“…those who claim to be good men must be willing to stand up and fight for what they know to be right.”

SwP thumbnail graphicBy Pepper Parr

June 22, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

When people hear what is happening it sounds like the kind of thing you hear about in some banana  republic where the roots of a democracy have yet to firmly plant themselves.

A community faces a major issue with a large piece of property where they believe the owner of the property is breaking all the rules.  They form an organization and take their case to city council.  They contact local media and the story begins to unfold.

The community group delegates to both city council and Regional Council and in both instances make a strong case.  The city does a little digging and quickly realizes there is a problem and begins to organize.

They find that the property owner is not cooperating and after a lot of huffing and puffing both sides end up in a court room.

Heavy equipment - View 2 from backyard June 15, 2013

Placing this large hulking piece of equipment less than 20 yards from a property line is outright harassment. The landfill had already been placed on the property. The physical harassment has now been taken to a judicial level.

The city wins its case.  Justice John Murray finds that the Burlington Air Park must comply with the city’s site plan by law.

The Burlington Air Park decides to appeal the Justice Murray decision.  The appeal court makes up its mind in less than half a day.  The air park must comply.

Prior to the appeal, the Burlington Air Park serves Notices of Libel on two citizens and the Burlington Gazette.  A Notice of Libel calls for the person that wrote something to retract what they wrote and apologize.  Neither the Gazette or the two citizens, Monte Dennis and Vanessa Warren felt there was anything to apologize for.

Prior to the appeal court hearing all three: the Gazette, Dennis and Warren were served with Statements of Claim asking for $100,000 in exemplary damages.

Readers of the Gazette will know what we wrote.  Key the words air park into the search engine on our web site and the more than 20 articles will appear.

Monte Dennis wrote a response to a Letter to the Editor that appeared in the Hamilton Spectator.  This was a citizen doing what every citizen has a right to do.  We note that the Burlington Air Park chose not to include the Hamilton Spectator in the claim for damages. Vanessa Warren wrote the following comment in the Gazette:

The Kovachik family opened the airpark in 1962, and for 44 years operated in harmony with its neighbours and its rural surroundings . You are not allowed to capitalize on that history. The history that you ‘re accountable for is amounting to an environmental disaster in our pristine protected countryside, and you may not manipulate that  truth unchallenged  anymore.

This is not an airpark improvement issue. This is a landfill issue, a water protection issue, a storm water management issue, a truck entrance and road use issue, and a property destruction and flooding issue.

Are we to celebrate that you ‘ve spent money to improve your for-profi t business? Who doesn ‘t do that? You say you ‘ve spent 4 million in improvements , but what about the income you ‘ve made from charging for untold hundreds of thousands of tons of unregulated  fill? What about the protected watercourse you ‘ve destroyed? What about the regionally significant woodlot you gutted? The cost to the environment, the community and the City for your ‘improvements ‘ has been too high to bear.

Ask your immediate neighbours – none of whom have “recently purchased their homes” – bow things have improved for them? Flooded fields are unfarmable. Backyards and septic beds are underwater from silted run off. Sight lines and property enjoyment are destroyed. Anxiety about well water safety is high, and you will not permit the MOE to release on-site testing data. Writing that you ‘ve “always respected your neighbours .. .” is more than untrue; it’s cruel.

There are no unsubstantiated claims. Terrapex Environmental found unacceptably high levels of contaminants like hydrocarbons and heavy metals in the paltry 52 soil reports you were able to provide. Off-site water testing may be fine to date (again, where’s the data?), but how long might it tale for those contaminants to leach into wells?

The City of Burlington legally won the right to impose it’s Site Alteration Bylaw on airpark property , and yet you still will not comply. The community would truly love to know that your property is NOT full of contaminated fill – why don’t you give us the verified, third-party data to prove it?

We are all so weary of your attempts to manipulate . Standing up to you and stopping the trucks was never political, it was ethical, and you have no ethical credibility left.

Vanessa Warren

Warren - strong H&S shot

Vanessa Warren, founder of the Rural Burlington Greenbelt Coalition chose to run for public office and represent ward 6 because she felt the community was not being well served by the incumbent. The owner of the land park is now uses the courts to silence her.

What makes the claim against Vanessa Warren so serious is that she is a nominated candidate for the ward 6 council seat where the air park is located.  One could take from the Burlington Air Park legal action that they do not want to see Vanessa Warren on city council.

