State of the City 2013, tempers and bloggers

This may have been more about a state of temper tantrum, smoothed over with some nice things to divert one's attention away from some real truths. I've heard many say this was a cover up for the state of disrepair that Edmonton is in and perhaps they are right. There certainly has been a plethora of waste, from huge grants to environment folks to help guide your eco-retrofits, singing garbage cans and a ... wait for it ... resident blogger? Really? We need to pay someone to butter up folks into thinking we are great, when we already have hundreds of bloggers in our fine city that already tell really cool stories??? And lets not forget the City already employs a communications staff. Course, there is that aspect where the City misleads you on the good side of things and totally bypasses the ugly side of the good side. There is a lot to be said about the whole truth and nothing but the truth..

One thing Mayor Mandel is known for (putting aside his years of lies and deception) is for the manipulation of the real truth into some rah rah cheer leading bandwagon... You know, the one that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside... the one where you are supposed to forget the real facts and only believe in the make believe. Like this one, quoted from his speech under the "Leadership" heading...

And we have shown leadership with our downtown arena project. Our city has stepped forward to make the deal work on terms that are fair and balanced on all sides. Our investment will support long-term growth and vibrancy of our core and long-term sustainability of NHL hockey in our city.

When I see statements like this I have to wonder if there isn't some form of early dementia setting in. I am not sure you could find one (unbiased) economics master that would even remotely consider this "deal" to be fair and well balanced. With literally every penny of the cost coming from taxpayers pockets, every penny of profit going to a private business (owned by a billionaire who's wealth keeps increasing by leaps and bounds) and effectively zero payback to taxpayers. And of course when we talk about this topic, we would be remiss in not mentioning the ever tail wagging, fully biased, fact omitting reports of Mr. Staples... his most recent one in relation to this speech is here.

Perhaps the most famous (and many say "spot on") comment came from Thomas Lukaszuk who stated "I don’t know who pissed into his corn flakes, and you can quote me on that." Certainly a lot of the Mayors speech was biting the hand that feeds him, almost in a controlled temper tantrum style of "why are you not giving me taxpayer dollars that I promised to my good buddy the rich billionaire". Naturally, this statement is paraphrased and blended into words and sentiments that I have heard from hundreds of people. Lets not forget, the vast majority of taxpayers have emphatically stated they do not want this deal done under the conditions this deal has been presented. And it is also important to note that those who object to this deal are not against the potential of a new arena...just not under these terms. A fact the Mayor seems to completely ignore.

Earlier I stated grants to an eco type company.. Check the City website for the full details but essentially a huge sum of money was gifted to a company that basically operates as a general contractor in associating all of the trades people and companies, to make sure things like your new furnace, hot water tank system, wall insulation etc, get done in a proper manner. Umm... really? Kind of like all of the other general contractors here in the City doing the job a general contractor does. But yea for us... we gave lots of money to this one company to do just that.

And now we have a residential blogger to boot. Seriously? No malice or bad thoughts directed towards Mr.McKeen.. I don't recall ever meeting him, but with some really great digging done by some friends, I want to share some links and let you draw your own speculative conclusions..

Scott's original website appears to have been setup back in September of 2010, where he made his stab at running for City Council. His website under "that name" no longer exists but thanks to a wonderful organization that captures historical information (a huge shout out to archive.org for this) you can see what he was back then.

Apparently Scott teamed up with Alain Saiffel back in 2011, to launch yegnews.com, and Mack Male even wrote an article on it, which you can read here. Some say 'yegnews' was poorly read, and Scott bailed on Alain leaving him "holding the bag" if you will, and Alain's comments about this are here.

I have to wonder.. why is it we are blowing $6,000 for this project?

So bottom line, things are pretty messed up here in Edmonton. I suppose Mr. Mandel may have done some good things along the way, but it doesn't justify letting the bad things be forgotten. The airport decision that has already caused death, the maybe 1/2 a billion dollars you won't hear about the environmental cleanup that will be required, and the gifting of around another 1/2 a billion dollars of taxpayers money for a really really rich persons personal palace.

It would be extremely wise of the Alberta Government to enact some legislation to prevent the abuse of politicians lying to get elected and not keeping their promises, and to close the loopholes in the MGA and MSI acts to prevent the use of taxpayer dollars for private enterprises. Remember dear Ministers of the Alberta Government, and the Premier... taxpayer dollars are to be used for the public needs. Not to be directed towards private for profit business. You have a unique opportunity here to step up to the plate and actually protect taxpayers from abuse prior to the upcoming civic election. Doing so will be an extremely large feather in your caps, and people will remember that at election time. Of course, they will also remember if you don't...

