I find I can't really help myself when I grab a Now magazine. In spite of my better judgment and sense of decency, my curiosity gets the better of me, continually bringing me back to look through that one section of this free weekly.
No, No.... I am not refering to the ballooning adult classifieds in the back. I am talking about the lead political stories which are always good for a laugh or a shaking of the head.
This week, Enzo DiMatteo who has the city hall beat laments over the bureaucratic about-face by the Miller appointed City Manager, Joe Pennancetti. He begins:
'When David Miller handpicked him in 2009 to succeed Shirley Hoy, his was the only name on the short list before the executive committee. Pennachetti's credentials are impecable.'
Apparently being railroaded into office by a group of tax and spend Millerites is all the qualification needed for the Now Readership. But now this shining endorsement has been tarnished in the eyes of progressives who are keeping score at City Hall. It is telling when journalists use the device: 'some have said XYZ' when they want to lend objectivity to their own partisan opinion:
'This week, though, some of those among the Milleristas who defended Pennachetti's choice were left muttering to themselves.'
Having said that, all pretense of objective reporting is thrown to the wind:
'How did it come to this? Meeting the public's needs first and foremost, not the mayor's bottom line, is supposed to be the job of the city's top bureaucrat.'
In other words, those who petulantly predicted a recalcitrant bureaucracy and city council to the new right wing Mayorship (Enzo DiMatteo being a prime example) are finding Ford's effectiveness is not just limited to election campaigns.
Dimatteo is shocked and appalled that Pennachetti would actually work with his new boss on initiatives that differ from the usual limited range of nepotist, process oriented navel gazing commonly found in Council.
His unarticulated grumbling about cutting 7500 tax eating, budget destroying jobs (supposedly some ugly secret the Mayor is keeping from the public) is followed by an assertion that the Mayor is playing a 'shell game' in order to conceal a $774 (sic—I assume millions) budget shortfall. It is a disconnect that is so glaring, I have to wonder if the editor even read this far into the article.
Underneath the accusations and listing of mayoral misdeeds runs the only policy reccomendation DiMateo and his ilk know: tax increases on a City that has one of the highest rates in North America.
Adding to the laughs are a few snarky inches dedicated to Jeffrey Griffiths, who made headlines uncovering the financial chicanery at the Toronto Community Housing Corporation who's corruption was confirmed by his seeking of an extended contract. Apparently it's only OK to be on the public payroll when you have bought into the essential goodness of Big Government.
