Brittle, has trouble finding his sense of humour yet Rick Craven is the best committee chair council has - but isn't popular with his constituents. Warm and fuzzy he ain't.

By Pepper Parr

October 25, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

 The Gazette is doing profiles of each member of Council. They are based on four years of observations and interviews with most Council members. An overview of the ward they serve is linked to the profile.

Rick Craven; a well-entrenched incumbent facing five challengers one whose web site address is “Had enough yet?” which does say something about voter satisfaction in the most westerly ward in the city.

Question here is – can the incumbent deal with that part of the ward that is very unhappy with the way they have been dealt with?

Rick Craven is a strong administrator, who knows the Procedural bylaw manual better than anyone else at city hall – and is the strongest Standing Committee chair this Council has. He is quick with his facts and has the ability to skate around an issue better than his two colleagues who have 20 years + experience as Council members.

What Craven has in administrative capacity is weakened by his people skills; Craven isn’t comfortable with people – unless he can control them.

He chooses his issues and is unyielding once he has taken a position. He is brittle, has a sense of humour that is tough to find at times.

Our assessment of Councillor Craven is the result of watching him for the past four years, a number of lunches with him and several situations, where we reported on an event that Councillor Craven would rather not have mentioned.

There was an occasion one evening at a Conservation Authority meeting when Craven said he “might take a shot at being mayor”. That came as a surprise.

 

What didn’t surprise us was the close look he took at a possible run for the Burlington seat at Queen’s Park. Jane McKenna ran against Craven in 2010 when she was soundly trounced. Craven was pretty sure he could trounce her again – his issue at the time was who the Premier was going to be. Sandra Pupatello, who was giving Kathleen Wynne a good run for her money at the time, met with Craven at a local Liberal event, but nothing came of it. Craven would have made a good MPP.

His strength is not in working with small groups – unless he has close to total control. The General Manager of the Aldershot Business Improvement Association doesn’t open the door to the office without calling the ward Councillor.

The Beachway residents found that they had no support whatsoever from their Councillor, when the matter of what was going to be done with the Beachway part of the waterfront, was being fiercely debated at both city council and the Region.

Craven tends to see skulduggery where there is none; he believes that developers will eventually buy up the property in the Beachway and we will see sky-high condos built along the edge of the lake close to the Hamilton border.– Jurisdictionally, the Beachway is a mess; everyone has a finger in that pie. Burlington wasn’t able to come up with a unified position on what it wanted, which left Councillor Craven promoting his view, with no input from the people who lived in that community.

Councillor Jack Dennison had some ideas on what could be done with the Beachway. That should have been given more attention. Craven didn’t really have any ideas for what is one of the most important pieces of property in the city and a vital part of the recreational element of the Region.

If Burlington doesn’t think through and have a position on what that part of the city is to be, we stand a chance of becoming a playground for the Region. Halton’s Wasaga Beach south if you will.

The residents felt they were entitled to the support of their Council member. Unfortunately he didn’t personally think they should be where they lived and would point to minor encroachments and the number of times that some pieces of property had changed hands in the recent past.

The Beachway had, still has, a small core community that fought very hard to get the Regional government to look at the location a little differently.

Councillor Craven fought hard against the 30 home owners in that community and they were justifiably upset. Tempers of a few of the residents flared – so much so that Councillor Craven felt his personal safety was in jeopardy and asked the city hall security guard to escort him to his car – which was maybe 15 yards outside the city hall door.

 

Councillor Craven is not a people person; he is uncomfortable listening to the small problems people have; he has a tendency to denigrate his constituents privately. There have been occasions when Beachway residents have had to appeal to a Councillor from another ward for help.

Our assessment of Councillor Craven is not as complete as we would have liked it to be. Walter Byj, a freelance reporter with the Gazette asked for an interview with Craven on several occasions:

August 22nd- wrote e-mail to assistant Kathi requesting an interview for the Burlington Gazette.

