LARRY'S SPEECHES AND DEPUTATIONS
For many years I have spoken out on many issues in my community, Ward 7, the City and in favour of groups and organizations that contribute positively to our society. I am also a prolific "blogger" and contribute my thoughts and ideas on many electronic forums that have been fine-tuned over time as effective policy statements. These ideas form the backbone of my election platform, ideas that I have presented at City Hall committees, City Agencies, Boards and Commissions (ABCs) and in community groups.
The result has been a series of speeches and deputations on various topics of interest. A list of each speech/deputation is found below, along with a summary of the subject matter. Readers can download the speech/deputation (a Word document) by linking to the attachments at the bottom of the page.
Regarding my blog postings: There are far too many to list here -- if readers are interested, please contact me or do a "Google search" on my name.
- August 16th, 2010. Executive Committee deputation on the Emery Village BIA Flagpole project. Miguel Avila and I did a joint deputation against this project. Although the media ridiculed it mercilessly, both the Executive Committee and City Council supported the idea for this project. Hopefully a change in Councillor will bring this silly idea to a crashing halt and save BIA members the $10 Million cost.
- April 22nd, 2010(1). Economic Development Committee deputation on the expansion of the Emery Village BIA to the Humber Summit community. Through my deputation, the committee was informed that the City Ombudsman was proceeding with a formal complaint on this expansion, and I asked for a deferral of the motion until the investigation was completed. Unfortunately, committee members ignored this important point.
- April 22nd, 2010(2). Economic Development Committee deputation on Holiday shopping. As I stated in a similar deputation two years earlier, limiting retail shopping on holidays will be ineffective, similar to Sunday shopping laws. Although the motion passed to allow holiday shopping, the motion was deferred at Council.
- April 22nd, 2010(3). Economic Development Committee deputation on the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA). My deputation was a supplement to the presentation made by the GTAA, as I argued that negative externalities should also be considered. Although Kyle Rae (the Committee Chair) could not stop my deputation from being put on the record, he nonetheless prevented me from speaking on the topic. Shameful.
- December 11th, 2009. The Nerio Valdez Foundation or NIVA (www.neriovaldezfoundation.com) is a youth-based group created in honour of a young man who lost his life to violence. The Foundation asked for my help in establishing itself as a charity. Later, they invited me as a special guest to their fundraising dinner and asked me to speak as well.
- November 11th, 2009. Economic Development Committee deputation on the BIA expansion. I received a great many compliments on this deputation which summarized, in the form of a recipe gone bad, of how the expansion plans were corrupted by a bad process. Hopefully the City Ombudsman's report will open everybody's eyes to this awful circumstance.
- October 1st, 2009. Toronto Zoo Board Deputation on the Panda Project. Miguel Avila and I did a joint deputation on the silliness behind bringing Pandas to the Toronto Zoo and the wasteful "junket" proposed to China. While the media had a field-day with this story and the junket was cut back significantly, the trip proceeded. Even today yet ANOTHER junket is being planned and Miguel provided the Board with ANOTHER deputation.
- September 14th, 2009. Etobicoke York Community Council (EYCC) Deputation on street-naming on a Weston/Sheppard development. My deputation exposed the connection between certain street names proposed and their connection to the incumbent. Fortunately, the Toronto Star picked up the story and exposed the foolishness behind the motion. In the end, some of the street names were taken off the list.
- May 21st, 2009. Toronto Zoo Board Deputation on the need for a Citizen's Advisory Committee (CAC). This deputation exposed the mismanagement of the Board and proposed that a CAC be formed to provide them some effective advice. The Zoo Board ignored my pleas but the Globe & Mail published a story about it.
- February 21st, 2008. Audit Committee Deputation on the Fraud & Waste Annual Report. I was critical of the lack of transparency provided in fraud and waste hotline complaints, mine in particular which exposed complaints against the incumbent in relation to the waiving of his election-sign fines, among other issues.
- February 19th, 2008. Economic Development Committee Deputation on Holiday Shopping. My original deputation on holiday shopping (another was made on April 22nd, 2010) compared this debate to the ill-fated Sunday shopping laws. My argument was that retail stores will eventually open for business during the holidays, whether City Council agrees to it or not.
- October 29th, 2007. Executive Committee Deputations on Election-Related matters. I wrote two separate deputations on election issues: recommendations in the future AND the reimbursement of legal costs for Councillors for Compliance Audits. In the former, David Miller cut me off many times and prevented me from speaking. In the latter, as the Mayor declared a conflict of interest and could not attend the discussion, I informed the Executive Committee that reimbursing members of Council was not legal. It seems that few members of Council were concerned about the ethical and legal ramifications of their actions, except for Doug Holyday who filed a court challenge with his own private funds. Members of City Council should be ashamed of themselves.
- June 1st, 2007. Compliance Audit Committee Request (Part 2). This should be read together with the May 18th 2007 letter (item 15 below). I found a number of serious inconsistencies in the incumbent's 2006 campaign financial statements and requested an audit, as was my right under section 81 of the Municipal Elections Act. After two sessions of the committee (over 2 1/2 hours) and a real estate appraisal that was so inaccurate it had to be re-done, the committee voted 2 to 1 not to proceed with an audit. Even today, I have a difficult time understanding their (split) decision.
- May 24th, 2007. Etobicoke York Community Council Deputation on the re-naming of the Humber-Sheppard Community Centre to the Carmine Stefano Community Centre. Looking back now I was surprised by the attacks I received from Council members after exposing the connection between the incumbent and the Stefano family. It was also the first time Rob Ford acknowledged my efforts in bringing this to the attention of Council.
- May 18th, 2007(1). Compliance Audit Committee Request (Part 1). This should be read together with the June 1st 2007 letter (item 13 above).
- May 18th, 2007(2). Supplementary Information regarding my request for a compliance audit of the incumbent. The Excel spreadsheet lists all election sign fines issued during the 2006 election by MLS for illegally-placed signs, along with the how much each candidate ACTUALLY paid (an affidavit signed by a candidate could -- and has -- waived the fines). The incumbent was issued fines totalling $11,425 for 457 illegally-placed signs (all fines waived by affidavit), Sal Piccinini was issued fines totalling $6,400 for 256 illegally-placed signs (all fines waived by affidavit). By the way, Rob Ford was issued fines totalling $1,275 for 51 illegally-placed signs and his fines were also waived by affidavit. Other Councillors who had election sign fines waived in this manner include Sandra Bussin ($225) , Suzan Hall ($1,450, but she admitted to some illegally-placed signs) and Norm Kelly ($250).
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