A More Interactive Council

In my previous post, I mentioned that I would like to see council be more active in community action groups. This idea is not original to me. Current council president, Tom Thomas, suggested the idea a few years ago, but I agree with him whole-heartedly. Mr. Thomas went so far as to suggest that council develop an outreach program which would be chaired by one of the sitting council members as an ad hoc commitee of council. Representatives of the various service groups around town would be invited to join the committee to better coordinate community events and to increase the support pool for each member service group.

As a participant in one such group, I can easily see the value of such a co-op. I am a member of Focus in Toronto. We have worked with the Chamber of Commerce over the past few years in organizing the July Fourth weekend Community Day events and the annual holiday parade. I feel that the network involved in co-ordinating our plans with the city could have been much more easily streamlined had Mr. Thomas' plan been in place. Furthermore, we could have also communicated more easily with other groups like the Bridge Builders and the Beautification Committee just in case any of our plans conflicted with theirs.

As your councilman, I would embrace any opportunity to build community and foster inter-organizational co-operation.

My Issues

There are several issues I would hope to address as your councilman, and I will try to address them each one by one in more detail in the coming weeks.

Primarily, I would like to see the vacant Hillard building demolished or sold at auction. I consider it a blight, and it brings down the overall look of an otherwise beautiful downtown area.

I also am dissatisfied with the way the portion of the city income tax earmarked for seniors is being distributed. Presently, it is gifted in total to two senior citizen clubs, the Toronto Seniors and the Sunrise Seniors. I can personally think of two other and (in my opinion) better ways to distribute these funds to better benefit all Toronto seniors.

• Maintainance on the Roosevelt Senior Center
• Establish a heating grant program to help those over 65 and living under the poverty level to offset their winter fuel bills

Another issue I would have liked to see council address is the commons area park. Plans were submitted which would have created a park linking the gazebo area with the WWI sailors and soldiers monument. This would have potentially increased tourist traffic to Toronto and would have increased property values for those living in the neighborhood.

Also, I feel council could be more involved in local community action groups. I'll delve more in depth on this issue in my next post.

Finally, I have attended several city council meetings, and while they are well organized and nobody is ever rebuffed, I feel that there is a tendency to too often conduct the actual business of governance behind closed doors. As a former journalist, transparency of government is very important to me. I would make it a point to air the issues in the open, and not to hide behind conveniently written "rules" of order to railroad through controversial legislation before it has been given a fair public hearing.

Let me know what you think. You can reach me by email, or leave a note in comments. Thank you.

Introduction

Hello. I am Dave Core, democratic candidate for third ward council in the city of Toronto, Ohio. This is my first time running for public office, although I am very involved in community affairs and my name was in contention for this seat when it was vacated by the passing of the previous holder of the position.