Lol.
Someone about 20 pages ago mentioned the ROT in city politics. It's always been there. We elect people we have little info on based on a few soundbites or a flyer stuffed in our mailbox. It was well known among Toronto Council that Rob was a drunk, but there was little political capital to be gained until it became widespread public knowledge. This is no different than most work environments, we all know people we've worked with who have been involved in affairs, the drunks, the druggies, the people that come in late/leave early but be honest, how often do you go to the top of the chain and rat out someone who should be fired...or arrested?
Take a look at Georgio Mammoliti, what's his background....well, he used to cut grass for the city, then he was a union steward/chief then jumped into politics. I wouldn't trust him to balance my checkbook but voters seemed less than capable of sussing out what actual skills he brings to the city, besides landscaping and being a union man ready to jump into politics.
I would guess about 20-30% of all council members are of a similar ilk. Not well educated, no great work record, just someone that saw public service as a great paycheck with lots of fringe benefits, and you can bet with that mindset if you have a colleague on council that beats his wife, gets hammered, maybe delivers some underhanded favours at the expense of the public they won't say anything, why rock the boat, put in your hours, cash your paycheck and STFU.
Don't get me wrong, I think there are some great people that do want to make their cities more liveable and are concerned with the bottom line, but we don't have a litmus test to see who they are, we can only go by what we hear and read, and frankly our newspapers and media have become so pathetic at actually reporting that that's all but impossible .