In an Open Letter to city council the group that has been leading the fight against the air park, the Rural Burlington Greenbelt Coalition (RBGC) asked that the city “defend public engagement and public advocacy – the cornerstones of our democratic system – from the Burlington Airpark’s SLAPP suit, so that this type of legal coercion does not silence the citizens of Burlington.”

Prior to the provincial election there was a bill on the order paper calling for laws that would prevent what is being called Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPP).  It was a private members bill brought forward by the New Democratic Party that got all party approval but that bill died on the order paper when the election was called.

The RBGC hopes it can persuade the provincial government to pick up the bill and make it a priority.  They would be delighted if the province moved real quick and then made any legislation retroactive.

The issue is serious, very serious.  When people with significant funding at their disposal decide to use the power of a law suit to silence people who care about their community and are prepared to speak out publicly the courts should not be the place where these public issues get worked through.

The Burlington Air Park has paid more than $62,000 in court ordered costs – so the judiciary is doing its part.

What is profoundly disappointing is that the public has yet to hear anything from the Mayor of Burlington or the Regional Chair Gary Carr.  These two men lead public opinion and they have in the past put their views forward on important issues.  When the Mayor saw for the first time the damage done to the Sheldon property on Appleby Line by the air park landfill  he was reported to have said he was appalled.

Disappointing too is the reaction from the private pilots who are seeing the airport they have used for years put at risk.  The Gazette has talked to a number of these pilots – not one is prepared to say a word publicly.  One exception is Andrew Forber who has commented on several occasions at some length.

Having people fear making public comments is a very unhealthy situation for any democratic society.

Much of the history of the struggle between good and evil is explained by philosopher Edmund Burke’s observation. Time and again those who profess to be good seem to clearly outnumber those who are evil, yet those who are evil seem to prevail far too often. Seldom is it the numbers that determine the outcome, but whether those who claim to be good men are willing to stand up and fight for what they know to be right.

City staff battle with the air park on an almost daily basis over the illegal use of gateways to the air park property and access to the site.  Staff are focused and well led and they persevere – but we are hearing nothing from the people who are in a position to mold public opinion.  Taking the position that they cannot comment on an ongoing court case is hiding behind skirts

The people of Burlington need to hear from the good people.

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Was I given a hint that McMahon might actually make it int Premier Wynne’s cabinet?

SwP thumbnail graphicBy Pepper Parr

June 20, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

The jockey of course passed it on to the horse –and the horse told me.

This is that kind of a story because people want to spread the news around – but they don’t want to be the source.

We had occasion to talk to a Cabinet Minister from the region who assured us that this person (deliberately not using gender here) was back in the Cabinet of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne – but the member of the legislature wouldn’t say which portfolio – other than the person was very happy with what they had been given.

McMahon at podium

Is this what Cabinet material looks like? word was the McMahon should not be counted out.

We were discussing matters related to an issue germane to Burlington – the air park – what else – and mention was made of what role newly elected Burlington MPP Eleanor McMahan might play in the resolving of this issue.

We opined that while Ms McMahon has that incredible political pedigree with a Rolodex that is to die for, the fact is she doesn’t have any parliamentary experience and we don’t know if she will step up to and actually get over the bar.  Her predecessor Jane McKenna certainly didn’t manage to make it.

Being a member of the legislature means being more than a pretty face – there is a thrust and cut to politics that is seen in the legislature.  Is McMahon made of the “right stuff” and can she do it?

“I wouldn’t write her off quite that quickly” responded my contact.  That got me sitting up in my chair real fast.  Was I being telegraphed something?  The Cabinet Minister I was talking to would be involved in the discussions as to who could and who should be in the Cabinet.

I pointed out that the area already had a Cabinet Minister in Ancaster – Dundas – Flamborough – Westdale and another in Oakville where Kevin Flynn serves as Minister of Labour.  Would the Halton area qualify for three Cabinet posts?  “The issue is not where the person comes from; the issue is what they bring to the table and the Premier has very high hopes for Eleanor McMahon.  Remember the Premier recruited McMahon personally”, explained my source.

The Cabinet gets sworn in on Tuesday – we will be watching that broadcast quite a bit more closely.  If anyone happens to see Eleanor out shopping for a new smartly cut suit – let us know.  That would be a positive sign for sure.

