Vote…

Oshawa used the excuse of the Privacy protection laws to hide behind. She has set the record clear.

Here is the story she is referring to.

I am happy that Oshawa went the route of the Ombudsman in the first place but they need to follow the rules when an investigation is warranted.

Remember to sign the petition to extend the term of Andre Marin , lower down on the left side in the links section.

Alan Shanoff of the Toronto Sun and Mike Bradley the Mayor of Sarnia have signed it already.

You should also!

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/A_Morin_Extend/index.html , I have a link on the left panel of the blog. Disregard typo.

Andre Marin’s term is up in April 2010, It is only April 2009 but I believe the process to either find the next person or decide to extend the term for the current Ombudsman, Andre Marin would not be left to the last minute.

Andre Marin has done so much for the Citizens of Ontario, Children’s Aid, MPAC, OLG investigations, some Hospital jurisdictions and LHINs.

Ontario needs Mr. Marin to continue in his mandate, please sign the petition and encourage friends to sign. Who knows it could help and the Government of Ontario offers to extend the term and Mr. Marin accepts.

Spread the word.

The office of the Ontario Ombudsman sent this to me moments ago. I will paste in the full text of the media release. (more…)

I was emailed from the Town on Tuesday before I contacted them to inquire about the status of this contract which was up for renewal. Here is the link to the Town Report- I have not read it all yet, it is very through. It comes down to the facts of– Ajax has not had any closed meetings complaints so why pay for an external service when the Ontario Ombudsman offers the same service, paid for by our taxes already, has educational materials available and conducts investigations in a similar manner.

I was proactively emailed by a councillor, Shaun Collier to inform me of the decision. Shaun Collier and Scott Crawford voted No to LAS the first time around and subsequent review after the first Staff report was not in my opinion complete.

This was the right decision. They should have done this 2 years ago but better late then never.

This now leaves Whitby and Clarington using the services of Local Authority Services, a sub. of the AMO. Pickering and Oshawa did not appoint closed meeting investigators and by default the Ontario Ombudsman had jurisdiction. Ajax voted at the General Governmental Committee on Thursday and will ratify the decision at council on Monday.

I will go to witness this as I spoke on the issue 2 years ago.

Andre Marin’s term is up in one year , the Ombudsman act states that the term can be extended. I hope it is, if you value the service Mr. Marin has given this province , email their office and show your support and tell them you think the Province should extend his term. The office of the Ombudsman is truly there for “Us” - “We” the citizens.

http://www.ombudsman.on.ca/en/contact-us.aspx that is the contact site.

Contact your MPP and tell them you want to see the Term of Andre Marin extended.

I have no idea if Mr. Marin wants to go beyond his 5 years but I hope he does. If you play the Lottery you owe a lot to him and his office!

I received an email today to my question regarding the difference between his 3.25% raise everyone got and what I calculated in a spreadsheet from the Ontario Salary Disclosure List.

I don’t apologize for anything, I was after information and I received it. Remember I did not call anyone crooks or say it was Highway robbery Here are his words. (more…)

I emailed the Mayor of Sarnia yesterday and had a response today! , on a holiday even I will add. Sarnia is a City of about 71,149 (2006 Census) people but the Mayor has been in place for 20 years and before that he was involved in Provincial Government, here is his Bio. Here is the final excerpt from lower down on the page. I want to be sure people understand that this Mayor has an extensive background and I don’t even live in his City but he found the time to provide me a response to my question that I was seeking the perspective from someone leading a Council. When I want to know something from a Mayor’s perspective, He seems to be the one I go to! (more…)

I had to read and re-read a report until it hit me , in my thinking, the council has approved bonuses in the range of
3% - 9% however just maybe if you are a citizen reading this report or maybe even a councillor you could have been under the impression that this bonus was only for the Fire Fighters Association. In the report that I link to in the previous post. http://www.townofajax.com/AssetFactory.aspx?did=4770 are the following paragraphs. (more…)

May 2008 this outlines upcoming “Exempt” group. Means the Managers. http://www.townofajax.com/AssetFactory.aspx?did=4770

wage rates for the Town’s Exempt Group be increased by
3.25%, effective January 1, 2009
3.75%, effective January 1, 2010
2.75%, effective January 1, 2011;

For the raises that were effective January 2008 is this

http://www.townofajax.com/AssetFactory.aspx?did=4245

Here is a spreadsheet that shows all 100k Salary Members for 2008 and their previous years to 2001.

Only if you see a name on 2008 are they included for other years. Here is a link, the Charts are separate as an image. I just saved the excel as a web-page so my server I think did not like the chart code.
Chart for Salary Increases as % Year over Year and here is a chart of Ajax growth to 2021 projected.

At this point I still want answers to my previous posts.

Citizens are very touchy when it comes to this, we are hiring consultants all the time it seems, we never have enough facilities but the existing senior staff are able to get raises and increases higher then anyone would expect. I just don’t get it.

I am not bashing on a parks and rec people or some other worker slaving away for 60,000 - 90,000 a year.

I am not calling anyone a crook or saying anything is highway robbery, Just give me a straight answer on how the Municipal world works in this regard.

Are there salary caps for positions ? are we just to continue increasing the pay for a job as new people move here? Will a clerk make a million dollars at some point? Where does the line end ?

Remember this next budget year and next election, ask your councillor ! Ask your councillor for an explanation.

The last report from staff on remuneration only pertained to the Councillors, why? Who were the ones that only got the 3.25% raise like I was told ?????????

I have come to the conclusion that the term “Service Levels” and Maintain service levels, does not mean service — it means raises and salaries. Not the Service.

Thank god I did not do this for the Region Level!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go see what the Head guy at OMERS is paid. Shakes head.

Note: All data is from public available information– Ministry of Finance, Town of Ajax for population info and Census.
The Town of Ajax provides the salaries to the Ministry. of Finance - Ontario

Definitions

Salary - The amount shown as “salary paid” in this compendium may not represent the employee’s annual rate of salary in 2008. The salary required to be made public under the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act, 1996 reflects the amount to be reported to the Canada Revenue Agency on the employer’s T-4 slip for the employee. The “T-4 amounts” may include components that relate to a year prior to 2008. These may result, for example, from retroactive revisions to salary scales, from grievance payments or from vacation pay-outs upon exit from employment. Note also that the “T-4 amounts” may exceed the employee’s annual rate of salary if the employee worked overtime during the year. The “T-4 amounts” may be less than the annual rate of salary if the employee worked only part of a year.

Taxable Benefits - The amount shown as taxable benefits is the amount shown on the T-4 slip as prepared for the Canada Revenue Agency. These amounts can include free or subsidized housing, board and lodging, travel in a designated area, personal use of employer’s vehicle, interest-free and low-interest loans, other payments made on behalf of the employee such as relocation costs, employer contributions for basic life insurance, and tuition reimbursements.

I am still waiting for my questions to be answered in a direct way.

I have been told that Management and Directors do not get overtime. I was told that the increases for all staff and Management were 3.25% great people work hard and deserve a raise.

I just want to know why on the list the Ministry has for those making more then $100 K a year, appear to have increases from the last list that are higher then that % I was told. Is this to make up for the evening meetings and they don’t technically get overtime ? What is the policy ?

We are all entitled to understand the make up of it. We are stakeholders , shareholders , taxpayers in this Corporation of the Town of Ajax.