Thursday, November 13th, 2008 ::: "Street Furniture"

In Spiral Beach Caught In Erich Genseberger’s EcoMedia Shakedown Scheme we told you about how the billboard company that is responsible for maintaining Toronto’s garbage bins is issuing legally-questionable invoices to bill posters.

Well it turns out that EcoMedia is issuing similar invoices to the City of Toronto per this Staff Report:

See, when it snows in Toronto, the City sends out crews to move the snow from the streets to the sidewalks. Genseberger’s garbage bins are so shoddily built that maybe, just maybe some of the bins were damaged in the snow removal process. But probably not. Probably Genseberger is making the whole thing up because when the City went to verify the supposed damages they encountered stark differences between what Genseberger claims and what the City’s investigators found on the street:

By the end of the summer, it became apparent that a gap persisted between what EcoMedia’s damage claim alleged and what staff felt responsible for as a result of snow removal efforts conducted either by City crews or by City contractors… Negotiations have resulted in a proposed settlement with EcoMedia to avoid further potential costs associated with additional staff investigations, further meetings and any subsequent legal process.

The City also noted that many of the garbage bins are “missing leg bolts and some door latches were not working properly,” but the City Solicitor is not requiring EcoMedia to live up to the specifications in the contract, which requires EcoMedia to keep the bins in good working order.

The City’s Works Committee adopted the confidential settlement negotiated between EcoMedia and the City Solicitor last night, after a deputation from the Toronto Public Space Committee’s Jonathan Goldsbie couldn’t stop them.