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Thursday, April I7. 2014. 6 2013 ‘ C(NA BLUE RIBBON 905~M0~2612 Pu: 905-640-8778 (11...: 1-800-743-3353 DISTRIBUTION l~855~853~5613 Dlucron. Busmnss ADIllNISTIATION Aflmbtnhdommunbe ummmm Madam mm.“ ammmmm WMGMLU..IM- Wwwdmydbm' Anne Beswick abnwitkfivnng.mm York Region Media Gmup community Duuacron. Rm ESTATE AND Cussmnn (Ford Paolurci Iim Mason jnwmnfiyrmgwm Daphne Laurie dlau'rwé‘yrmg.mm Wham? lETTERS POlICY Ian Fot all youv «Hwy Inquim. pm The Sun-MM. Editorial Sunshine List reporting rules a tad cloudy, need to be fixed t seems the Sunshine List isn't casting as much light on public sector salaries as it should. (Ease in point. take a look at the of elected officials in our local York Region municipalities. Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua. Richmond Hill Mayor Dave Barrow and Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti pulled in $170,054. $169,690 and $178,701. including their regional salaries of about $52,000. accord- ing to the 2013 public sector sal- ary disclosure list. This newspaper was initially under the incorrect impression the aforementioned figures did not include the regional portions of their remuneration. The reaâ€" son? Because a number of may- ors who would appear on the list if their local and regional salaries were added up. weren‘t there. made $90,425 in his iole as ' mayor of Newmarket last year and received $51,696 in his role as a member of regional council yet you won‘t find his name on the Sunshine List. Same goes for Aurora Mayor Geoff Dawe who made $57,549 and earned $51,801 from the region. As it turns out. York's local- tier municipalities each pay the town/city portion of a politi- cian's compensation as well as the regional share. if any. but get reimbursed for the latter. How- ever. it appears some municipali- ties hold the opinion that. as the source of the fundS. they have a duty to report the aggregated figure for the purposes ofthe list, in spite of the reimbursement. run on â€" mu 'v---v -..â€"â€"“ " I rr' râ€"- - ties hold the opinion that. as the Instead Of debating if the source of the funds. they have 3100.000 reporting threshold a duty to report the mated should rise. a better discus- flgureforthe purposesofthelist, 3‘0“ mlfihlbelOm‘ke 3mm in 5 he of the reimbursement, reporting of salaries is consistent ‘ e others say they‘re dealing across the board and inclusive of ; with two separate employers and, remuneration earned at all public i therefore. aren't required to tally sources Alter all. the public is the two salaries. Pam these salaries. so shouldn‘t Municipalities reporting both it have a complete picture? ways assert they're accounting for [Act's get our act together. the funds co with respect totheannualpub sectorsalary 30mme Wmmm-m t0 uysternneerhtobecortaisterrt theprovince.bothmaybe t. m" I For example. Tony Yan Bynen Given that the legislation applies to “employees” of pro- vincial ministries. govemments. boards. agencies and non-profit organizations that receive at least $1 million from the province in the year of the report or at least $120,000 in the year of the report. where the figure represents 10 per cent or more of gross rev- enues. it's a little disconcerting to know an individual could conceivably work in two public- sector roles. collect $99,999.99 at each and never make it on the list. We’re not saying anyone is try- ing to be intentionally mislead- ing or purposgly brgakingany _ ruTes: the act doesn't require each employer to tally up earnings received from other public sector sources. m the same time. it may be time for me legislqtion to be reviewed to provide clarity on how disclosure is handled for those receiving pay from mul- tiple ublic sector sources and to de ne how these funds are reported. A A LETTER OF THE WEEK Cell towers work atop churches C Cl Re: Stou Illle cell tower plan dead? It all depends a ypllask. April to. A As a Stouffville resident of 33 years. I have seen the changes from a small town to the demands of new infrastmcture and technology. I live in the small hamlet of Lemonville and my cellphone service is still not very strong. The ironic part is that i work for 'l‘elus. which promotes working from home. As a very involved community member. I have an appreciation for the importance of the ability for residents to take part in the plan ning process and the benefit of