“Mayor Shari Green went to an Ottawa ceremony February 7th to accept that recognition, about three weeks after she eliminated Environmental Services”

Now there’s leadership for you!

A second point, is it really in the best interest of the city to be terminating people who receive Provincial Awards for their service? Common sense would sort of dictate that people like these should try to be retained at all costs. Mind you, common sense and PG City Hall have never been good partners.

Generally bosses hate it when their employees are smarter than they are.

Obviously the new and ridiculous mayor eliminated positions. She had to hire an assistant or 2.

The individual is one thing. It sounds to me that a project which applied across the board at City Hall and has been ongoing since 2002 was considerably concluded, cut, or whatever. Jocelyn White was part of that and it sounds like an individual who was chosen to be recognized for the work she has done. That is life in today’s corporate world. In one job one gets mistreated in front of others because one is Mexican and has spilled coffee. In another job one gets treated well, put up on a pedestal and gets laid off because the dollars are not there to support the program/position.

I am hoping that she has been able to pick herself up, as most of us have to do at sometime during their careers, and move on to bigger and better things.

There is considerable information on the FCM site about the program she was part of. How much of that program remains, I cannot tell. It is a program that picks up a lot of flak from people on this site. So, again, we are seeing the human side which has come light in more detail now because of how the City has promoted it.

Jocelyn’ backgrounder shown though RNA’s site (betcha few on here have heard about RNA)
http://www.resourcesnorth.org/rna/444/white

This is the program though which the City was able to pick up some dollars here and some more dollars over there to provide work for people such as Jocelyn.

http://www.fcm.ca/home/programs/partners-for-climate-protection.htm

The Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) program is a network of Canadian municipal governments that have committed to reducing greenhouse gases and acting on climate change.
PCP is the Canadian component of ICLEI’s Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) network, which involves more than 900 communities worldwide. PCP is a partnership between the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability. PCP receives financial support from FCM’s Green Municipal Fund.

Here are the Canadian members of that program. Notice that there are 69 in BC, which is the highest number of all provinces. Alberta is a contrast to that with 18.
http://www.fcm.ca/home/programs/partners-for-climate-protection/members.htm

Here is the list of communities which makes up the 69 BC members.
http://www.fcm.ca/home/programs/partners-for-climate-protection/members/british-columbia.htm
If you look down the list, you will find that PG, along with North Van and Whistler has the highest count of corporate and community milestones. Thus the awards, in part.

Click on the Action Plan, Inventory, and Emission Reduction Report. The last is a bean counter’s dream. We have highlighted in front of us a report that tells me a lot about fuel use and fuel reduction in some cases and, of course, a lot about greenhouse gases. What is missing is the dollar figures which show cost of that investment of the individual programs as well as aggregate of all programs, plus the financial return on that investment, with a breakdown of which taxpayers – federal, provincial, municipal – provided the funds to operate the program(s) and which taxpayers will reap any financial benefit which has accrued and may accrue in the future.

Remember folks, this started in 2002, an era which precedes the City Manager who just left the City and brings us to the era of Colin Kinsley.

So, if we are looking to congratulate or blame anyone for wise use of money, those are the individuals to give that recognition to.

This is the key report. It was put together by an external consultant. Just thought I would mention that … :-)

http://www.fcm.ca/Documents/reports/PCP/Prince_George_Corporate_and_Community_Update_for_GHG_Emissions_Reduction_and_Monitoring_Nov10_2011_EN.pdf

That entire program deserves an audit by a Municipal Auditor to show us whether we received and will continue to receive value for money.

Back to Jocelyn White. What happened to her at City Hall is a personnel matter and thus remains confidential. She may very well have been given an opportunity to stay on in another department, but likely faced the whole union seniority issue.

While carrying out work in a union position may have its advantages, it also has its disadvantages. Seniority trumping knowledge, skills and attitude is one of the disadvantages for those who excel in those attributes.

So, one more aspect to this story before we lose sight of it.

10 years or so after we joined the PEP program, did our Council make the right decision to eliminate the Environmental Services Department?

http://princegeorge.ca/cityhall/mayorcouncil/councilagendasminutes/Agendas/2012/2012_02_06/documents/Corr_Rogers_Environment_Div_Cuts.pdf

“whose abilities are now recognized by the province”

Hardly a ringing endorsement.

Why are there “Local Government Achievement certificates” anyhow? Does someone sit around thinking of more ways to waste tax payer money?

Even though the entire department was eliminated the manager was conveniently moved to manager of community forests with no employees working under him so god knows what he is doing all day – maybe he’s out there hugging trees or something….

Well, there is a real kick in the teeth to mayor and council.

Wow. Wonder how that felt – going to Ottawa to accept an environmental award, three weeks after you’ve eliminated the department? That takes guts! I mean, you wouldn’t exactly be letting that little tidbit slip during your social conversation at the awards ceremony. I just don;t understand how someone could have that much gall to go. I mean, why not just NOT go to Ottawa, at least! Stay home.

Now you may have hit one of the yet missing parts of the full story, haven’t you new2pg? It is a $100 thousand plus position as well.

So the question is, do we need a community forest? Is a community forest a core service and what is the value of a community forest?

Anyway, here is how I assume this whole thing went down.

1. They had to raise taxes higher than Council would accept.

2. The City Manager was asked to present one or more recommendations of what cuts to make in order to limit the tax raise.

3. Since that involved layoffs of staff, it became a matter which could be taken to an in camera meeting. Notice I wrote “could”.

4. As a result we have not heard anything, to the best of my knowledge, which justified the reasons for those layoffs in lieu of other possible scenarios, even though it would seem that the City has a duty to the community to do so once the personnel issues are settled.

Now, that approach of hidden information is in sharp contrast to the way that CNC, for instance handles its budget session that involve potential layoffs. Once people are told they may be laid off if things do not change, it essentially becomes public knowledge of which programs or portions of programs will get the axe unless new money is found.

Why the difference?

I think Colin Kinsley should have been sent to accept it.

It could be viewed as winning a car race. Accept the award on behalf of Fiat ….. even though Fiat will no longer participate in next year’s races until they re-organize their promotion programs.

The City won the race so they have a legitimate claim to being acknowledged. If they sent anyone, they should have sent someone who was instrumental in deciding to enter the race and was in the driver’s seat.

Our govt’s need to stop spending taxpayers dollars to blow each others horns!

I think the manager of community forests position may be externally funded to some extent however it just stinks that out of everyone in the enviromental department the the only person to come out unscathes would be the one and only exempt staff member.

..and I would still like to know what he does all day……

Just goes to show how a real leader gathers top achievers and those who are too egotistical will get rid of them somehow.

Some people manage to relocate themselves when things at work begin to be unpleasant rather than sticking around waiting for the axe to drop.

I think Mark Fercho, who was the City’s Environment Manager and ended up being seconded as Integrated Community Sustainability Planning Leader (MyPG) managed to get himself out in time and landing the job as Mackenzie’s CAO.

Maybe we can start a rumour that he is being courted to apply for the City Manager’s position.

The corporate world is interesting. Sometimes one has to step out of an organization to continue the climb to the top.
;-)

One governmental body giving an award to a person in another government body, and all of them living on the taxpayer’s dime.

To me that says it all. Everything else is just details.

What’s the cost of the award? A piece of paper in a frame? A name engraved on a plaque?

A bit of recognition goes a long way at work. Why should government workers not get the recognition that private industry business owners and employees have access to?

Of course, the actual recognition comes from the coworkers and/or local management. They make the nomination to the awards people. They are the ones who recognize the value of the people they have working with them.