized public draw, with winners getting to buy pairs of tickets. However, it appears thousands of residents were not aware of the draw and did not get the chance to enter.

The information released by the city Friday included a breakdown of how many tickets were purchased initially by each council member, as well as how many tickets were returned this week.

The report indicates four council members have returned all their tickets - Gasparini, Caldarelli, Joscelyne Landry-Altmann (Ward 12) and Mayor John Rodriguez.

“While the practice of providing tickets to city councillors is not unusual and has occurred in the past, the community response has been very clear,” Mieto said in a news release.

“Like the public, the city was very excited about the pending concert. We believe that the return of 71 tickets was a good first step in resolving the situation, and we will be developing a policy for future ticket access for events, which will be presented to city council next month,” he said.

The city is making “an effort to provide transparent information,” the release stated.

However, city officials have yet to explain new discrepancies in ticket information that came to light this week.

For example, city council and administrators had maintained for nearly two weeks that council had been given access to 104 tickets. But this week it was revealed that council had received a total of 120 tickets.

While no explanation was provided, the city stated in its news release Friday that “this discrepancy points to the need in creating a formal policy for Sudbury Arena event tickets.”

As well, the city reported Friday that 223 tickets for Sunday’s concert were set aside for club seat holders, whereas for the previous two weeks that number had been reported as 192 tickets. No explanation was provided for that discrepancy.

Earlier this week, The Star also reported that city administrators - with council’s knowledge - were secretly investigating the possibility of creating an arms-length private corporation to operate Sudbury Community Arena.

Under such an arrangement, “all matters would be private” and the public would no longer have access to ticket information from the arena, Mieto told council in a private e-mail.

The city responded to public criticism of the arena privatization proposal in its news release Friday.

“The city has established a practice of moving business units to private corporations,” the release stated, referring to the city’s airport, hydro utility and public housing corporation.

“In the event the city was to consider privatizing the Sudbury Arena, the change would be presented at council and publicly debated,” the release said.

dstpierre@thesudburystar.com

come and gone

A breakdown of Elton John concert ticket purchases and returns by Greater Sudbury city council, as provided Friday by the city:

Mayor John Rodriguez: purchased 11, returned 11;

Joe Cimino (Ward 1): purchased 11, returned 7;

Jacques Barbeau (Ward 2): purchased 13, returned 9;

Claude Berthiaume (Ward 3): purchased 7, returned 2;

Evelyn Dutrisac (Ward 4): purchased 13, returned 2;

Ron Dupuis (Ward 5): purchased 8, returned 5;

Andr‚ Rivest (Ward 6): purchased 2, returned 0;

Russ Thompson (Ward 7): purchased 8, returned 3;

Ted Callaghan (Ward 8): purchased 10, returned 5;*

Doug Craig (Ward 9): purchased 10, returned 0;*

Frances Caldarelli (Ward 10): purchased 8, returned 8;

Janet Gasparini (Ward 11): purchased 22, returned 19, sold 3 to Dutrisac;

Joscelyne Landry-Altmann (Ward 12): purchased 3, returned 3;

* Out of country during return period.

A Bit of 1955 Humour

Thanks to Margaret for sending this on…

Comments made in the year 1955! That’s only 53 years ago!

I’ll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, it’s going to be impossible to buy a week’s groceries for $20.00.

Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won’t be long before $2, 000.00 will only buy a used one.

If cigarettes keep going up in price, I’m going to quit. A quarter a pack is ridiculous.

Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging a dime just to mail a letter?

If they raise the minimum wage to $1.00, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store.

When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 29 cents a gallon. Guess we’d be better off leaving the car in the garage.

Kids today are impossible. Those duck tail hair cuts make it impossible to stay groomed. Next thing you know, boys will be wearing their hair as long as the girls.

I’m afraid to send my kids to the movies any more. Ever since they let Clark Gable get by with saying damn in Gone With the Wind, it seems every new movie has either hell or damn in it.

I read the other day where some scientist thinks it’s possible to put a man on the moon by the end of the century. They even have some fellows they call astronauts preparing for it down in Texas.

Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $75,000 a year just to play ball? It wouldn’t surprise me if someday they’ll be making more than the President.

I never thought I’d see the day all our kitchen appliances would be electric. They are even making electric typewriters now.

It’s too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few married women are having to work to make ends meet. It won’t be long before young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their kids so they can both work.

Marriage doesn’t mean a thing anymore, those Hollywood stars seem to be getting divorced at the drop of a hat.

I’m afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole lot of foreign business.

Thank goodness I won’t live to see the day when the Government takes half our income in taxes. I sometimes wonder if we are electing the best people to congress.

The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I seriously doubt they will ever catch on.

There is no sense going to Lincoln or Omaha anymore for a weekend, it costs nearly $15.00 a night to stay in a hotel.

No one can afford to be sick anymore, at $35.00 a day in the hospital it’s too rich for my blood.

If they think I’ll pay 50 cents for a hair cut, forget it.

Quote of the Day

With regard to the Smitherman diaper fiasco…

“The Minister said there has been an “evolution” in incontinence products in recent years that has resulted in larger-capacity diapers.”

 Larger capacity diapers???  That’s a reasonable solution to let seniors sit for hours in urine and feces???

Who elected this moron?

 “The issue isn’t how much a diaper holds,” said Wayne Samuelson, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour. “The issue is: Do you have enough people to make sure you can change them?”

 

And in the George Smitherman - “What a Jerk” category…

Article on Toronto’s CFRB website, February 27th, 2008…

Ontario health minister sparks outrage with offer to test out adult diapers.

Wed, 2008-02-27 19:35.

By: Maria Babbage, THE CANADIAN PRESS

TORONTO - So serious is he about the welfare of seniors, Ontario’s health minister said Wednesday he’s prepared to don an adult diaper - and use it - to satisfy himself that elderly residents of the province’s nursing homes are getting appropriate care.

George Smitherman sent eyebrows skyward when he made the straight-faced suggestion in response to critics who say the standard of care in Ontario nursing homes is so bad, residents are being left to wallow in soiled diapers for hours on end.

Products to help adults deal with incontinence have undergone an “evolution” in recent years and have become more absorbent, making them an invaluable tool in improving the quality of life for elderly people, Smitherman said.

He said complaints that seniors are wearing soiled diapers for extended periods of time have prompted him to “seriously consider” trying out one of the adult diapers that are commonly used in Ontario nursing homes.

“I’ve got one of these incontinence products - albeit a new one, not the ones that tend to appear at committee - on my desk and I’m really giving this matter very serious contemplation,” Smitherman said.

“I want to have the right policy for Ontarians.”

He said some of his staff laughed at him “the first three times” he talked about the idea, but Smitherman insisted the matter is no joke.

“I said, ‘How does a guy like me really actually figure out what’s right about all this?”‘ he said. “Is a product that offers greater absorption capability an appropriate product or is that a front for some diminishment of care?”

Smitherman’s bizarre test of policy was dismissed by Sid Ryan, president of the Ontario chapter of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents nursing-home workers, who said the minister is completely missing the point.

The problem isn’t the products, but residents in long-term care facilities who are forced to wear soiled diapers through the night and sometimes up until noon the next day, he said.

“If the minister wants to play silly games, well then, let him put on a diaper and sleep in it all night long and come into the legislature and wear it up until 12 o’clock,” Ryan said.

“Let him soil that diaper and lay around in it for the length of time that our seniors have to do in this province.”

Flanked by caregivers who work in Ontario nursing homes, Ryan called on the government to live up to its promises and enact a minimum 3.5 hours of personal care for residents in nursing homes.

Smitherman promised that hands-on care would be established months after new long-term care legislation passed, but the Liberal government has failed to act, he said.

Ontario nursing homes are so short-staffed, residents are forced to wait for hours for meals, are being put to bed too early at night and aren’t getting enough exercise, the group charged.