Sept. 5th- sent follow-up e-mail to Kathi re request for interview. Received reply that as a city employee, she can not organize any election related events. Advised that she would forward my request to Craven.

Sept. 9th- sent e-mail directly to Craven asking for an interview and have not received a reply.

It is irresponsible for a Councillor to make themselves available when they like what is being written, but become unavailable when they don’t like what is written. It is small, petty and unbecoming an elected official; there is a higher standard for those chosen to lead.

 

Craven is immensely proud of the work he has done in the 14 years he has served on Council representing the Aldershot residents. Plains Road has been vastly improved and while it has been a struggle – in time the development that Plains Road needs will settle in Aldershot. It will not happen easily – the smallest change to the community upsets the older population as well as people who just plain don’t want change in their community.

Craven at least understands that change is both inevitable and necessary. While the city shared the development of the King Road grade separation – Craven wanted everyone to know that with that road more open to traffic, new business would work its way to the area. He is immensely proud of the grade separation.

Councillor Craven is not a popular person – warm and cuddly he ain’t. He is though, the best Standing Committee chair this city council has and he knows the procedural manual better than anyone else – including the current city clerk.

There are those in the community however, who want a Councillor who is:

open; approachable; empathetic; trustworthy; ethical; can be believed without reservation; representative of all residents’; someone who can differentiate between concerns and interests impartially and neutrally; not appearing to possess and pursue a personal agenda regardless of residents views; ensures openness, transparency and accountability in his own dealings and at City Hall in general; faithfully carries out their sworn and legislated responsibilities and duties; actively promotes meaningful citizen engagement in decision-making; shares authority for decision-making; is cost effective and benefits conscious – recognizes the difference between needs and wants.

There is talk out there that the incumbent is lacking in some of these.

Residents would like a Ward 1 Citizens Advisory Committee that meets regularly to open up the raising, discussion and debating issues. This is distinct from the present Aldershot information meetings the Council member holds where the flow of information is one way – from him to them.

Gary Milne, a candidate for the ward 1 seat sums it up quite well with his web site: www.hadenoughyet.ca

 

Ward 2 councillor Marianne Meed Ward runs a very robust and effective Ward Council, which she listens and reports to – she sees her ward council as the group that keeps her focused and grounded. Residents of Aldershot would very much like to see such an organization.

Councillor Craven attended one of the Meed Ward’s community council meetings – but none of what gets done in ward 2 seemed to rub off on the ward 1 Councillor.

The Aldershot Business Improvement Association is far from an arm’s length organization. Councillor Craven determines what gets done and when it is going to get done; General manager Bob Meehan follows.

There are residents in Aldershot, who want Openness, Transparency and Accountability- they are not likely to see much as long as Craven represents the ward – it just isn’t his personal style. There is an older population that is comfortable with the authority Craven projects; that is a large part of his core vote.

Councillor Craven sits beside Councillor Meed Ward at city council meetings – it is frequently an uncomfortable time for both. He can’t stand her and she has no time for him. Craven can be crass and mean at times. He has been known to give delegators to city council a very difficult time – and if it happens to be someone from his ward that he crosses swords with – they don’t get the courtesies one expects from a person with some authority.

Townsend Ave., which runs parallel to Plains Road on the south side is an example of what many think is the incumbent’s pet project and has been since before 2008; residents only found out about it by accident at a meeting on the Presbyterian church site application in 2010.

The problem on Townsend started out as a speeding issue that could have been fixed with a stop sign. Some residents, including Tom Muir, who lives on the street, think Craven wants to make Townsend Ave an overflow for heavy traffic from Plains Rd. Muir believes that is the plan and what current planning discussions suggest. Muir is quick to add that he lives on Townsend.

A number of residents talk about term limits and feel that after three terms, a council member should hang up their spurs and make room for new blood. In Aldershot the sense that many have is that other than the election, there is really no apparent way for them to hold their Councillor accountable. Between elections a council member can do what they want.

