My partner just called, and told me she caught some kids on our lawn, picking up old coffee cups left behind by the snow.  When one of the more law-abiding of the little neat-freaks pointed out that they were on private property, my partner opened the window and hollered ‘Thank You!’

Of course, it was the 20 Minute Cleanup at work.

So if you’ll all excuse me, I’m going to go out and get me some litter…

Ward 2 (Etobicoke North) Councillor Rob Ford has taken a lot of heat this week for that thing about the “orientals” and the “dogs” and the “sleeping by their machines” and the “they’re taking over” comment. So much so that you’d think that everything the good councillor had otherwise been maintaining a respectful silence through the March meeting of Toronto Council.

Not so, not so.

For instance, just before Councillor Ford started talking about the hard-working folk of the Pacific Rim, he took on the thorny question of what value religious holidays:

“Some people are bringing up religion. We’re all of the same religion ladies and gentlemen, when it comes to money. I’ll guarantee that. I know that for a fact. Okay? We have so many different cultures so many races, so many religions, how can we start saying one day’s more important than the other? How about the Jewish holidays, Muslim holidays? Christian holidays? I may be a Christian but you gotta respect everybody’s holidays now.”

Or a day earlier, when Toronto Council was debating whether to allow condominiums to be built next to the St. Basil’s church off Bay Street, against the wishes of parishoners:

“It’s frustrating. When people say there’s nothing that can be done I disagree. I guess people can ignore the residents that oppose it now but at election time I hope they understand and remember what happened today. That’s the only thing that politicians understand is votes.”

And after the parishoners gave Ford a hearty round of applause, and Speaker Sandra Bussin was on her way to shutting them down and then councillor Ford:

“And we need a new mayor! And we need a new council!”

Usually, Ward 2 (Etobicoke North) Councillor Rob Ford can be counted on to serve as Toronto Council’s right-wing conscience - if that conscience is an angry one prone to inappropriate outbursts.

Not so today, when council turned its eye to the idea of letting stores stay open on holidays. Ford, a dyed-in-the-wool free marketeer, was a font of sunshine and joy. However, being Rob Ford, he still managed to be an inappropriate one.

While explaining in expansive detail why he thought stores should be able to stay open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the councillor from the west end of the city turned his eyes east. East to the “Orient,” as he described it.

“Those Oriental people work like dogs,” said Ford, to a stunned-silent city hall. “They work their hearts out. They are workers non-stop. They sleep beside their machines. That’s why they’re successful in life… I tell you. Oriental people. They’re slowly taking over.”

It was Ward 33 (Don Valley East) Councillor Shelley Carroll who corrected the delighted Councillor Ford.

“If I could remind Councillor Ford - in the words of Margaret Cho, ‘carpets are oriental. People are Asian.’ Just for the record.”

And if I might make the point: dogs are nothing like Asian people, or indeed any other people. Even in flights of doubtless kindly-intended rhetoric.

Or gullibility?

One might come to either conclusion, in the wake of the release of the report from the Mayor’s Panel on Fiscal Sustainaiblity last week.  In my February 23 City Views column, I came down in favour of the former. But given Mayor David Miller’s rather schizoid reception of the private sector outside critique of city government, it’s a lot less clear.

Miller’s first assessment of the report was to tout it as a vindication of government in Toronto. But he followed that by unambiguously accepting the entirety of the report, which also included some sharp criticism of the way the city runs: a dysfunctional political culture,  inefficient labour relations, and hundreds of millions of dollars in untapped assets were just a few of the areas the panel focussed on.

Charitably, one might think that the mayor’s initial reaction was an exercise in glass-half-full politics, to wash down the bitter pill that he would have to swallow in having to deal with those recommendations that might not jibe with his own agenda.

Less charitably, one might suspect that a year from now, the mayor will only recall this report for the good things it says and conveniently forget all the bad, and privately thank the panelists for helping him get the land transfer tax and vehicle registration tax approved last year at council.

Obviously, we’re going to have to watch the mayor closely over the next month or two to see which interpretation is the right one. If the report disappears - well, charity loses.

To make this into more than an exercise in political spin, the report will need a champion - and it will need the support of council. The best way to do this is to embed the recommendations in a strategic plan - something the city currently lacks - for the remainder of the term.  Miller shouldn’t waste time in seeing this take place. Establishing a special committee of council to go through the report and draft that plan, for approval by council within the calendar year, would go a long way to showing some sincerity.

… and did not like what he saw today.

Auditor General Jeff Griffiths responded this afternoon to a request from Ward 3 (Etobicoke Centre) Councillor Doug Holyday, who has spent much of the last decade steamed about the $53,100 office budgets that councillors have to spend on everything from dinners out to coffee machines to the actual cost of running their offices each year. He’s gotten a lot of attention in the media, but scant little among his colleagues, who by and large like those office budgets just the way they are.

That may change, after Griffiths’ response to Holyday’s request, to look more closely at the generally unregulated way city councillors spend their budgets. Griffiths gave a preview of the report he’ll be sending to the January meeting of the city’s Audit Committee.

Griffiths will be recommending a much more accountable system. Councillors expenses ought, he said, to be posted online every quarter - letting the public look and see who’s ordering multiple bottles of wine with their meals, who’s taking taxis from Metro Hall to Bolton, and who’s printing up newsletters and photocopying reports.  There should be an independent body that oversees and approves unusual expenses, and those expenses should be routinely dismissed by the city clerk. The rules for what is and is not a business-related expense - and council will have to think hard about whether expensing the cost of getting to or from work is allowable. If so, the expenses would become taxable benefits.

It’s good to see Griffiths - Toronto’s politically independent watchdog - taking such a reasonable eye to what has for the past decade been such a politically charged, and often petty, debate.