The Morning After

I’ve never been a fan of the Academy Awards, but if they’re on I’ll try to catch a few minutes here and there. My thoughts over my morning cup of joe:

• Every once in a while I have to remind myself that these are (mostly) adults play-acting to the tune of millions of dollars and sloughing it off as deep, profound work. Some might argue that it’s deserved, but to put it in perspective, maybe we should also hold over-the-top awards for people who really make a difference.
• While everything else is going on in the world - wars, poverty, hunger, illness - these “stars” are raking in billions for playing someone else. Both my daughters could win Oscars for their (albeit hormonal) performances, for God’s sake, up for the award in the “Who Do You Think You’re Fooling” category of Teenaged Angst and Melodrama. These “stars” describe a film and its characters as if they’re speaking about the Nobel Peace Prize entry. (Have you listened to some of these people gush with such fervent and exhaustive descriptions of the characters they play? Hey! Helloooo… it’s a freakin’ movie!!
• And do we really need two whole hours watching the “stars” elbow their way through the queue to get a spot near the cameras, where Ryan Seacrest asks repeatedly, “Who are you wearing?” (To which I, and I’m sure many others mumble, “Who cares?)
• And on the red carpet, how many hot stars and starlets, all of whom, post botox and cut from the same blonde cookie cutter, fall prey to an overwhelming need to speak on their cell phones as they step foot from stretched limousines? Oh, to be so important….
• Did you notice last night what a crowd there was on the carpet? Have you ever witnessed such self-importance, such immodesty, such superficiality? Does anyone in Hollywood look anyone in the eye while they’re speaking, instead of looking around at the same time? A gaggle of wannabes clawing their way to the top, I say.
• Now what about the pose of the moment? That stand with your back to the cameras and coyly look over your shoulder pose. How many times do we have to stomach yet another star/starlet (you have no idea how stupid I feel typing those two words with a straight face) caught on digital film as if they were oh-so-startled by the clamouring paparazzi?
• For me, the best part of Oscar night is the morning after, when I do my best to catch Mario Cantone’s take on the event. Perhaps he can explain why so many celebrities, chomping at the grandiose bit for the limelight and in the same breath, dupe us with the excuse that they’re still trying to overcome lifelong shyness. Shyness!!!! I think not, my friend.
• And before I forget, a note to Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton: Lose the shades, Jack, and Diane, those gloves you’ve been wearing since the Woody Allen/Annie Hall years have seen their day. Enough already. Say uncle and move on - it’s 2008, not 1978.
• There were some good moments, however, and the Class awards for good taste go to young Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, Ruby Dee, Nicole Kidman, Helen Mirren, and if she’d been there, the incomparable Judi Dench.
• I can’t name many more because I’d either never heard of them or I simply lacked the inclination to find out who they were. The good thing, of course, is that - thanks to Ryan Seacrest -we all know who they were wearing.

In closing, I would like to thank the WordPress Academy for allowing me the use of italics, without which this post could never have been written…

Pics of the Day: Sunflowers, Leaves and Image Filters

These images were created using an online image filter. The program takes an image, frames - or, “unframes” it - and then shuffles the image onto a background of your choosing. For the photo to the right, a background of solid black.

Sunflower: I took this photograph last summer in Victoria, near Windsor Park.

Leaves:  Below is a photograph I shot at the cottage last October on what we call the “dirt road” leading to Lake Panache from Espanola. I especially liked the contrast of green and black.

There are plenty of online image editors, one especially, called The Portrait Professional, that I would like to have, but it’s only for PCs. Wouldn’t you think the company would make a version for the Mac?

Bonnie vs Barbara

Last evening, Elspeth and I went to Bonnie Stern’s Cooking School/Store at Yonge and Eglinton for a dinner hosted by Elspeth’s financial advisor. There were about 20 women, all of whom seemed to have an avid interest in cooking (which meant I was the odd one out.) I should add, though, that while I don’t particularly enjoy cooking all that much, I don’t mind watching someone else cook. I’m just not that into discussing the 52 ways you can vary an oil and vinegar dressing…. Mind you, show me magazines from the 1950s with the coloured sketches of hot meals, desserts and cups of coffee, and I’m interested.

