Jeff Lehman needs to take a creditability check

http://www.joetascona4mayor.com/index.html

If he looks like a developer….
Jeff Lehman needs to take a creditability check,
or at the very least to realize that making a
statement often enough does not make it the
truth.

Lehman, recently quoted in the Barrie
Examiner, indicated “he does not accept
campaign contributions from developers”.

For the record let’s just follow the development
“money trail” – who paid ($5,000) so he could
have dinner with the Premier?

How about we just follow the development
“contributors trail” – from his list of campaign
contributors for 2006 land developments were dealt
with during his term on Barrie council.

Or maybe we should follow the development
“lineage” – NRU Greater Toronto Area Edition,
Wednesday, March 24, 2010, state: “His father,
Bob Lehman, is a former City of Toronto senior
Planner and president of Meridian Planning
Consultants. Jeff Lehman is a principal with the
Urban development firm MKI”.

How does that old adage go – If he looks like a
developer than maybe he is a developer!

DOWNTOWN IS HEART AND SOUL ACCORDING TO REPORT

http://www.joetascona4mayor.com/index.html

Downtown is heart and soul: report
Author: Laurie Watt, STAFF
Date: Mar 16, 2010
BARRIE - The city is taking another look at what downtown Barrie could be.

With a polished prospectus in hand, economic development director Hany Kirolos talks about how ready the city is to encourage investment – particularly a hotel/convention centre and a major grocery store housed in a complex that includes residential and/or office space.

Unfortunately, this is the third time the city has gone back to the drawing board to revive what Barrie is calling the “heart and soul of our city.”

“The Patty Xenos design set out in 2006 is still very much alive. We have a financial district and are working on the theatre/entertainment side,” said Kirolos.

“What is downtown’s brand? We need to develop that, and the Xenos vision outlined that, by showing the interplay between elements and (creating) an experience.”

Known for her work with IntraWest developments, the Montreal-based commercial master planner suggested Barrie encourage districts – including a business/professional one along Collier Street, entertainment area Dunlop West, and an artistic walk on Mulcaster Street. Her $350,000 vision suggested a promenade along the waterfront, and a public plaza area, to create a hub of activity in Memorial Square.

Barrie has been encouraging investment – with 2006 plans for both the Scotiabank and TD centre now in full bloom. Barrie also converted the old Scotiabank into a theatre, which anchors the entertainment district at the Five Points.

Other than that, there’s little to see, at least above ground, Kirolos said.

Two of the Five Points are vacant, razed by fire. One corner featured a chip wagon last summer, the other a sausage vendor. Five Points is supposed to be the confluence of energetic districts that would attract people and investment. However, the reality is an old hotel, a coffee shop, and the city’s makeshift small theatre.

“What develops there is vital to the city as well as to the (properties) in the area,” said Kirolos.

“I’d like to see anything that would reinforce a sense of vitality. It could be an office tower or an educational facility, something sustainable that would drive traffic.

“City Hall can’t pull this off alone. We have to partner with the province,” Kirolos said.

“We will lead, facilitate and support the discussions with the local private sector, and get property owners to the table.”

Because it has little control, Barrie is instead working on an incentive program to fill those vacant sites with benches and flowers, and possibly, public art.

Barrie is also trying to encourage landowners and developers to come to the table with ideas.

“At the end of the day, the city is trying to deliver on a plan – and that plan is vital to the overall integrity of intensification and vision for downtown,” said Kirolos.

Vacant lots abound. A minute-walk away, there’s the parking lot where the city envisions a convention centre. A five-minute walk away, at the financial and artistic corner is the parking lot and Foodland (formerly IGA) site, where the city wants to see a more up-to-date food store housed in an office/residential complex.

Barrie’s RFP for the site describes an “old market square area,” that would attract tourists and better serve the growing downtown community and envisions retail, offices, a private club, bank, as well as residential uses.

“We’re taking the initiative to position ourselves in Ontario as Ontario’s top investment ready city,” said Kirolos. “The world can change on a dime, more than ever before,” he said, especially economically, with the boom time followed by a sudden drastic downturn, moving into a recovery phase. One day, investors will be ready and eager.

“We have to be ready for it.”

Mayor urged to keep it together

http://www.joetascona4mayor.com/index.html

An open letter to Mayor Dave Aspden

All right Dave, enough is enough.

You gave this mayoral thing a good run. Well, that's not exactly true, but you gave it a run, anyway. That much we can agree on, for good or ill.

But it's not for you, this public service thing. All this pressure to communicate thoughtfully and clearly to some 150,000 people is running you ragged.

Look in the mirror. You see that? You're starting to grow into a caricature of yourself and it's unbecoming.

Have some pride, man. Keep it together.

Let's talk seriously, here. A man of your character doesn't make elementary school spelling and grammar errors in a $7,300 advertisement in a national newspaper.

You take covert trips to China and venture back-room deals in hallways.

You used to be a cop, you know how to make things happen under the radar.

But it's getting away from you, isn't it? Can't you feel it?

It's not too late to back out with some grace, before you totally embarrass yourself.

And there are options. Someone with your qualifications could easily find work in either the food-service, or housekeeping industries.

Or, if you're dead-set on working for City Hall, there's much garbage to be collected.

Give it some thought and remember you have friends like me pulling for you. Keep your stick on the ice.

Dwight Edwards Barrie

Dinner didn't 'sway' Grits: councillor

A city councillor says it's "incredibly naive"
for the New Democrats to allege the Liberal
government was swayed in its decision to change
the Barrie-Innisfil boundary by land developers
who attended a political fundraiser two years ago.

The NDP says developers who paid $5,000 each to
attend a private dinner with the premier were
rewarded by the government with greatly increased
land values.

