Thanks to the some of the outsize personalities and the issues at stake, these days pretty much every city council meeting has something to intrigue the public, media and political junkies.This week’s meeting may not have as action-packed an agenda as the last few, such as when council debated whether to “privatize” some of the city’s garbage collection, councillors will still have lots to talk about when they get together next Tuesday and Wednesday. For one thing, we’ll finally see some debate on a plan to sell 22 single-family homes that the Toronto Community Housing Company currently owns. Although the TCHC board did approve the sale, no one debated both sides of the issue. When the board approved the sale, it consisted of just one person, former councillor Case Ootes.Speaking of TCHC, several staff reports recommend that council approve a new board of directors, including four councillors and seven members of the public. Council will also likely appoint two representatives that TCHC tenants recently elected – one of whom council previously agreed to oust, when it purged the previous board.Councillors will again review a staff report advising that the organizers of the upcoming Pride festival did not violate the City’s Anti-Discrimination Policy. This may reignite some of the debate about whether the city should support the event financially, similar to what took place during the recent Executive Committee meeting.Also on the agenda:+ Protecting “whistle-blowers” – employees who report instances of fraud by other city employees.+ Revising City policies that require “pay-duty” police officers at some construction sites.+ Tightening rules and regulations for pet shops selling dogs and cats, to make sure that the stores buy the animals from reputable breeders.+ Regulating kite-flying in city parks. (This is less innocuous than it sounds – it’s felt that some competitive kite-flyers use hazardous strings that may harm birds, animals and people in the parks.)+ Identifying a process to shift management of Casa Loma from the Kiwanis Club of West Toronto back to the city.