Just sayin...

Corruption or Abuse or... Part 1 of 3

Taken from Wikipedia...

In philosophical, theological, or moral discussions, corruption is spiritual or moral impurity or deviation from an ideal. Corruption may include many activities including bribery and embezzlement. Government, or 'political', corruption occurs when an office-holder or other governmental employee acts in an official capacity for his or her own personal gain.

 Some of you may recall and incident in June of 2012, where several heated discussions were going on over the proposed downtown arena. It was a time when hearings and information sessions were being held, and the public has been very vocal in the way taxpayers are getting majorly screwed, just so that a billionaire can make hundreds of millions of dollars in (literally) free money on the backs of taxpayers.

Over a series of several tweets with a few people, I had made statements of "I've never been violent in my life.This is the problem you see. I don't think I would hit. But I am at a breaking point" followed by the famous line of Mr T which was "I pity the fool..." and "I'm not sure I can stand all the marketing lying and remain non-violent :P" Along in that series of "discussions" others also made comments about the fear of getting involved because they were afraid they might hit someone, and I also stated that I never threatened violence, and that it was a simple truth that I would not know exactly what I would do if I were indeed "pushed across that line". I doubt anyone could say exactly how they would respond when their line is crossed. And that line could be anything. With that said, anyone in twitter knows of the 140 limit and how impossible it is to convey what you mean. We try to add in emotes, like I did with the :P (tongue stuck out or tongue firmly planted in cheek... however you want to view it)

The City of Edmonton choose to pick on me and made a complaint to the police. The police called me, I resented the way it was handled and I filed a complaint. I was also very vocal in twitter over the abuse. After a FOIP request, I found this...

Since the EdmontonDT account doesn't follow anyone, then why would the city use the "@talkingsauce" account as their "reference"? Why not just access my twitter account on the web? (Note.. the @pont thing is not really the account, it did at that time belong to @talkingsauce and now belongs to @LegitimateRap) .. Anyway, this leads me to believe  the Rap account is connected to the City. And I admit, I could be wrong.

The FOIP documents were also pretty clear that the City doesn't like me. I tend to be quite vocal over many things they tweet about, which have such a huge bias and "lack of full honest truth". And we all know the City has been extremely manipulative on many things, especially when it comes to the Airport and Arena issues. They clearly have major objections to listening to what the majority of the people have been saying. And I promise, I will continue to be vocal when things are wrong. Do note... no matter what I say or how I say it, I would never ever commit an act of violence to person or property. I know the City folks will be reading this and this is your warning to stop being harassing. I am sitting on the fence now as it is, and if you continue to harass me for no TRUE valid reason, then I will file a lawsuit for 1.5 million dollars, and it WILL include all of the crap from when I worked for you. I'm sure there are a lot of things you don't want coming out so... If you City folks can't see that I have a very valid reason for being pissed, then you should review this post of mine that only covers the surface of the issues. And the only reason why you are pissed at me is because I call you out on the deception, instead of being sucked in. Sorry I am smart enough to see it.

Over the next several months, twitter was pretty alive on the "arena" topic, and some of that included tweets between several people and City Council folks and Alberta Government folks. Specifically relating to this were some pretty heated conversations that included councilor Dave Loken. He's been taken to account many times over various things such as his election promises that apparently turned out to be a lot of non-truth (not specifically by me on this one) and I have called him out on his arena statements and have tweeted many times that he is a liar. I can say this as fact, because in phone conversations with him he lied to me and I called him out for it.

Then around mid October, I got yet *another* called from the police, and another report of me making threats had been filed. Needless to say I am getting pretty tired of this, and I told the officer to basically take a hike in about a 15 second phone call, and then hung up on him. And of course, I filed yet another complaint about the police 'abuse', along with a FOIP request covering both of the incidents with the police service and with the City FOIP side to find out what the hell has been going on.

The results of the second complaint may shock you. And some reasons "why" this happened along with some examples of other things that I think are bad... are in part 2, which you can read here...

Corruption or Abuse or... Part 2 of 3

I am dedicating this section specifically to councilor Dave Loken. Do note I am not picking on you, but perhaps some might consider this payback. We've had many discussions in twitter where I have simply told the truth, and you have responded with a substantial amount of statements where you attempted to slight my character. You should not have done that, and people should remember that parts of this even made the news. When EPS contacted me the second time over (cough) "threats", I was sure it was just another City employee working the twitter account. And I got really pissed at them.

Let me share the results of the EPS FOIP on this with folks..

