City Can’t Meet Potential Job Candidates’ Standards (3)

Here are some words about the culture of Ottawa City Hall as per the LRT from Justice William Hourigan seen through the provincial Ottawa LRT inquiry:

—

… egregious violations of public trust …

—

As public pressure grew to get the system open for public service, the City and RTG changed the testing criteria to make it easier to pass. That change was covered up when (city manager Steve) Kanellakos deliberately mislead council in his (Aug. 23, 2019) memorandum.

—

(Misleading council) is not only a serious finding regarding OLRT1, but it also has broader significance for other projects undertaken by the City. Without changes to the information-sharing process and a fundamental shift in the approach of senior City staff, the statutory oversight function of Council will be irreparably compromised.

—

The Mayor’s (Jim Watson) failure to inform Council prevented Council from exercising effective oversight.

—

… start-up issues were being worked out during the initial operations period.

—

Given the previous failures of senior City staff to honestly communicate critical information to Council, it is recommended that the third party report (from an outside safety inspector) directly to Council or the Ottawa Transit Commission. At this juncture, nothing less will suffice to regain the public’s trust in the OLRT1 system.

—

So now city manager Wendy Stephanson, The Bulldog has provided numerous reasons in the three related posts, of which this is the third, of why good, ethical, ambitious, intelligent people will not come to Ottawa.

Who would want to work in such a place unless you had little other choice? Who would want to be tainted by the conduct of people who had come before?

And have potential candidates heard of these problems? Count on it. Also count on the fact they have heard about the performance of the Ottawa Police Service and Ottawa Police Services Board and the former mayor during the Freedom Convoy debacle. They will have heard of the monstrous budget overruns at the new central library. They will have heard about gas generators used for chargers for the $1-billion e-bus purchase. They will have heard of fixing Lansdowne 1.0 by creating Lansdowne 2.0 which is just more of the failed Lansdowne 1.0.

No doubt potential candidates have heard of other stories through the municipal grapevine that the media has not unearthed.

Why aren’t good people coming to the City of Ottawa? Because the city does not meet the performance and ethical standards of intelligent, hard-working potential candidates.

Comments by Ken Gray

—

RECOMMENDED FOR YOU

Ottawa City Hall Just Doesn’t Get It: THE VOTER

Challenging The Status Quo Takes Courage: BENN

Interim Chief To Address ‘Interim’ Problem: WHOPPER WATCH

—

DON’T MISS OUR REGULAR FEATURES

Everything Ottawa      Full Local     Bulldog Canadian

Opinion    Comments    Breaking News    Auto

Ontario   World    Get Cheap Gas   Big Money

Pop Gossip   Your Home    Relax …

Bulldog Weather    Full Local Sports

TV/Movies   Travel

Page 2   Page 3   Page 4   Page 5   Page 6

Other features:    Full Bulldog Index    Return to Bulldog Home