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Rob Ford's Toronto

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Position
2011 salary (based
on 260 working days) Hourly rate
Executive Assistant $42,387.80 - $79,570.40 $23.29 - $43.72
Constituency
Assistant $34,871.20 - $65,938.60 $19.16 - $36.23
Administrative
Assistant, Level 2 $34,871.20 - $65,938.60 $19.16 - $36.23
Administrative
Assistant, Level 1 $26,663.00 - $50,068.20 $14.64 - $27.51
Councillor's Aide (summer student) $13.67

"Special Assistant" is not listed.
 
casita said:
RF can not be fired from what I understand because he is an elected politician, not a City employee. I doubt his non-union"Special Assistants" can be fired by anyone but RF, as long as he has the budget to employ them.
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I believe that as non-unionized CH employees they are subject to all of the usual rules for such employees (including any employee code of conduct, etc.). The City, not the mayor or the councillor, is the employer. Of course, if an employee works exclusively for the mayor or a councillor the odds are low that anyone other than his or her 'boss' going to end up being concerned about the employee's conduct; but, clearly, a non-unionized CH employee can be dismissed by the City for sufficiently egregious conduct towards another employee or a member of the public.
 
casita said:
"Special Assistant" is not listed.
Click to expand...

It is just a label that can be given to someone at the admin asst level, instead of more money, to make him or her feel better. (As another example, "Director of Communications" - Amin's label - is not listed either.)
 
casita said:
Conditions of Employment - Council Staff Members
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/2000/agendas/council/cc/cc001003/adm19rpt/cl004.pdf

And:

http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/1999/agendas/council/cc/cc990609/cs6rpt/cl001.htm
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Yes, but these documents are concerned only with job descriptions and salary ranges. I believe that, as CH employees, the staff of the mayor or a councillor have to abide by the same general rules as all other non-unionized City employees working at CH.
 
McRobb guilty of drunk driving in Rob Ford's Caddy


From Toronto Sun, at this link:

The woman charged while behind the wheel of Mayor Rob Ford’s Cadillac pleaded guilty to driving with blood-alcohol readings almost three times the legal limit. LeeAnne McRobb, 37, stood at the front of the court earlier this week and pleaded guilty to impaired driving and was fined $1,800 with a one-year driving prohibition.

Ford admitted he met McRobb at the GreeneStone rehab facility in Muskoka where they were patients and loaned her his vehicle while hers was in repair — but he didn’t know she would take it on a dangerous highway joyride.

Court heard that several witnesses called police about the SUV speeding, swerving and driving in the wrong lane along Hwy. 169 in Muskoka at around 2 p.m. May 20, 2014.

A half hour later Bracebridge OPP caught her while she was heading northbound in the southbound lane and pulled her over on Butterfly Rd. As the officer approached the vehicle he observed a slurring, drunken McRobb. A Heineken beer can was in the cup holder and several empty beer cans were in the vehicle.

“There was a strong odour of alcohol on her breath and her speech was slurred,†said Crown attorney Doug Kasko. “She was unsteady on her feet and teetering while trying to stand still.â€

In court Kasko read a statement from a civilian witness who told police he was terrified as he headed home from work and suddenly saw the SUV speeding straight at him.

“It was in my lane coming right toward me,†said the civilian, who was not named. With no time to break, he blasted the horn and swerved onto the shoulder, missing the SUV by a mere 15 metres.

“This was very close to a head-on collision,†said Kasko.

Two hours later at the police station, McRobb gave a breath sample with a reading of 227 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood. A half hour after that she gave another sample with a reading of 223 mg.

“That’s a lot of alcohol,†remarked Justice Glenn Krelove.

McRobb’s lawyer, Peter Ward, told the judge McRobb, who works at an area bank, has been struggling with alcohol problems for years.

“She was in attendance at a rehab facility at the time and failed, if you will, in those efforts,†said Ward. “She is now in counseling and she has been absolutely sober for 122 days and she is very proud of the fact.â€
McRobb apologized to the judge.

“I’m aware of the wrongdoings I committed,†she said to Krelove. “I’m going to use this as a learning curve and not make the same mistake again.â€

She promised the judge she will continue her rehab journey and attends to six to eight alcoholic anonymous meetings a week.

“I’m not going to let this set me bac … I’m going to keep going forward,†McRobb said.
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Conditions of Employment - Council Staff Members
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/1999/agendas/council/cc/cc990609/cs6rpt/cl001.htm

What I find interesting is the legal docs go into great detail about job descriptions etc for the EA, CA, AA, but never a mention of SA ( Special Assistant ).

Job Description:Executive Assistant
Job Description:Constituency Assistant
Job Description:Councillor's Assistant

But, no job description for Special Assistant.

At any rate, they seem to come and go like the wind.

