Ottawa Deserves Better From Staff, Council: BENN

The lack of depth of thought at Ottawa City Hall, of anything evenly remotely passing as interest in how inter-related actions and policies are, is stunning.

That an organization with a $5 billion operating budget and a multi-billion-dollar capital budget is incapable of understanding how interwoven everything it touches or should touch is mind-boggling.

The city manager and every one of her executives should be able to clearly articulate the cross-departmental impact of every major, and most minor decisions. The expected effects on the residents and employers of the city should be top of mind, not responded to with “well that is an unintended consequence.” To paraphrase my mother, before you pull on this thread, you had best know whether that sleeve will fall off?

College Councillor Laine Johnson, after three-and-a-half years has finally realized this. Her recent efforts to draw attention to senior management’s complete lack of interest in coordinating major road works should not be dismissed as just election year PR. Nor should her comments on the lack of urgency from the city’s emergency preparedness group to the July 1 storm-induced floods. In both instances she points out that the lion’s share of effort has been handled by councillors’ offices. The councillors’ staff are not subject-matter experts. The councillors’ offices are not designed to handle these issues, yet senior management and staff routinely expect them to.

That is why I have and will continue to advocate for a change in culture at city hall. Because the performance of this senior management team and of the council that is tasked with overseeing the decisions and execution of policies and programs is unacceptable. We deserve so much better.

Ron Benn is a former finance executive.

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