understand- ing the difficulty in building infrastructure. “The placemént of this tell tower is very imponant. as aesthetics and functionality need to meet in the middle somehow. In Edmonton. Rogers found a solution that involved the church community. Hav- ing cell tawers on their property made sense as the church spire is always the tallest point in any town by tradition. It also provided much‘needed funds to run the church. it is a beautiful way to identify our churches. I spoke to the First Filipino Alliance Church in Edmonton which has had their tower in place since 2003. Beforeitwascon- structed. a community meeting was held. Nothing for Passover? l have been a resident in Stouffville for almost seven years. The grocery stores have always had at least a small variety of Passover But I couldn‘t find a box of Matzoh in town this year. I know there aren't a large number of lows in town. but to not even have a box of Matmh? I don't expect to see kosher meat in town. as the percentage of Jews that keep kosher to the extent that they would require kosher meat is minuscule. why not at least have Matzoh? WENDY WALKIN STt )UFFVILLE No excuse for trespassing, kids It was a beautiful Sunday in April so l decided to go outside to do a little cleanup and see if I could dislodge some ofthewinter branches stuckinmyums GENERAL MANAGER/01m Willem: PUBLISHER Ian Proudfoot Imagine my surprise to find three young people (old enough to drive a grey mini- van) a table and chair and a living room armchair in our from yard. The table was set and one of the young girls was dressed in a sleeveless bright blue dress. She must have been framing. As I approached. the other girl who was dressed in a bur~ gundy hoody with the word "staff" on the back came towards me and said "we‘re doing a school project". I wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean. Is that akin to being given cane blanche to trespass? Was that supposed to explain whytheyhadsetupallthis stufi on our property with- out asldng? 1 can‘t believe they hoped to go undetected. alter all there were numer- ous vehiclw parked in the driveway and it had to be clear to them that they was on private property. She then told me they wanted to stay. There was no introduction about who she and her friends wete. what the project was or how long (Zoncems over electromagnetic radiation emitted by the tower were addressed by a health official. They stated that there is very little radiation emitted. Microwaves and cellphones expose you to greater radia- tion emission. The church scenario is only one pos- sible solution to aesthetics and functional- ity needs both being met. Check out the ehumhes in England. Poland and the US when you (Boogie “twistedsifter.com" and look for “examples-of-cell-phone-tower- disguises". A metal and glass tower version? The ideas can be quite creative. We are not the first town to be concemed with this cell tower issue. On a practical side. at work I have seen where several small cell towers rather than one large one get results. These small cells can reside on Hydro poles or building mot- tops. You can also enclose the attachments into a monopole â€" a white cover to make it look clean and appear as a solid pole. Often this is used as a flag pole or large white cross at the churches As you can see. we just need to be more creative and imaginative with our problem solving on this issue and we can have both beauty and functionality. SWâ€"Ti‘ibune 6290 Main St. StoufMlle. GM. L“ 167 they would be. My initial reaction was to tell them to pack up their stufi and leave. Who just walks onto someone's property and sets up a photo shoot? Had they simply chanced upon our property with a van full of fumiture or had they scoped it out? How would their parents have reacted under similar circumstances? l reluctantly said they could stay but reiterated that they really should have asked first. She shrugged her shoul- ders. said “ya” and turned back towards her friends "No hours later. I watched as they packed up and left. Initially it appeared as if the young woman in the hoody was going to come and say thanks. but she didn‘t. I don't know whether I am more annoyed for letting them stay or disappointed because they were. in the end. inconsiderate. disreâ€" spectful of the consideration extended to them and didn't bothertosay thanks SUSAN FEDORKA STUUFFVILLE AUDREY O’HANDLEY WHIN .‘HL’R( .‘H- 871 )( 'FH'ILLE