Integrity Matters: With Integrity Commissioner George Rust-D 'Eye

In this edition of Integrity Matters, we caught up with  Integrity Commissioner, George Rust-D'Eye:

1. Since you have been Hamilton’s Integrity Commissioner, how many complaints have you received? Can you please breakdown the number of complaints you received per year? In other words, of the total complaints received, how many were received in 2017, 2016…etc.

Not to duck the question, but it depends partly on the way that you define a “complaint”.
Since I operate entirely on the basis of legislation, resort must first be to the legislation itself, which in this case is both Provincial statute and Municipal by-law:

Section 223.4 of the Municipal Act,2001 authorizes an integrity commissioner (whom I will refer to“ IC”), to conduct an inquiry in respect of a request made by council, a member of council or a

With Damian Darlington of Brit Floyd

In advance of Brit Floyd's much anticipated return to First Ontario on November 4th as part of their Immersion tour, we caught up with vocalist, guitarist, and musical director Damian Darlington. Enjoy our chat with Damian:

1. What is it about the upcoming Immersion show that is different from past shows? Can you give us a sense of what the audience can expect to see.

The audience can expect to see a significantly different set list from previous years. We’re making a point of celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Animals album and playing the whole of the first side of the original vinyl record, which includes the epic track Dogs. We’re also playing a number of tracks from The Division Bell, Momentary Lapse of reason and The Final Cut album that we’ve never performed before, indeed a couple of songs that Pink Floyd never performed live. Of

From Dark to Dawn and a Story of Recovery

There are many stories of addiction but so few about recovery. This weekend, 500recovered addicts (dozens from Hamilton alone) will descend upon Toronto to hear messages of hope, faith and courage. The annual convention of Cocaine Anonymous will have powerful speakers, a sobriety countdown and personal stories of freedom from drug addiction. One of them is a Hamilton man who became addicted to drugs and alcohol and after 10 years of trying, finally escaped the clutches of addiction with help from those in his own community.

Within 5 years of his first drug use, Mark realized that drugs were the source of all his pain. The lack of stable housing place, lack of stability, lack of constant work and struggles with the law led to his first attempt to quit. “I felt so low in jail, like I never wanted to be there again,” he says. But that very night he used again.

“I figured that a geographical cure would help so I went to Vancouver” It started out ok, he was

On the Hess Street Issues

With respect to the issues of policing the Hess street area, we posed the following questions to Police Chief Girt. Answering on his behalf is Superintendent Mason , who has been working on this issue:

1. Recently, you have cited the inordinate amount of policing thatis required in the Hess Village area and illustrated the point byciting that Hess Village generated 54% of the downtown calls from the period January 1 to September 20th.  You called for continued paid duty policing, albeit in revised numbers. We suspect that most Hamiltonians will recognize the need you are identifying as meritorious and worthy of consideration. Despite that, it continuesto be necessarily a reactive approach to what amounts to a challenging and significant problem.

We are wondering if the police, in partnership with otherstakeholders, has or will engage in tandem, in an alternate approach to the problem which may include meeting with thestakeholders and discussing best practices and preventative strategies to curb the offending conduct in the first instance. Has there been such discussions, or will there be? We envision a range of topics which may include tips from police on how to prevent escalating behavior to possible changes in policy regarding alcohol serving and consumption, (that latter of which obviously would have to come from other stakeholders and not the police.) 

2. Is there anything else you’d like Hamiltonians to know aboutthis issue?

Inspector Mason responded as follows:

Hamilton Police Service works closely with our partners to address best practices and look at preventative strategies to address issues within the community. Most recently, the City of Hamilton facilitated meetings with stakeholders within the Hess Village area to discuss challenges and solutions to ongoing issues. We continue to work collaboratively with stakeholders to proactively deal with a variety of circumstances and regularly liaise with other enforcement agencies such as the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, City of Hamilton By-Law, Hamilton Fire Department and Public Health to address concerns.

Media Release: City launches Citizen Dashboard in time for Fire Prevention Week

HAMILTON, ON – The first phase for the City of Hamilton Citizen Dashboard launched today at hamilton.ca/citizen-dashboard to provide citizens an opportunity to access information about City service performance and how these services help contribute to quality of life in our city. To showcase Hamilton Fire Department information, in line with Fire Prevention Week, the Hamilton Fire Department is the first municipal service sharing their performance and service information data.

The Hamiltonian asks Questions re: Mayor's Trade Mission to Colombia

The following questions were posed to Mayor Eisenberger in relation to his recent mission to Colombia. We were hoping for more detailed and substantive answers to our questions, which we we thought were fair questions. We have included the Mayor's response verbatim below our questions:

1. Can you tell Hamiltonians what prompted this trade mission and why Colombia, as opposed to any other location.

2. In your media release, you stated : This is a mission to solidify new business connections, nurture investment leads, and ultimately create new jobs for this city.

a) Can you identify which new business connections were made and what did the parties commit to as next steps?

b) Can you explain what measures will be/have been put in place to gauge whether new jobs for Hamiltonians have ultimately resulted from this mission?

3. Who else attended the mission with you, on behalf of Hamilton?

4. Is there a report that has been produced that captures the progress made from this mission. If so, can we receive a copy for our readers?

5. How much did the trip cost, in terms of any monies that are to be paid by Hamilton taxpayers and why was this effort worth the cost?

6. Is there anything else you’d like Hamiltonian to know about this matter?

Mayor Eisenberger replied as follows:

Thank you for your inquiry. The mission was the culmination of bilateral talks that began during the PanAm Games in 2015. The mission consisted of both private and public sector partners, involved investment meetings and events designed to partner Hamilton entities with potential Colombian investors/trade partners, and culminated with the signing of a Memorandum Of Understanding with a Colombian technology accelerator.