Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is at it once again. Not only is the mayor's office making it more difficult for the public to find out
what exactly he does all day and with whom he spends his time, but it's also begun
destroying documents that show how he decides to spend his money.
It's been known that Mayor Ford doesn't voluntarily release his daily schedules. Instead, the media relies on access-to-information laws that require the mayor's office to reveal his complete itineraries within 30 days. It is, after all, in our best interest to know which business people and politicians he meets with.
In recent months, however, his staff have begun removing the names of his meeting partners and putting them into separate documents.
When two news sources requested these documents, his office demanded a 20-day extension on the deadline. His staff said that meeting the 30-day limit would "unreasonably interfere with the operations of the institution," and the request required a "more extensive" search.
The office then failed to meet the extended deadline - last Wednesday - and doesn't seem to be in any rush to hand over the information.
What's perhaps more troubling than the office's unwillingness to release the public records is Mayor Ford's own response to the situation.
In a recent interview, the mayor said, "With all due respect to the media, I worry about the taxpayers. The taxpayers know where I am. I go to people's houses, just like I did yesterday." He also added, "People know where I am. People call me. I return all their calls."
I can't help but wonder where exactly Mr. Ford thinks that we, the taxpayers, get our information. Without the media, I don't know where the mayor is. He's never come to my house. He has never come to anyone's house that I know. I certainly don't feel that I should have to call his office everyday to find out what he's doing. The media is a means through which we keep track of the mayor.
In regards to the release of his schedules, it's hard to say if such a request would in fact interfere with the institution's operations since we don't know what those operations are to begin with, and it's pretty darn suspect that such a basic document –a schedule for goodness sake - would require such extensive searching.
You'd think that the mayor's staff would keep his schedules and other important documents on file, but as it turns out, the mayor's office appears to be selective about what it does and does not save.
It recently came to light that Mayor Ford's office bought $1,579.15 of specially embossed business cards from Deco Labels and Tags. Normally, this kind of information wouldn't make headlines, but Deco is Rob Ford's family-owned company.
If that isn't a conflict of interest enough for you, the mayor's office has now come out saying that it destroyed the documents from the two competing firms, whose price offers were more expensive than Deco's. But wait, it gets better. The excuse for their destruction was that there wasn't enough space in the building to hold the "transitory" documents.
Now Mr. Ford and his staff either don't care what the public thinks, really believe that we are complete fools, or are displaying an unacceptable degree of incompetence.
Since when does the size of an office have to do with whether or not it's possible to save a document? I would hope that the staff would be using computers, and I would really love to believe that they would be scanning and saving important documents like the rest of us do.
If I remember correctly, the mayor used to be big advocate of transparent competitive bidding, so it is reasonable to think that his office would have enough foresight to save the documents that proved the deal was sourced with proper due dilligence.
As taxpayers, we are expected to keep records of all our receipts and transactions on hand for many years in case of an audit. Since the business card deal happened less than a year ago and since his office represents the public, there's absolutely no reason to destroy the records, unless of course there's something to hide.
Though Mr. Ford reimbursed the city $4,000 to cover the cards and other office expenses, the ordeal makes me wonder what other "transitory" documents it has conveniently gotten rid of.
It's really troubling to think that the mayor's office is too overwhelmed to find schedules and keep records of meetings but does have the time to destroy controversial documents. It's really too bad that the promise of transparency and accountability was just a campaign ruse.