Business calendar invites discord

It sounded like a kindergarten fight.
The mayor squared off against members of council Monday over a long-standing debate about business invitations.
Councillor Tony Carella suggested council approve a December report that asks the mayor and members of council to enter all business invitations they receive into a database so they can each see what events the others are attending.
But Jackson dug in her heels.
“I’m not doing it,” she snapped. “I’m not sharing them.”
Other municipalities don’t have such a protocol, Jackson said.
“I will not do it,” she said again. “There are no other mayors in the GTA that are so hands-tied by this type of policy.
“It’s an issue of security for me.”
Council voted seven in favour and two against — the motion carried despite Jackson’s disdain.
A city staffer will be assigned to manage the database.
Regional Councillor Gino Rosati cast the second dissenting vote.
For one, he said, councillors did not have a copy of the December report in front of them.
And, Rosati added, the mayor has to “buy into it or it won’t work”.
But the protocol applies to councillors as well as the mayor, Councillor Peter Meffe pointed out.
“I get invitations all the time,” Meffe said. “Some are social, some are business.
“If I get an invite from the Hwy. 427 committee, I better be telling the people at this table about it.”
No one’s picking on the mayor, Carella said after the meeting.
“This is going to involve about 35 people at the top of management at the city,” he said. “It will make us more efficient and more effective in the way we do business.”
Exactly what constitutes a business invitation remained unclear throughout Monday’s debate.
“This past weekend, there were many galas and events,” Jackson said. “Would those be considered official business?”
Yes, according to Jackson.
No, according to Meffe.
“You are going there as the mayor or as a councillor,” she said. “You aren’t going there to have a good time with your friends. You are working.”
Meffe disagreed.
“I don’t think I was working because I bought the tickets to the event out of my personal pocket,” he said.
“So what is official business?” Rosati asked, to which no one could respond.
Carella said Wednesday he is drafting a chart to help council separate a business invitation from a social one.
“If you are in your shorts and flip-flops, chances are it’s not a business event,” he said. “If it’s all elected officials there, chances are it’s business.”
It’s not about checking up on who’s having lunch with who, Carella said.
“That’s never been my intention and I wouldn’t support that,” he said. “Where I go socially is my business.”