I do want to point out that the parts of this blacked out were done by ME... There is no point in mentioning the person that was the liaison over this. Wow.. seriously Dave? You get so pissed at me because of your arrogance and inability to handle a respectable conversation in twitter that you have to resort to doing THIS type of thing? Man, that's some class... But hey, lets not stop here... how about this stuff..

I do need to state that since this incident, I have taken the liberty to add in several Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles to my (cough) tank.. And since then, several of the Edmonton media and politicians have asked me both in public and private, if they could please borrow it. Naturally, sharing the fun is the only decent thing to do so I have said "yes" to everyone that asked.

Since you think my tank is such a big deal, then perhaps you should wait until I bring my Apache helicopter out of storage and fire that up... which I will do as soon as I can find the keys. Seems like I misplaced them somewhere along the way. Or maybe I just forgot. I am after all, getting old you know.

With all of that said, if anyone reading this thinks any of it is possible, or in any way shape or form that it could be an actual threat,,, well... about all I can say is you're pretty freaking brain dead. Regardless, it sure speaks volumes about the quality and caliber of Mr. Loken... Here is a promise Dave. Just for you, and just because you did this... should you decide to run for office again this year then you should know I will be there to remind people ... respectfully, politely, and within the law... of your actions and lies. Do note, I said this is a promise... which is not a threat. It is after all, my democratic right to speak the truth, and I will do so. Within the law of course.

Now on to part 3, where I will bring up some valid points and questions, and show another example of what is wrong with "the system"... The link is here..

Corruption or Abuse or... Part 3 of 3

Over all of this, I filed complaints against EPS and Loken. The EPS issues were finally addressed on Thursday March 7th, 2013, in a Alternative Dispute Resolution process where the detective involved, his supervisor (at my request) and a mediator met. Naturally, this meeting was private in nature and done "without prejudice", and I will honor the talks made. But I do want to bring one item forward that was discussed, but is also "public" in nature.

EPS is obligated to investigate threats. No matter how insane they might be. Part of that investigative process requires that the "subject" be contacted either in person or on the phone. There is no discretion allowed in this, unlike an officer allowed to give leeway say, in a speeding ticket etc. And this is just wrong. In the second call from EPS, my response was short, along the lines of "seriously? you've got to be kidding", upon which I hung up. The detective clearly knew the complaint lacked any merit. But he satisfied the "requirements" of contacting me. Pfff... harassing... Just saying that when you get stupid complaints that are clearly really really stupid like this one was... the cops should be able to just drop it. I can tell you that the mediation process allowed me the opportunity to prove for once and all that I am no threat to anyone and never have been and probably will never be. Everything I have ever done has been to help or to fix something. I am the person that fixed the Punky database, that allowed EPS to finally marry the vast amount of evidence and resulted in the arrest and conviction of her killer. I am not the bad guy and I have never BEEN the bad guy. Something both EPS and the City can not say in return.

A recent release by the Premier over the airport/medivac issues has me very much in a state of "puke". I am insulted and angered over the "and the citizens of Edmonton voted to close the airport" statement. What a crock of ElToroPooPoo. Everyone knows at the time, the wording of that so-called vote was designed specifically to confuse people. After the vote, all you could hear was "oh my god, I thought it meant something else.. if I knew what it really meant I would have voted differently". And herein again, is yet another big problem.

It's OK to do something 'dirty', and get away with it, and not have anything done about it. This was clear yet once again when city council did their airport dirty work, held the required public hearings, and then just did what they wanted to. And there is nothing legally "we" can do about it. And they are doing the exact same thing again with the arena. The years of lies... "oh, no taxpayer dollars will be used", "oh we will call for a plebiscite for that", "oh it will never go over this dollar amount", and of course the famous "look, I've told you a hundred times, nothing is going to happen unless all of the money is in place". SIGH.

Our politicians are allowed to lie and mislead the public. The provincial government has been given many suggestions for ways of allowing for politicians to be more accountable, for having some form of recall legislation, and for making it an offense to lie to get elected. They have done nothing in this area. As a matter of fact the next election we will be stuck with god knows what for FOUR years instead of three. All we are told over and over again is "oh you can vote them out". Well a lot of freaking good that does eh?

To the Premier and the Minister of Municipal Affairs, I challenge you... stand up, make some laws that allow the people an HONEST chance at fixing bad problems or bad things done by politicians of any civic or provincial area. Here is your chance to actually prove you listen and you care.

If not, then we are stuck with a city council that will give inaccurate information just to get a CRL approved to aid in putting money into the pocket of a billionaire. You don't care if the information provided is accurate, that's not your responsibility to check it.You just accept it as being the truth. Why the rush? Hold back on the CRL and demand more real proof. It's been said over and over that the amount of NEW tax dollars will be extremely small, if any at all. This is all shifted tax money from one area of the city to another.

