So last Thursday, at our Regular Council meeting you may have heard that they voted AGAIN to form the new “ Wasaga Beach Sports and Entertainment Corporation.”

Why? Well, apparently they messed up the motion the first time around so had to do it over again. But I encourage everyone to actually watch this meeting and very carefully listen to what is said. Since they first voted to waste our money, they have had a chance to listen to everything being discussed on Facebook.

You may have heard me say our Council governs via FaceBook. This time it sounds like Council members may still be listening, but most don’t care. Listen to their comments regarding the new entertainment corporation. Almost every comment was wasted repeating the same rhetoric we heard the first time around.

Only Councilor Dileo spoke up in opposition of this corporation. Watch the screen at this very moment. It has Mayor Smiths face squarely in focus. Mayor Smith couldn’t arrange his vacation schedule around Council meetings so he appeared via the internet. It was good to see his body language when he forgets people are watching. He looked gutted and angry when Councilor Dileo spoke in opposition to his coveted party planning corporation. Shame on you Brian. You are our Mayor, not a mob ruler.

I don’t have time to pull exact quotes this week, but here is the gist of what was said;

Councilor Dileo didn’t understand why this formation of a corporation was necessary. She suggested concerts could be organized by the existing Events Department, even if we had to hire more staff. I agree!

A few council members nodded and basically said they agreed with the motion to form their party corp.

Some emphasized a defining line between events moving forward that will still be put on by the town while other events would be by the corporation.

But the Mayor felt the need to explain further, as did the Deputy CAO. I’m glad they spoke up. I WILL deal with specific quotes later so I am not accused of mis-quoting. (There are plenty of gems in the meeting recording)

For instance: It sounds like they had a legal opinion, not once but three times saying what they were doing was legal. Wait, what? Wouldn’t one legal opinion be adequate? Did they doubt the answer the first two times? Then I picked up on another point. It sounds like the three opinions were sought from the same lawyer. Did the really think he would contradict himself?

Maybe they simply couldn’t believe their luck that a lawyer was okay with their plans. After all, they basically said that they KNOW that the Town was not permitted to make money on events and forming a corporation was their way around this provincial rule.

Brian Smith even expressed his disbelief that the Province would even have such a rule. Imagine a rule that prevented a municipality from competing with private businesses.

Is this what Wasaga beach voters asked for in the last election, or is this what we are simply forced to swallow? They emphasized that the $500,000.00 (plus costs) was basically a no risk loan to the new party corporation. No risk? Seriously?

This is simply a brazen, obnoxious way for Council members to plan big parties, pay friends insane wages to be party planners and do so while skirting provincial rules regarding the roles of a municipality.

The irony is, that they base all of their decisions on the recent example of holding two concerts that they CLAIM made large amounts of money. Wait… I thought I heard one of them (the Mayor?) say the Province had rules that they were not allowed to make money… even in running a single event.

I’m guessing they plan to pile all events for the opening year celebrations of the TPAL into one non-profit “event” for Provincial reporting, but for the public they want to claim massive profits in order to justify this Bizarre Party Planning Corporation.

They are basically saying hey Wasaga Beach. Look at us! We put on great concerts that were so profitable that we will be able to form a corporation and repeat those profits. In fact we will make so much we can pay back the $500,000.00 loan. Continue to pay over $400,000.00 a year and even pay off a $30,000,000.00 TPAL loan.

But wait…. They will also convince the Province that they are not making any “profit” in order to comply with provincial rules.

This is bizarre! If I have it wrong, Joe Belanger… please reach out through one of your many Facebook soldiers and set the record straight. I welcome the correction.

What should infuriate everyone is the blatant deceit appearing to being used. These are our elected officials celebrating a loophole. To date there is NO accurate public accounting of either of the concerts or of the ongoing celebration events.

Could this be why we still are not privy to the cheque registers going back to April? Do the April, May and June registers show expenditures that were not in the poorly prepared financial story boards used to justify this new corporate entity?

Regardless of what my objections may be, regardless of Councillor Dileo’s concerns, regardless of any of the “online chatter” (I think that was the Deputy Mayors description) the motion was passed by a vote of 6-1.

So it is a moot point to object any further. Lawyers will now be retained to form the corporation. The legal fees and all costs to set up this corporation are 100% covered from our taxes. Once the bank accounts are opened, $500,000.00 will be transferred into a new bank account. Staff from within their ranks will be hired into the new positions. Hey… if it happens midway through the year, maybe a few more staff can skirt the sunshine list by claiming their new pay cheque is not a municipal wage???

There has been no talk about any accountability for these funds. It had been shared previously that $427,000.00 of the funds would support wages for the four people they plan to put into the managing of this party planning corporation. There has been no disclosure of whether ANYONE has any shared liability if the $500,000.00 loan cannot be repaid.

The commitment of first year wages will leave them $73,000.00 for initial costs like band deposits. Fancy office chairs, computers, etc. We have seen some of the cheque registers, so you know they will spend, spend, spend.

Politically, there is an age old tool used to measure right vs. wrong. It is known as the sniff test. So how do you think this one smells?

In my opinion, this is one of the most abysmal failures of the sniff test since Brian got his slate elected. They are behaving like a cabal that will reward those they please and those who question their power to do so are simply out of luck.

Our elected officials share a fiduciary duty to care for our finances. Instead, this appears to be an ongoing attempt to manipulate our finances to achieve their goals of being the best party planners to ever take office. What a legacy!

If they are comfortable that this is a legal, financially viable plan, why did they seek three legal opinions? Why have we never seen a complete financial report of the concerts they ran that were apparently NOT allowed to make money.

I hope that true event planning businesses don’t sue the Town of Wasaga Beach for unfair competition practices. Anyone who believes this will not cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars is not looking close enough at what is not being shared.

Not sure what I mean by “what is not being shared”? There was another item on the agenda that was discussed behind closed doors during their in camera session. They came out of the in camera session and then had to vote on the motion publicly. It appears an EXTRA $50,000.00 was required from reserves to fund senior staff, non union wages. A very vague motion was worded and passed allowing this expenditure with absolutely NO public disclosure of why that money was needed. Was it a mathematical error the first time they passed the original spending? Was it to compensate for mis-calculated retroactive payments? Well it’s none of OUR business. They discussed it secretly, senior staff need an extra $50,000.00 and that’s all we need to know.

This is just another example of where our Council simply says “trust us.” The problem is, they say this during the same meeting where they show that they are willing to work around the rules to get whatever they want.

How many more times will they simply reach into the reserves to take what they want with very little or NO public accountability?

The “Wasaga Beach Sports and Entertainment Corporation” is now a reality. Councillor Ego’s only comment was that she was pleased they listened to her and added the word “Beach” to the title of the corporation.

It looks like our Council has the important stuff covered. Be sure to add “Beach” to the name, despite all of the legal/ ethical issues they should concern themselves with. Yep! Sounds about right!