Bad Leadership, Bad Organization: BENN

Published 08/03/2023 · Updated 08/03/2023

Leadership, or the lack of it, sets the example for a whole organization such as Ottawa City Hall, Bulldog Saturday columnist Ron Benn says

The tone is set from the top.

An old business adage about how staff watch how the leaders behave. Are their actions consistent with their words?

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During the term of the previous council, the integrity commissioner filed a report that found that Jan Harder, the councillor for Barrhaven and chairwoman of the planning committee was in a conflict of interest. Harder had employed or retained the services of the daughter of Jack Stirling. Stirling was the principal of a consultancy practice that represented developers in their dealings with the planning department.

Among the recommendations of the integrity commissioner were that Harder be removed from her position as chairwoman and that she be “fined” the equivalent of 15 days of pay. Rather than accept the commissioner’s recommendations, council accepted Harder’s resignation as chairwoman, and did not assess the financial penalty. No need to further embarrass their long-time colleague.

Flash forward to the findings of the provincial light-rail inquiry. Former mayor Jim Watson was cited for egregious malfeasance for willfully failing to provide council with the information that it required to perform its statutory duties of oversight. Did the current council pass a resolution censuring that behaviour? No. Did they debate the very idea of displaying their disapproval for being willfully misled? No. No need to further embarrass their former colleague.

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Tying all of the pieces together. At Ottawa’s City Hall, there are no consequences for poor judgment. There are no consequences for willfully misleading. So why should we be surprised when OC Transpo willfully misleads the public by describing a wholly owned subsidiary of SNC Lavalin as independent of the mothership that is a key part of Rideau Transit Group? After all, OC Transpo is just following the tone from the top.

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Tags: city hall Jim Watson leadership Ottawa

sisco farraro says:
08/03/2023 at 7:40 PM
There is another culprit in the LRT mess. The project team should have been aware of all the issues at play in the project. There is an ethics component associated with being a PMP (project management professional). All issues concerning the project should have been brought to the table by the project team. Maybe they were, maybe they weren’t. My guess is they were and Jim Watson said “I don’t care, get it done on time or heads will roll!” The problem is that jobs in any of the governments, i.e. federal, provincial, local, are desirable because they pay well and people who do them receive very nice pensions once their working days are over. As a result, members of the project team would be afraid to challenge Watson for fear of losing their lifetime benefits. While it’s always fun to beat up on city council, the problems concerning the LRT run much deeper.
The Voter says:
08/05/2023 at 5:29 AM
Sisco,
If there’s an ethical obligation on a PMP to raise the issues, aren’t they required to take them further if their bosses don’t react appropriately? There’s not much point to having ethical constrictions on a professional group if the people in charge can just quash them by doing nothing.