Greg Woodruff, currently running for the Chair of Regional Council, with no experience, said he chose that route to get some issues on the table. “Why didn’t I run against Councillor Craven? I didn’t have a hope of winning.” He doesn’t have a hope of defeating Regional Chair Gary Carr either, but the point is made – there are people very frustrated over the leadership they are getting, but find they have not been able to organize effectively to bring about a change.

Tom Muir, one of the residents who was prepared to go on record said: “Craven will point out that I have my opinion, but others have theirs; however he adds, there is no forum, where these different opinions are revealed, just his assertions. “Then he does, what he wants behind this cover of contrived controversy. This is a general thing, and he uses it to dismiss views he doesn’t want.”

Muir says Craven is “willing to distort demographics and traffic counts and cut corners to get what he wants or to defend a position; he is not one to advocate transparency.”
Muir adds that there was a time, when he voted for Craven. He now thinks that term limits are a good idea.

There are a number of issues in the ward that came up during the term of Council that is ending, that highlight the approach Councillor Craven takes to situations.

Eagle Heights is still nowhere near a start date; the Bridgepoint idea made it to Council, but Craven couldn’t move it forward as much as an inch; it was outside the urban boundary and nothing was going to happen.

The community is still waiting for a supermarket and an LCBO outlet. The supermarket was going to follow the growth in population that projects, like the multi-tower Drewlo apartment complex were expected to deliver. They then learned that Drewlo is not made up of families – so no supermarket yet.

The owners of the Murray variety store at Waterdown and Plains Road, were told that the city needed some of their property to widen Waterdown Road

Hearings were held, the hearing officer found that the city didn’t need all the land they were asking for – didn’t matter – all the property was expropriated by the city.

Just north of the variety store there is a branch of the Royal Bank that has a lease which will expire soon.

Further up Waterdown, at Masonry Court, the Paletta interests sold a large piece of land to Adi Development for a reported sum of $14 million. Masonry Court is yards south of the GO station.
Waterdown leads right into the 403.

Property at the corner of Plains Road and Waterdown would be seen as prime real estate. The Korean family that owned the property was prepared to sell what the city needed. They were prepared to sign off on the sale of property to expedite the actual property title transfer so the road widening could begin.
City chose to expropriate and did so on July 14th. Councillor Craven didn’t say a single word on behalf of his constituents during the discussion nor did he ask any questions of their legal counsel.

The city needed land for the reconstruction and widening of Waterdown Road between Plains Road and Masonry Court including the provisions of full municipal services. It needs to buy property to do that work. Vito Tolone, Senior Transportation Planner in the Engineering Department testified at a Hearing of Necessity that “as presently configured, Waterdown Road will not be able to accommodate the travel demand growth anticipated by 2031″

Mr. Tolone testified that sometime between Environmental Assessment (EA) (December 6, 2006) and the Notice of Expropriation being served on the land owner on or about March 24, 2014 the City of Burlington decided that it was desirable that the City expropriate more land than required to perform the scope of the work contemplated in the EA document. On that basis, the City seeks a full expropriation of the Lee property.

Having your property taken from you when all the evidence indicates that all of the land is not needed is as drastic as state intervention can get. The Lee’s did not want to give up all their property yet their Council member did not say a single word during the public session of that July 14th public meeting. He did not ask questions of the Lees when they delegated nor did he asks questions of their lawyer when he delegated.

Council did go into a Closed Session that evening but we’ve no idea what, if anything, Councillor Craven said.

Since that July meeting we learn that the Royal Bank lease is up for renewal and that Adi Development has purchased a large swath of land for $14 million from the Paletta interests. There is certainly a lot of development going on in ward 1 – but the Lees are not going to be a part of it.

Citizens in Burlington are moving beyond the practice of sending someone to city council to represent them and having that person make all the decisions without any input from the broader community. Public participation in the decision making process has evolved and now calls for a level of transparency and collaboration that some have difficulty with

Burlington has a Public Engagement Charter which Councillor Craven is aware of but not comfortable with. He does know that procedural manual inside out though.

Link to Lee expropriation