...the better way for TTC commissioners, at any rate, what with an impending trip - at our expense - for all but one of their flock to Vienna. We hear it's lovely at this time of year. And at an estimated cost of $3500 per commissioner - or $28000 for the whole herd of transit porkers! Holy schnitzel!

The One has gone on a few junkets to faraway places over the year, in the name of business. We've found though, that, one person out of a group of eight is more than capable of taking notes, copies of literaature, etc. and reporting out upon our return.

This kind of frugality appears to be beyond the capabilities of our elected representatives, since, as Councillor Peter Milczyn puts it:

"But then the issue becomes which two or three or four, and what is the magic number?"

We were thinking two at the most, Pete. And maybe the commission chair could exercise some executive responsibility magic and select the two who get to go. Even better, maybe those two could be actual employees from theTTC who could provide the expertise to get the most from the conference, since they, at least, would have some expertise in something other than getting elected and snorking at the trough. (continued...) »

Returning yet again from a lengthy soljourn to the hinterlands, we see that those trusty Toronto Catholic School Board  trustees are doing everything they can to dodge the bulllet - as opposed to biting it.

We're wondering what part of "caught" they don't understand. And, increasingly, we're wondering why it's taking so long to use one of a number of "t" words that come to mind - in this case turfing the lot of them and starting over, hopefully with a group of trustees one can trust.

Education Minister Wynne says "It's not about shaming trustees" and we wonder why not, since they clearly aren't feeling any shame themselves. We're certainly hoping there's going to be a whole lot of shamin' taking place when the police finish their investigation.

Trustees, though, are just glad to have policies in place so they can "re-focus on education" because, after all, "the report 'concludes that 97 per cent of the expenses under review were eligible.'" Which of course excuses the 3% - or $30,000 - that weren't. Doesn't it? Shouldn't every trustee be able to put gold rings, lingerie, shoe repairs and internet gaming on the tab? Doesn't everyone?

Not from where we sit. What's missing here is the "i" word - integrity, and based on what we've seen up to now, we don't anticipate it's going to make an appearance any time soon.

Returning from an extended sojourn in the willderness we note the latest example of troughery, wherein trustees of the Toronto Catholic District School Board have been pulling money out of the collection plate for some time now, it seems.

Of particular interest - to us anyway - is trustee Oliver Carroll's analysis of the situation, published on Saturday in the Toronto Star . While quick to blame a small number of trustees, Carroll seems to hold himself blameless of anything other than sitting by idly while other trustees noshed at the public trough. Maybe it's just us, but we're wondering how he rationalizes the M.Ed. TCDSB funded for him during his tenure. As the Star puts it "..., the tuition expense is unusual because board staff are reimbursed 60 per cent of the cost of courses – and only after they are successfully completed, said a spokesperson." We wonder if Oliver will be cutting a cheque to the board for the 40% that seems to have been overpaid. By the way, Oliver, nice look on your trustee page - could tthat be the Lake of Eternal Fire in the background? (continued...) »

As the brouhaha continues over bunny costumes, wine, and mystery limo trips (with, we suspect, more than a few of us wishing Giorgio "Army Boy" Mammoliti had stayed at his unknown $200 destination) we provide our promised follow-up. Here's a list of our suggested guidelines for councillors to follow when managing their budgets, as well as some procedures the City could put into place to support them: (continued...) »