Score Another One For The Opposition On Council Your Worship
Tuesday, September 24, 2013 @ 3:45 AM
Just how and why do you go from supporting the purchase of a new downtown parking system for a million and a quarter to sending it down to defeat?
While the decision not to go ahead with the purchase of the equipment was unanimous, (Councillor Murry Krause was absent) you might want to think back to how we got here.
The Mayor definitely was on side earlier as was her running partner Cameron Stolz, along with Councillor Wilbur . When the final vote was taken, low and behold, this same bunch suddenly jumped on the, "no" Band wagon surprising the DBIA the Chamber and everyone else from the core who had been in a fight to stop the purchase.
Ah but an election is coming in just over a year from now.
When you have discovered that you’re going down to defeat anyway it’s a great time to throw the hand in the air and not support the idea because come the next election you can say, ‘well I didn’t support the purchase of that new equipment’. It was classic , jump ship at the last moment and pretend you didn’t have a hand in it all along.
One wonders if the electors in the city will smile when they are told next year that the Mayor and some Councillors did not support the purchase, because if that were the case, why in the world was the Chamber, along with the DBIA and a bunch of downtown business people, working so hard to have the purchase nixed?
Ah it is wonderful to sit back and watch politics unfolding, the opposition on the council your worship has scored yet another victory.
I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.
Comments
So who wanted to get pay parking back into downtown, and what exactly was the extent of downtown for this purpose?
Was this a directive of Council to Administration? After all, administration are the people who have the expertise to operate the City. What was there recommendation?
Is our governance system organized well enough that someone can easily review what caused the events to happen, move along a path for as long as it did with little consultation, and end up being reversed after the thing went out to a “serious” tender, causing those putting in proposal time and effort for what ended up becoming a frivolous request for proposal.
Surely thins fiasco must be someone’ responsibility. Surely the entire matter costs a lot of time and effort on the part of staff as well as Councillors.
Such costs should be quantified and be recorded as the cost of a poorly run operation which goes down to a preventable expense of operating this City.
That also goes to the appropriate question which I thought would be one of the key issues addressed by the core review: How well is this City run both from a cost as well as a quality point of view?
Almost the entire cost of this fiasco could have been avoided. More importantly, it is one of many administrative costs this City could avoid.
“Ah but an election is coming in just over a year from now.”
I wouldn’t bet on it! They are working round the clock to change their term of office from three years to four, so I would bet on 2014!
The change from three year to four year terms for councilors if approved by the Provincial Government would not take effect until the election of 2014,. The present councilors and Mayor will serve for three years only.
This council only has a 3 year mandate. If it changes to 4 years then the new people elected will get 4 years if it changes. Just remember if Green runs again you get that many years of dumb ideas. Hers if she gets in
We have a council that’s afraid to lead. They have bent several times to every special interest group with a voice. It’s probably for the best that they get voted out next election.
JohnnyBelt you are bang on! there has been a noticeable lack of leadership with this Mayor and Council, making it extremely difficult to accomplish positive and beneficial policies for PG. So much for the cohesive teamwork idea that formed part of Shari’s election platform.
I’m almost as worried about who would run for mayor as I am about the current mayor. They need to do what they say they are going to do when they get elected no matter what. Unfortunately the largest group she needs to make happy isn’t a special interest group. It’s the electorate. It is refreshing to see PG citizens standing up and being heard over these issues. If we can give credit to the current mayor for one thing, it’s that regular folks are involved in the process with a much higher degree than I can remember.
I think we will see a much warmer and fuzzier mayor for the last year of her term in office.
“We have a council that’s afraid to lead”
They are not AFRAID to lead.
They took the lead on the Core Review.
They took the lead on Haldi Road.
They took the lead on raising River Road and creating a dike out of the proposed extended portion.
They took the lead on the downtown parking issue.
They are not afraid to lead.
They do not know HOW to lead in a modern social setting.
JohnnyBelt has (once again) got the cart before the horse.
The issue’s that caused the Mayor and some Councilors grief were dreamed up and brought forward by them, not by the so called special interest groups.
One would like to think that our Mayor and some Councilors would be smart enough not to try and put through these programs in the first place.
The was no need to;
A. Antagonize the people of Haldi Road. This treatment centre could have been located anywhere in the greater Prince George area.
B. Build a useless dyke on River Road, for no other reason that to access Federal and Provincial money plus borrow an additional $3 Million for this project, for a total waste of some $7/8 Million dollars.
C. Sell of the Pine Valley Golf course and Parkland to special interest groups, at the expense of those who use, and appreciate these facilities.
D. Bring back downtown parking when it was obvious to everyone that it was not wanted or needed.
So we can say with some conviction that the Mayor and some Councilors are the architects of their own misfortune.
They should consider the old maxim. **If you poke s..t with a stick it will start to stink**
Have a nice day.
“So much for the cohesive teamwork idea that formed part of Shari’s election platform.”
Council is not a football team. Council is a group with independent thinkers who bring different views to the table from a different constituent base. The sooner they learn that, the sooner we will get a better government.
Councillors are afraid to speak in the chamber. What should happen is that the chamber should be a court of second opinion. The first opinion should come from administration, the people who have been hired because of their expertise in operating a segment for which they have the education and experience.
In this case, there are so many ways the entire charade went off the rails.
I know one thing, there was no expertise visible to the pubic from the proponent for the system. They were simply making a sale. They were not there to provide functional expertise, to make suggestions of how to improve the system. One of the options should have been to not put a physical control system in. A good “salesman” should have been able to say that putting in a system would not solve the problem they are trying to solve.
But, those kind of companies are probably getting harder to find these day.
“I wouldn’t bet on it! They are working round the clock to change their term of office from three years to four, so I would bet on 2014!”
Typo. Make that 2015, of course!
Perhaps we could persuade the mayor of Calgary (a real people person, a listener with a great personality and a genuine smile) to come here for a visit and give some down-to-earth advice!
The mayor is definitely not afraid to lead, but many of the councillors seemed focused on appeasing as much as possible. This is the reversal of what the roles shoule be. The chair of any board is resposible for creating an environment for effective and informed decision making, while directors should be the ones creating the vision. Instead, mayor green is charging ahead with her own visions and the councillors are desperately trying to recreate an environment of respect for the public, which obviously doesn’t exist with this council.
Prince George wrote: Perhaps we could persuade the mayor of Calgary (a real people person, a listener with a great personality and a genuine smile) to come here for a visit and give some down-to-earth advice!
Please don’t put expensive thoughts into this council’s heads….
Planning, bylaws and the rest of the so call administration heads give recommendations to council – make them more accountable.
They need to get the proper people into bylaws and not someone that only does what they want at their own discretion.
Look at how it took bylaws almost 27 years to try and fine a resident in regards to parking of vehicles recently. Why has it taken them so long to go after some of the slum lords?
Thought city had policies in place for a reason?
Bylaws and planning and other administration need to be cleaned out from the top. They are costing the taxpayers to much money by not doing their job.
Agree with the above quote; being a bylaw officer is the cushy position; drive a truck; go home to do housework at lunchtime and report back at the office at the end of the day .. no supervision if one is really working.
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