If you work for a man, in heaven's name work for him. If he pays you wages which supply you bread and butter, work for him; speak well of him; stand by him, and stand by the institution he represents. If put to a pinch, an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness. If you must vilify, condemn, and eternally disparage, resign your position, and when you are outside, damn to your heart's content, but as long as you are part of the institution do not condemn it. If you do that, you are loosening the tendrils that are holding you to the institution, and at the first high wind that comes along, you will be uprooted and blown away, and will probably never know the reason why.
Elbert Hubbard
 
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See: http://wx.toronto.ca/intra/hr/policies.nsf/$defaultview?OpenView

For example (included amongst the linked collection of HR documents):

Ethics and Values
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Conflict of InterestAugust 4, 2000
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Conflict of Interest - Appendix 1 Sample Questions & AnswersAugust 4, 2000
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Conflict of Interest - Appendix 2 Supplementary GuidelinesJanuary 17, 2005March 31, 2005
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Conflict of Interest - Appendix 3 Conduct Respecting LobbyistsAugust 4, 2000
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Employee Participation in Municipal Election CampaignsAugust 4, 2000
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Employees Seeking Election to Political OfficeJuly 29, 1999September 7, 2007
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Fraud Prevention PolicyApril 27, 2001March 12, 2007
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Whistle Blower ProtectionJune 15, 2011June 23, 2011
 
casita said:
But, no job description for Special Assistant.
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Or for Chief of Staff (Jacobs), or Director of Communications (Massoudi), or ' former reader of e-mails and pursuer of crack videos a/k/a Special Assistant' (Price) or 'receptionist & tropical fish wrangler a/k/a Special Assistant' (McEacheran). In other words, the slapped-on title of "Special Assistant" is no more significant than it would be to call an officer staffer "Lead Clog Dancer".

A CH officer staffer is hired to perform some combination of various parts of one or more of the four job descriptions, and the mayor or councillor in question gets to decide which one of the four job description categories fits the person (which sets the person's salary range) and how senior he or she is (which sets the person's salary within the range). The only real control over the mayor or the councillor is that he or she cannot spend more than his or her staff budget in total; thus, within 'the funding envelope' (as the cliche goes), the mayor or a councillor can decide how many staffers he or she wants to have at various levels (e.g., the more staff taken on in the higher salary ranges the less room is left to take people on in the lower salary ranges).

Councillor (Mayor gets a larger staff budget):

[h=2]Councillor staff salary budget[/h]Each Councillor is provided with an annual staff budget of $224,264.25, equivalent to the top of the salary range of an Executive Assistant, an Administrative Assistant and a Constituency Assistant. As 2014 is an election year, the budget is pro-rated to $204,501.50 for the period January 1 - November 30 and $19,762.75 for December 1 - 31, 2014.
Councillors can hire full-time or part-time staff from the following staff positions:
Position2014 salaryHourly rate
Executive Assistant$44,772.00 - $84,065.80$24.60 - $46.19
Constituency Assistant$36,836.80 - $69,669.60$20.24 - $38.28
Administrative Assistant,
Level 2		$36,836.80 - $69,669.60$20.24 - $38.28
Administrative Assistant,
Level 1		$28,173.60 - $52,889.20$15.48 - $29.06
Councillor's Aide
(summer student)		 $14.44
In theory, a councillor could use his or her budget to take on only people at the highest possible rate (3 staff) or only people at the lowest possible rate (8 staff) - but the assumption of course is that a rational councillor will take on some mix of senior and junior staffers.
 
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I haven't been on for a while but I have to laugh at this delusion of Doug Ford savior of the PC party. I will give the Fords something, they are amazing at over-hyping their mediocre influence. Who else can convince themselves and others that an approval rating of 40% is a positive thing? As I said after the election, Doug 34% number was close to a record low percentage wise for a returning Mayor (or Mayor by proxy) Barbara Hall lost her second term but got in the high 30s/low 40s vs Lastman, and Rowlands lost her second term try but at least got 36% of the vote. Doug got lower than Smitherman from the last election (36%) and everyone claimed Smitherman political career was over. Oh and by the way another mayor who lost and went to the PC leadership in John Tory actually got 38% in 2003 more than what Doug had now and didn't translate to any great PC party wins. The Ford fanatics and cheerleaders are so delusional in reality.

There's been two full provincial election which the Fords were front and centre in the city and not shy in endorsing the PC candidate that resutls to literally zero victories. There was by-election in "Ford strong" Scarborough with Ford pushing the PC candidate in again resulting to nothing. The only "win" came by Doug Holyday who won his by-election but he was so established even before Ford, and lost the seat quickly back when the full scale election happened.

Btw how did the Ford nation council candidates do? Remember the guys under the "Ford banner" that will defeat the current councilors who dare voted to remove "Ford's powers" Did any of them win? Forget winning, did any of them even come close to being a contender against the established candidate? Even a guy Cusimano (a Ford nation guy) who had a strong 2010 showing was a non factor this time around.

Again the delusion of the Fords and their promoters is just too much. In a system that's really easy to win re-election on a second term for a Mayor (Miller had 57% re-election, Lastman 80%). The Ford lost BAD, it only "looked" close because of a strong third-place candidate in Chow who got 23% (the normal strong 3rd place candidate gets around 10-12%) The Fords were campaigning for four years, had the incumbent advantage (that every councilor who wanted to get re-elected did, with the exception of one) and still lost with a lesser second place showing in percentage of vote than Smitherman, Tory in 03, Hall in 97 and Rowlands before her. Yet he and his talking heads walk around like he accomplished something. Yeah he did accomplished something, he got the lowest percentage of vote for a administration losing their attempt for a second term since at least the 80s (how far I bothered to look back to)
 
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