Watson’s Dysfunctional Civic Legacy: BENN

05/26/2023

Bulldog Saturday columnist Ron Benn gives a dead-on accurate profile of the dog’s breakfast that is Ottawa City Hall:

And in the three posts at the top of Bulldog Page 1, as of May 26 at 9:22 a.m., we have three of the most experienced city-hall watchers in the community saying that municipal government here is an absolute mess.

So new Mayor Mark Sutcliffe might want to do something about it. You know, ethics, efficiency, truth, competence, trust, open, caring and inclusiveness. Those sort of things.

Just a thought. Here’s Benn:

The Voter is bang on in her perspective of the types of resistance anyone who is tasked with changing the dysfunctional culture of a large organization, and in particular one that is based on and built around a political environment.

City hall is populated with too many people who thrive in a Darwinian evolution situation. Survival, not of the strongest, but of the fittest. Fittest being the organism that best fits the environment. An environment where out-manoeuvring your “colleagues” is a blood sport. Where knowledge is power, and therefore should not be shared. Where the end justifies the means.

The individual charged with changing that culture will need to be in a continuous mindset of assessing who is onside and who is only acting like they are onside. On wondering, as they get out of bed in the morning what drama will I face today. Who will have willfully withheld critical information? Who will have willfully given me incorrect information? Who is trying to undermine my success? How many sides am I competing against today – one, two, seven …?

Alex Munter As City Manager Could Have Been Fun

This is a role that will not permit a vacation, a time where the CAO can relax with a book, or to wander around a distant city, or float on a lake, or just sleep peacefully. Because during that week or two away from the office, someone (or more likely the plural of someone) will grasp the opportunity to undermine your efforts. Why? To protect what they value? Only if one considers a role to manipulate what are supposed to be their colleagues to their own advantage to be valuable. This will be a role that is emotionally and therefore physically draining, 24/7.

I cannot think of a more dysfunctional place to work in than Ottawa City Hall. That is former mayor Jim Watson’s legacy. That and a sometimes functional LRT. That and the reversing waterfall down at Lansdowne. That and the over-budget disaster of a new central library. See the trend here? The legacy of dysfunctional organizations is one of making poor decisions, and even poorer execution.

I suspect that the successful candidate will not be an agent of change. Because the powers that be down at city hall are not interested in changing the status quo. Because to change the status quo is to lose the power to make decisions that meet their politically driven needs, not the city’s.

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Tags: blood sport Jim Watson Mayor Mark Sutcliffe Ottawa City Hall

Robert Roberts says:
05/26/2023 at 2:37 PM
The city has no appetite for cleaning up the mess . The LRT fiasco,was quietly handled by the insiders. When malfeasance could have been exposed, there was no,action. Charges v could have been laid—-even if they could have failed what got exposed could have provided a necessaryshock to the system.
Paul S Carroll says:
07/23/2023 at 9:20 AM
Nothing good can be said about Jim Watson.
He’s trying to find his way into Ottawa Community Housing to find employment there. He was absent from every Board meeting when he was the ex-officio.