Monday, February 28, 2011

It's local council report card time!

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Our elected local council is now four months into their first year so I thought I would issue first trimester report cards.

I decided to go with four criteria - leadership (do they have a plan and do classmates value their opinion), teamwork (do they play nice with their collegues), effectiveness (did they get the job done) and communication (do they talk to the residents that elected them as well as staff department heads).

I think this is a good balance with which to grade our studious class.

The point of this exercise, of course, is to stimulate debate and discussion about what makes a good local representative and to try and set some objective criteria with which to gauge their performance. It's not to throw stones at someone because we don't particularly like their political stance nor should it be taken as a 'rah-rah' cheerleader.

Feel free to come up with your own criteria and ratings and post them below - I'd love to see them.

I want to begin by pointing out what I see as four factions developing on council:

Veteran Guard - Mayor Adrian Foster, Ward 1 & 2 Regional Councillor Mary Novak, Ward 3 & 4 Councillor Willie Woo and Ward 2 Local Councillor Ron Hooper are experienced at politics and three of the four are our regional representatives.

The Firm - Ward 1 Local Councillor Joe Neal and Ward 3 Local Councillor Corinna Traill - two representatives with a legal background. If there is an opposition party on council this is it. They tend to vote together but on contested motions are usually strongly outgunned by the Veteran Guard.

New Faces - We have Ward 4 Local Councillor Wendy Partner joined by Ward 1 Local Councillor Joe Neal and Ward 3 Local Councillor Corinna Traill. They are the fresh faces on council and many residents are looking to them to shake things up.

The Woman's Caucus - In the 2010 election the number of women on council tripled from one to three. Still not a majority but there is perhaps an opportunity to see a different approach to local issues.

And now the marks:

Mayor - Mayor Adrian Foster gets bonus marks for conducting the first survey of residents to actually see what their priorities are for the strategic review. There was even a time extension to allow more people to participate. He loses some marks, however, for his embroiled conflicts with The Firm - even if it does take two to tango he needs to find a way to lead the dance. We would have expected to see a better performance from Foster given his stellar performance as a local councillor and his failure - thus far - to halt the incinerator is troubling to many. GRADE: B-

Regional Councillor Wards 1 & 2 - Mary Novak is the most experienced politician on council and has a comprehensive understanding of the issues that matter to residents and the businesses of the muncipality. She could do a better job reaching out to opponents but overall Novak demonstrates that experience matters. A team player and effective representative she needs to work on her communication skills to really hit her full potential. GRADE: A-

Regional Councillor Ward 3 & 4 - Willie Woo has such an affable demeanor that it's almost impossible not to like him. He seems to be taking a bit of time settling in to his new role as regional representative and doesn't often take the leadership role he is capable of. But he's a strong team player and gets all his ducks in a row ahead of any vote. GRADE: B

Local councillor Ward 1 - Joe Neal has political experience but hasn't been able to convert that into building a winning team yet. As half of The Firm he has been thwarted in his legal attempts to stop the incinerator. Not everything has to boil down to a legal showdown or be sent out for expensive consultants - he should perhaps branch away from his signature move 'call in the lawyers' and look at alternative tactics. But his success in having delegation time increased and vigorous support of funds for his ward shows passion and promise. GRADE: A-

Local councillor Ward 2 - Ron Hooper is a respected business owner in his Ward, knows his constituents and fights for their best interests. He's not at all afraid to change course if that's the smart thing to do. But we need to see more vision from Hooper because he has the goodwill and alliances to get things done. GRADE: B-

Local Councillor Ward 3 - Corinna Traill is exactly what people want from their politicians - she's strong, forceful, creative and has a great online presence through her social media connections. But it has become increasingly obvious that she has not built any alliances outside The Firm. The only thing preventing her from scoring higher is her lack of success in actually producing winning results that are not later rescinded. GRADE: B-

Local Councillor Ward 4 - If you go to council and watch Wendy Partner she doesn't talk much. That's a good thing because she is busy listening. Partner has demonstrated glimpses of a quick wit and a clear grasp of the issues and as the months go on her confidence is visibly increasing. She has the opportunity to bridge the many gaps between various factions on council and could end up being a dealmaker. GRADE: B

Council as a whole - Council is clearly not 'working together' and part of the problem is that everyone has to want to work together. The former 4-3 flip-flopping council has been replaced by the 5-2 flip-floppers. This council is somehow much less than the sum of it's parts. However, it has the right mix to come to good decisions for the people of Clarington if it starts focusing on the right issues and get them dealt with. GRADE: C

In my next blog I'm going to take a look at the fallout from the Clarington budget.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day Clarington!

