Council Should Take Control Of City Hall: MULVIHILL
What is going on at the City of Ottawa?
That would be a fair question for any taxpayer to ask of any sitting councillor or Mayor Mark Sutcliffe. One could say that the inmates have been given full permission to run the asylum given the authority staff has to make critical decisions on matters that affect homeowners and the city as a whole.
Remember when staff was given full authority to make decisions on the LRT Confederation Line?
Staff was permitted to make multi-million dollar decisions on the proposals associated with the line. Remember when former councillor Diane Deans attempted to question staff on whether the chosen company actually passed the technical requirements? Stone cold silence and yet council voted to approve this project without knowing the exact details of what they were approving. Does this make any sense?
Is it that councillors are too lazy to put the effort into reading reports, asking questions and making informed decisions for the ward they represent? Is it that staff will not answer questions asked because they feel above having to answer to council?
Councillors and the mayor are elected officials. Elected by residents, property owners and taxpayers alike. They might remind themselves of that and attend meetings informed and fully aware of what is before them that requires their utmost attention. It is our money they are supposed to safeguard.
It is time this council took back the authority they so graciously doled out to staff and did the job they were elected to do.
Donna Mulvihill is a community activist and former hospital coordinator
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Donna,
From a democratic point of view, I’m with you all the way in principle. Where I’m getting caught is wondering which master – staff or councillors – would deliver better results. I keep coming to the answer that neither is what we need. The level of incompetence and unsatisfactory performance on both sides is so high that returning control to Council wouldn’t do the trick.
The cure that we need looks to be a scrapping of both the staff component and the elected reps and a return to the drawing board to start over from scratch. Positive behaviour and commitment to the goals of the community are so absent across the board that both the baby and the bath water need to be tossed.
The sad part of that is that you and I both know that the community here in Ottawa is so apathetic and disconnected from what’s going on at City Hall that even a complete clean slate approach would probably not advance the quality of what happens in the Laurier bunker.
And those who are not apathetic are hit with a stone wall.
Citizens are apathetic but why? Do they have no hope that they will have an impact?
Citizens are not given the straight goods in ways they can understand. Riley Brockington knows that once residents see the tsunami of change coming to their neighbourhoods with the new zoning by law, they will be shocked and angry.
Councillors need to exercise the control they have which is minimal. And that is they have one staff person for whom they are responsible: The City Manager. What goals have they set for her performance? And where is the Auditor General?
Voter, Watching. Your points are well made. One other thing everyone at city hall needs to do is remove their teflon vests, put down their deflexctor shields, and take responsibility for their actions.
right on sisco – k
Unfortunately the AG believes the city staff response is both accurate and honest. I have witnessed the city lie in writing to the AG. It seems the AG does not seem to care, the case gets closed.
Unfortunately, voters seem to get sucked in by one trick ponies … those running on the cause du jour or whatever riles folks up in the moment. Voters must look at the big picture. Sadly, they get caught up in headlines or community blowhards.