Sadly, that’s pretty much where it ends.

I find that growing numbers of people are purporting to enjoy what I call a newfangled, overdone, “passion” for cooking, but it isn’t something I buy into. In fact, I think it’s all becoming a bit of a fad - this ga-ga yearning to be seen at the right restaurants, eat the “in” foods, (organic, fusion, etc….) and have every gadget that’s overpriced and on display at Williams Sonoma this season.

Years ago we had Julia Child and a handful of other notables, but turn on the telly today and tune in the Food Network and you’ll see every Tom, Dick and Harriet hosting their own cooking shows. For me, it all gets to be too much when you see the favourite Hollywood starlet hawking a cookbook and a promise of their own show. It’s all too much, over the top, excess.

Are we bordering on cooking snobbery? Could it reach the nauseating proportions of wine snobbery? Aaghh!

But getting back to last night… Bonnie Stern is an entertaining host with a knack for engaging her audience. She’s not excessive and doesn’t laud her celebrity over the rest of us amateurs. She has an easy-going style - measuring, cooking, speaking, answering questions, and entertaining at the same time. One assistant shadows her in the kitchen, moving this and that out of Bonnie’s way, checking the doneness of the meat, watching the bread rise in the oven. Two other assistants madly wash dishes, plate and serve, and with impeccable manners, too.

(The only thing that got to me was Bonnie repeatedly plunging her hand into a bowl of fresh walnuts ready to be caramelized and playing with them as she spoke. Now that turned me off.)

Nevertheless, the evening itself was enjoyable, but the food, in my opinion, was not as tasty and savoury as anything my mother (the Barbara in the title) whips up on a daily basis, and has for years. So listening to the oohing and aahing as the participants tasted the mash of carrots, potatoes and turnips surprised me, as did the fuss over the whipped cream and toffee-flavoured syrup poured over what Bonnie called sticky toffee pudding. In reality, it was a light date cake, and it was delicious, but I was raised on British treats, and that ain’t no sticky toffee pudding, my friend. STP has to be (1) Hot, (2) Sticky, and (3) Drizzled with hot custard.

That failure can be forgotten, however, because a Pear Ginger Sangria was served, and it had to be the best drink I’ve had in recent memory. It was definitely a 10/10.

Overall, Bonnie Stern is personable, provides an entertaining evening, and obviously enjoys what she does. She offers humourous anecdotes, interesting stories, and makes time fly. I enjoyed her.

Here’s my evaluation:

Pear Ginger Sangria: 10/10

Shrimp Dumplings with Thai Peanut Sauce: Sorry, didn’t try them.

Million Dollar Satays with Charmoula Drizzle: 7/10

Caramelized Onion and Gorgonzola Pizza: (I had another glass of Sangria instead)

Frisee Salad with Cambazola, Roasted Pears and Walnuts: 8/10

Roasted Halibut in Spicy Cherry Tomato Sauce: 8/10

Country Mash: 5/10

Sauteed Green Beans with Garlic: 7/10

Jim Lehay’s No-Knead Artisanal Bread: 8/10

Bonnie’s version of Sticky Toffee Pudding: 3/10 or,

Bonnie’s Date Cake with Whipped Cream: 9/10

2008 Mini Clubman

 

 

This is the new 2008 Mini Cooper Clubman that debuted locally last Thursday.  Roger and I had a look at it today and took it for a test drive.  It was peppy, fun to drive, and had really smooth shifting of the manual transmission.  It’s in the running for my next car purchase.

Lohan Assumes the Pose: Monroe’s Final Sitting

No matter Lindsay Lohan’s protestations, the pictures in New York Magazine ask viewers to engage in a kind of mock necrophilia.

read more | digg story

Pic of the Day: Fort Erie Racetrack

 

This was taken in September 2006 at the Fort Erie Racetrack.   Despite being an overcast day, the colours were spectacular and I managed to get some good shots.

Camera:  Olympus Evolt E-300 Digital SLR