Tag Archives: Ald. Mark Cosens

06.22.13
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A committee: a group that keeps minutes and loses hours

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Now that he has officially tabled his motion, we can approach Dave Warden on the motivation behind adding another alderman to the council mix.
We wrote at length about this proposed change to the structure of council last week and in a conversation with Ald. Warden on Tuesday, he filled in some of the blanks.
Most important, Warden stressed, he is not going to support his own motion when it comes up for discussion on July 15.
“In fact I will withdraw it if council will deal with the bigger and more costly system we are presently working under – the committee system – which needs to be overhauled.”
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05.11.13
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Filling vacant council seat akin to musical chairs

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Monday’s vote to appoint former mayor Cliff Barwick to fill the seat vacated by Sam Yusuf has unleashed a groundswell of anger and accusations across the social media universe.
Not to mention some questionable logic and judgment from both factions of council.
To get the ball rolling, you have to ask, when council had 60 days to fill the vacancy – whether by appointment or by-election – why did the Barwick 4 feel compelled to call a snap vote just minutes after officially declaring the seat vacant?
That in itself brought out the red flags, prompting Ald. Mark Cosens to charge, “it’s obvious that had been orchestrated.”
Point taken.
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04.20.13
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Filling vacant seat will be a true test of this council

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When city council next gathers at city hall on May 6, the seat previously occupied by Sam Yusuf will officially be declared vacant. Council will then have 60 days, under the Ontario Municipal Act, to appoint a new alderman.
It’s an undertaking that has been dealt with several times in the past decade or so, however T-J reporter and People columnist Eric Bunnell reminds us of the fascinating parallel he wrote about in April, 2000.
Helen Cole had announced her resignation and council met behind closed doors to unanimously agree Jeff Kohler should fill the vacancy.
He was the third runner-up in the 1997 municipal vote, however the top vote-getter of the also-rans, Terry Shackelton, had already moved on to council and the next individual in line, former alderman Hugh Shields, declined the appointment.
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04.13.13
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Something fishy about the police headquarters vote

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Just call them the king and queen of the flip-flop. We’re talking, of course, about Ald. Lori Baldwin-Sands and Ald. Mark Cosens and which way they will lean Monday night when city council votes on the latter’s motion dealing with a new police headquarters.
Last week, Cosens filed a notice of motion that the city “build a new, modern, state-of-the-art police facility” adjacent to the Timken Centre.
The wording of the motion is a flip-flop-flip for Cosens.
We’ll elaborate.
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03.16.13
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Hospital junkets open up wider health care debate

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Leading the way toward a lean, efficient and effective operating program versus ripping taxpayers off with over-valued, over-billed opinions of what’s good for the hospital.
That’s the debate that has raged on the Times-Journal website and Facebook page in the aftermath of our revelation last week of the overseas jaunt to Singapore by four St. Thomas-Elgin General Hospital executives.
In the week since, we’ve learned of other trips to the U.K. and Wisconsin and rumors of possible convention junkets to Florida and Las Vegas that are now being checked.
News of the fact-finding mission to Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds in the U.K. by CEO Paul Collins and chief of staff Nancy Whitmore comes on the heels of a revealing T-J editorial penned by John Robson entitled, “To see the future of Canadian health care, look to the U.K.”
Robson paints a picture of a health care system in shambles with the collapse of the National Health Service on which ours is modelled.
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12.29.12
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A quotation for everything: the past year in review

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It’s been a City Scope tradition to greet the incoming year by surveying the past 365 days to savor the wit and wisdom of our elected representatives.

As a collector of quotes from a variety of sources, it lends credence to the words of wisdom from British author Dorothy L. Sayers: “I always have a quotation for everything – it saves original thinking.”

Of course, when media scribes document a response or comment to the pages for posterity, we must be prepared for the inevitable charge of being taken out of context.

Or, as one anonymous wag noted, “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you.”

With the preamble out of the way, let’s glean through a year’s worth of columns to fully appreciate what transpired in 2012.
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12.22.12
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There are no secrets, police HQ contamination a given

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We devoted space in this corner last week to city council’s approval of a $24,000 expenditure to complete the Phase 2 environmental assessment underway at the Colin McGregor Justice Building, home of the St. Thomas Police Service.
A couple of days later the Times-Journal ran a photo of the coal gasification plant previously housed on the site and accompanied it with the cheeky headline, “City’s dirty little secret coming out.”
The story prompted a lengthy discussion Thursday with Ald. Mark Cosens, an outspoken proponent of refurbishing the justice building, in lieu of construction of a new police headquarters on city-owned land at the Timken Centre.
Cosens concedes the results of the study are pretty much a foregone conclusion – it won’t be a pretty picture – but that in itself should not preclude proceeding with upgrades to the existing police headquarters.
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09.08.12
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If you don’t endorse a bylaw, do you still have to abide?

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Ald. Tom Johnston appears to have dug in his heels on the matter of receiving compensation for serving as chairman of the Ascent board of directors, in spite of a city bylaw to the contrary, as first brought to light in this corner last week. Read here.
Johnston voted against the motion when it was adopted in 2009 and he appears now to have adopted the stance that is justification for thumbing his nose at the bylaw today in accepting season hockey tickets as compensation or a bonus from Ascent.
Unfortunately, under the Ontario Municipal Act, there is little recourse for the city and we talked Friday with Mayor Heather Jackson on that very matter. Continue reading →

05.19.12
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A new home for health unit and it’s not on Farhi property

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Over to you Shmuel.
Elgin St. Thomas Public Health made it official this week: they are seeking a new home and it won’t be on property at the west end of Talbot Street owned by London developer Shmuel Farhi.
As reported in the Times-Journal, the health unit is close to a deal for two acres of property at a yet-to-be-disclosed location, with a budget of about $10 million to design and build a new, 30,000-square-foot-home.
Their current abode is 27,000 square feet at 99 Edward St., and the proposed move prompted T-J reader Bill Petryshyn to post on our website: “10 million dollars for an extra 3000 sq ft? Seems pricey.”

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