Peoples unborn children will be facing the brunt of paying for this when everything fails. And it will fail. We all know that.

An Epcorific Failure

Please note, the information released in this blog post has been authorized by the family involved.

On February 13th, 2013, some urgent pleas for help appeared in the twitter time line, from a family here in Edmonton. This family has been having a major dispute with Epcor, and I think after reading a few facts, you will understand why. I would also like to mention that I know this family. They are extremely kind and honest people. They are also not very mechanically inclined and have procured a host of various contractors they have dealt with for years.

The owner of the property is an 86 year old woman who survived Stalin's World War II Forced Labor Camps. She and her husband eventually settled here in Edmonton and built a large duplex style house many years ago. One side to live in, the other side for family.As life happens, her husband passed away several years ago, and the "other side" was turned into a rental unit. Very well constructed, mirror images of each side, using a boiler and radiator system for heating.

I believe that sometime in January or February of 2012, the family received a phone call from Epcor, advising them they had detected unusually high water usage from the rental unit, which at the time was vacant. The property was immediately inspected, and there was no visible signs of water leaking or running, however a licensed plumber was also called in to perform a full investigation of the boiler system, radiators, taps and toilets. After a complete inspection and investigation, the plumber determined there were no faults, no leaks, and that everything was fine. The family contacted Epcor and said the property was inspected and no issues were found.

Shortly after that, a bill arrived, followed by another call from Epcor saying the water usage was still off the charts. Another investigation was done, the plumber was called back in again, everything was checked and again, nothing found. Truth be told, the plumber was actually there several times to monitor and check. The usual things like putting food coloring into toilet tanks to see if the flapper valve was leaking was done, yet no problems were detected.

I believe that over 2 consecutive billing periods, Epcor billed an amount that would be equal to filling up TWO city sized swimming pools. (Note... this statement was provided by Epcor when asked about consumption comparisons)

How could this be? Inspection after inspection found no problems, the rental unit was vacant, it was winter and certainly no one would be stealing water from a garden hose. Not THAT amount of water. And really, if there was a leak in a wall, well... I'm sure the house would have floated away on its own.

Shortly after this, and continuing on to the present day, Epcor has been hounding the family for the money, refusing to look at the plumbers statement of facts, and threatening continuously to disconnect the services. The family has been trying to get Epcor to deal with this, even to the point of having the water meter removed (at their expense) to be tested. The testing was supposed to be done with the family present, but that did not happen.

The family has refused to pay the "excess" charges because under the circumstances, it would seem there must be some other error involved. Epcor keeps demanding payment, never wants to discuss the issue for the most part, keeps tacking on interest and penalties,and keeps threatening to terminate services. The family has asked on numerous occasions what the exact amount is, and has been told amounts that vary between $750 and $1,150 dollars. I'm not quite sure how "what you owe" can vary like that. And they are also aware that if they DO "agree" to make payments on this over charge, then it's an admission of fault. And they simply do not feel they are at fault.

Well, without warning, Epcor did put restrictive services on the power. They do this by removing the current power meter and replacing it with one that only supplies around 15 amps of 110 volt service. Just enough for some simple basics, and using a stove is not possible at all because it requires 220 volts. The thing is, they did this while the family was not at home, and left no indications that they had done this.

When the family arrived home, a few items were turned on and "poof", the power died. And the panic started. Naturally Epcor was contacted and the explanation of how to "reset" this meter was not accurate. Attempts were made many times, and the power would not come back on.

Anyway, the twitter uproar over this was intense. So intense that the next day, Epcor did come out and put the normal meter back in, but the situation is still not resolved. I think the thing that bothers ME the most, was the nerve of Epcor to make a post on the situation. Personally I think it exceeded the bounds of privacy, and certainly made them look like they were not the ones at fault. And I'm not really impressed with the misrepresentation of disconnection without notice. They have been threatening this every few months and nothing was done. How was the family supposed to know this time would be any different? And why would Epcor refer to this as a "delinquent" account, implying that the family was not paying any of their bill.

Some explanations are in order to the family. How is it possible for that amount of consumption to be "recorded" when there were clearly never any leaks found. Why the constant refusals to discuss the matter other than "pay it and shut up". And why in winter? Can you imagine the trauma this 86 year old woman went through? One who is mobility and hearing challenged. One that could not even have any hot food until well beyond 10 pm, when the "limiter meter" was finally able to be reset. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't follow the incorrect instructions given by Epcor.

I think it's time for Epcor to stop being the bully, and sit down and actually make an honest attempt to solve this.