New Democrat Peter Kormos said members of the
registered lobby group East Moratorium Land Owners
met with McGuinty and several cabinet ministers at
a Barrie home in May 2008.

McGuinty denies any wrongdoing.

Kormos should not assume the border decision was
based on the fundraiser, said Barrie Coun. Barry Ward,
who attended the reception prior to the dinner.

"It's incredibly naive to think that one $5,000-a-plate
dinner would make the premier make up his mind on a matter,"
Ward said. "If that was the case, we wouldn't have wasted
the last 10 years and spending millions of dollars to settle
this issue. We would have just written a cheque for $100,000
to the Liberal Party and we would have had our boundary
change.

"It's actually insulting to a lot of Barrie politicians,
residents and developers who have spent the last 10 years
trying to get the boundaries expanded for the sake of
Barrie's economy and the environment," Ward added.
"It completely ignores the environmental benefits and
the economics."

The government passed legislation to transfer more than
5,600 acres of land from Innisfil to Barrie, including
nearly 1,000 acres of land owned by members of East
Moratorium Land Owners. The legislation ended a development
freeze on the so-called 'moratorium lands'.

With the freeze lifted, Kormos says the landowners could
benefit by up to $30 million. The NDP says developers
paid between $25,000 and $66,000 per acre for the properties
in question, which have been selling for $75,000 per acre
since the Barrie-Innisfil Boundary Adjustment Act became law.

McGuinty said the Kormos allegations are "grasping" and
"overreaching."

The Welland-area MPP's timing is way off, Ward added.

"It seems strange that Peter Kormos would bring this
up now, more than 18 months after the dinner, almost a
year after the boundary change was announced and more
than two months after it took effect," Ward said.
"Where's he been sleeping for the last year and a half
to finally figure this out? I think it's just a ploy
to draw attention to himself. I see no other reason."

The fundraiser was an opportunity to meet the premier,
said Ward, who attended the reception with Barrie Coun.

Jeff Lehman

neither of whom forked over $5,000.
Ward said he was invited by

businessman

and former Barrie mayor

Rob Hamilton

one of the organizers.

Also at the reception, Ward said, were officials from
Georgian College and Royal Victoria Hospital.

"These were all people who had a chance to have
one-on-one meetings with the province to make their
case for things Barrie needed," Ward said.

"There were lots of people there, but they certainly
weren't all developers."

Innisfil Mayor Brian Jackson was not present at the
Barrie dinner, either.

"I believe different people were invited to greet the
premier," Jackson said. "I was not invited. I wish I
had $5,000 to put in a good word for the Town of Innisfil.

"If a decision was made that benefited a certain group
of developers, that's inappropriate," Jackson added.

"I'm extremely disappointed to hear this might possibly
have occurred, because it is not in the best interest of
either the Town of Innisfil or the City of Barrie."

Dunlop said political fundraisers are nothing new.

"It's perfectly legal under Elections Ontario," he said.
"The optics are bad, no question about that, but they are
legal. Maybe in the end the moratorium lands got advanced
quicker because of the meeting with McGuinty, but who will
ever know?"

Dunlop said he has issues with the bigger picture about
what happened. "Innisfil really got dumped on," he said.

DEVELOPING THE NEW INNISFIL LANDS

NDP keeps up attack on McGuinty over developers
The Canadian Press

LISTOWEL, Ont. — The opposition parties can take all
the shots they want, Premier Dalton McGuinty said
Thursday, as long as people know he would never
betray their trust by giving special favours to
those who make donations to the Liberal Party.

For the second day in a row, the New Democrats
demanded answers about a land transfer they claim
rewarded developers who paid $5,000 each to attend
a private dinner with McGuinty. They charge legislation
that followed the dinner increased the value of the
developers' lands by about $30 million.

McGuinty wasn't in the legislature Thursday, but
accused the NDP of playing politics with the issue
when he responded during a local announcement in
this rural southwestern Ontario community.

"They're doing what they do, and you guys gotta
write the stories, but I've been doing this for
20 years now, and I hope that people get the sense
that I wouldn't do that stuff," McGuinty said.

"That would be to betray the confidence of
Ontarians." Voters deserve to know who attended
the May 2008 dinner and what was discussed, said
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

"The average Ontarian who's worried about their
ER closing or losing a child-care space or not
being able to get a job -- they can't pay $5,000
a plate to have the ear of the premier and of his
top cabinet ministers," she said.

"So who was there? What was being talked about?
These are pretty basic questions that I think the
government needs to come clean on."

McGuinty declined to say if the developers lobbied
him at the dinner for the legislation.

"I can't recall what we talked about at a dinner
last week, let alone a dinner that we had two years
ago," he said.

The NDP say members of the East Moratorium Land
Owners, a registered lobby group, met with McGuinty
and several cabinet ministers at a private home
in Barrie in May 2008. Elections Ontario records
show about 20 developers paid $5,000 each to attend.

Last December, the Liberal government passed
legislation to transfer nearly 1,000 acres of
land the developers own in Innisfil to the city
of Barrie -- part of a larger land transfer --
ending a development freeze on their lands in
the process.

The government acted on the recommendations of
a provincial facilitator who was trying to mediate
the dispute between the city of Barrie and Innisfil,
said McGuinty.

"We relied on the independent advice of a facilitator,"
he said. "We did what we thought was the best thing
to do to serve the public interest in the circumstances,
simple as that."

The NDP said the developers paid as little as $25,000
an acre for the lands in question, which have been
listed at $75,000 an acre since the bill became law,
even before they are developed.

The best way to clear the air is to release the
facilitator's report, which the government still
hasn't done, Horwath said.

"We still don't have the answers to those questions,"
she said.

"Put the report on the table, blow the lid off this
thing. Come clean and let people know exactly what
is in that report."