Appoint integrity commissioner for TCDSB: Davis
Blighted last week by a 36-page provincial report reviewing their questionable spending policies and practices, Davis, who took over Ward 6 (York) trusteeship last week, said the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) needs to put an "infrastructure of integrity" into place before they can restore parent confidence and move on. His first motion as trustee will call upon the board to create an integrity commissioner position at their next meeting on Wednesday, May 14.
"I can tell you that the response from parents to recent newspaper reports and to the Ontario Education Minister's review has been extremely negative," he said in a release issued Sunday.
"While I support looking into the use and abuse of expense privileges in the past, my focus is setting up an infrastructure of integrity that will make sure that trustees are accountable in the future."
In an interview with Toronto Community News this week, Davis said he'd like to model the position after the one employed by the city - perhaps even calling in Toronto's integrity commissioner, David J. Mullan, on an as-needed basis.
"That way there's no added bureaucracy, we're using the existing commissioner and it's all under one tax," he explained. "Parents can then refer automatically to such a person, their complaint can be investigated and judgement will be passed, so that these issues won't accumulate and fester, causing even bigger problems down the road."
Davis added he's looking forward to helping the board get past the issue so that they can return to dealing with problems confronting schools.
"In my ward alone, I'm dealing with a leaky roof at a newly built school (Loretto College's new building opened in 2006), and at St. John the Evangelist, they've got seven portables and their ESL class is forced to take lessons in the basement of a nearby church - the kids aren't even able to be in the school facility," he said.
"We need to get past this bump in the road so that we can confront the issues that don't impact trustees so much as they do their students."