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One of the hottest topics of debate these days concerning Clarington is pay rates for municipal staff.

Who knew staff made so much/little?

Where you sit on that question really depends on your ideology concerning taxes and who should pay for what but one thing is for sure - this council is acting exactly as many residents figure politicians usually do - get the controversial topics dealt with early.

Think forward to 2014 for a moment.

Who really is going to remember what the pay increases were in 2011 except die-hard political observers or those prompted by a bar chart?

Common wisdom on the street is that if a council is going to do something unpopular - or costly - get it done early in the term because memories are short. And this is exactly what seems to be happening.

If staff pay increases end up being zero in 2014 that's the only thing we'll see on campaign brochures and election charts - not whatever happened in 2011.

So voters - pledge to remember what's happening now - this matters as much or more as what happens in 2014.

Winter WonderLearn

For years now, like many of my fellow residents in Courtice and surround area, I've taken my family in the middle of February to Winter WonderLearn at the Courtice Community Complex.

But not this year.

The municipality has decided to move the event out of Courtice to Newcastle after eight fun years. Newcastle will definitely enjoy the activities and they will definitely be good hosts. But Courtice has lost something here - one of the few 'Clarington' events that it hosts.

The town claims the event in Courtice is a victim of its own success.

It's grown to over 1,400 participants and there simply isn't room, apparently. If you  attended the Courtice Kids of Steel Triathalon this past summer you know that the complex can clearly handle events of this size and larger.

There's more room at the South Courtice Arena - how about moving it there?

I'm not sure my family will be able to make the trek out to Newcastle this year and it's ironic that now the province has officially recognized Family Day in Ontario we suddenly don't have a local event.

In my next blog I'll take a look at events leading up to the last council meeting before our representatives take a rest for March Break. It's been four months since the election so I'll have my first trimester report cards ready.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Blog #3 - Revisiting the host community agreement

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Let's step back ourselves for a moment and consider Clarington council's decision to step back from a motion aimed at re-opening the host community agreement on the regional incinerator to be built in Clarington.

Make no mistake about it - a solid majority of this council still opposes incineration.

So why the lack of council support for this attempt to stop the incinerator?

Well for starters it smacked too much of sabre-rattling and nobody takes kindly to threats or perceived threats - nor should they.

Lawyers do what lawyers do - work within the legal system - but the region quite clearly laid out the potential massive costs - to Clarington - if developments continued down that path.

From the beginning the best way to fight the incinerator was to do three things:

First, immediately after the election this council should have made their voices heard loud and clear from the steps of the town hall. But we didn't hear a peep and in the interim events moved along, the deal got signed, life went on.

That was a missed opportunity.

The second step was to re-examine the host community agreement. The problem is the 2006-2010 Clarington council did a fine job handcuffing this council to the deal. Even if residents wanted out of it the region is well within its rights to simply say that at the time the deal was made Clarington was on board with it so they are bound to it.

A deal's a deal and I think most people understand that. But not all negotiations have to be held in the context of a lawsuit hanging over everyone's head. It got the region's defences up and wasted an opportunity for sensible discussion.

But all is not lost.

The third way still remains and it is the strongest - re-examining the business case.

Clarington needs to direct its three regional representatives - Mayor Adrian Foster, Ward 1 & 2 Regional Councillor Mary Novak and Ward 3 & 4 Regional Councillor Willie Woo - to ask regional council to re-open the business case one final time.

Many of the other Regional Councillors claimed they were opposed to the incinerator and many residents voted for them based on that platform.

Given the escalating costs of the agreement, given the seriousness of the opposition to the project and given the recomposition of regional council this just makes good sense.

Clarington still has an at-bat to go but this council really needs to come to grips with a strategy, make it clear to all and present a unified force.

Threats of a lawsuit won't make the incinerator go away and could complicate real efforts that could produce real results. At worst Clarington could be on the hook for tens of millions of dollars - think for a moment about the possibility of 10 per cent tax increases each year for the next ten years over this.

I bet the Mayor did.

That's the path this motion demanding the region look at the host community agreement - or else - seemed to be leading Clarington down.

One thing, however, is clear - members of this council need to start really listening to each other and quit the political grandstanding.

Let's see some real teamwork, some real consensus-building and some action that produces real results. Not sound bites over who is doing the most for the taxpayer.

In my next blog post I'll look at the Valentine's Day Clarington Council meeting on Feb. 14 and see what happened with Winter Wonderlearn in Courtice.