Ribfest Rotary guy + Premier + Mayor

Premier Kathleen Wynne, Centre, knows how to wear an apron – we don’t know if she can bake an apple pie. we will know on Tuesday if she has chosen Burlington MPP Eleanor McMahon to be part of her cabinet.

The Premier visited Burlington a number of times before the election was called and took part in several election events as well.  During my first introduction to the Premier, during RibFest last summer when she was flipping racks of ribs along with Mayor Goldring and then chit chatting with people wearing a Rotary Rib Fest apron, I asked if she did much baking.  She assured me she did and I wondered aloud if that was true. “Well I was baking pies just the other day” said the Premier and I suggested the next time she was in town she might bring me an apple she had made.

She promised she would do just that.  I’ve not seen that apple pie yet – but if the Premier appoints Eleanor McMahon to her Cabinet all of Burlington will send her several bushels of some of the best apples the region grows.

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Let’s take a last look at that provincial election before we forget what really happened.

SwP thumbnail graphicBy Pepper Parr

June 18, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON

A more than 70 year run came to an end when Burlington elected Liberal Eleanor McMahon as their MPP.  It was a solid win and  part of a Liberal red sweep through much of the region.

Halton went Liberal after 19 years of Tory blue.

It was clear that the people of the province in general weren’t  buying the Progressive Conservative line that the province had to cut like crazy to get the deficit in line and that 1 million jobs were going to suddenly appear.

The province decided to opt for hope and the belief that Kathleen Wynne could work through the problems.  This despite the mistakes that can fairly be described a gargantuan under Dalton McGuinty’s leadership.

wev

The Liberals found a candidate with both depth and an ability to connect with people.

Wynne managed to convince the voters that there was a lot of waste but that there would not be that kind of waste on her watch.  She asked the people of the province to trust her and enough of them to give Wynne a majority government decided to do just that.

One of our readers had this to say about the McMahon win:

Congratulations to Eleanor McMahon. Clearly, she ran an effective campaign and I’m sure she’s was a qualified candidate. I do, however, find it extremely disheartening that Burlington residents bought into Liberal scare tactics, and were so willing to reward eleven years of cronyism, scandal, reckless spending, debt accumulation, blatant lying, shameless pandering to unions, and incompetence with their vote. The party’s victory begs the question, exactly how bad does a government’s behaviour need to be before they get the boot?

I’m curious what Wynne’s excuse will be when the books aren’t balanced by 2017/18 as promised, but I have no doubt she’ll come up with something!

A few days before the election Ms. McMahon and the Burlington Liberals tweeted out something about how they’ll be investing in local businesses and entrepreneurs. I’m still waiting for an answer regarding the specifics of how that will work. I know the Ontario Liberals will be handing out BILLIONS to Cisco and tens of millions to Open Text, but I haven’t heard one word about how Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals will help Burlington businesses succeed. I’m quite certain they won’t let them succeed TOO much, as corporate taxes are almost certain to be raised, as will personal income taxes on reasonably successful entrepreneurs.

Good luck Ms. McMahon. Your government has its work cut out for it, and we’ll be watching.

Indeed all of the province will be watching – many wish there had been better watching when Dalton McGuinty was leading that party.

Did Eleanor McMahon win – or did Jane McKenna lose and how did these two woman come to be the candidate for their political party of choice.

We are told that Kathleen Wynne recruited McMahon directly; that they lunched in Burlington and Wynne asked McMahon to accept the nomination.

The political tradition of this province has been for the local political party association to find a candidate and present that name to the party for vetting.  The late John Boich spent many hours grooming Brian Heagle to become the Liberal candidate only to have Heagle decide that he was more of a blue blood than a Liberal and he went after the Tory nomination.  Poor Heagle found that his blood wasn’t good enough and he couldn’t get the nod he needed from the Burlington Progressive Conservative Association.

werv

Karmel Sakran was selected by the Liberal riding association – not that it made a big enough difference.

Boich convinced Karmel Sakran to run for office and he put up a good fight against a Tory who brought zilch to her nomination.

Jane McKenna was close to the last Tory nominated in the province in 2011 and despite no experience, other than a run against Rick Craven for the Ward 1 seat on city council – where she did very poorly, she had no experience.

McKenna hand out

Turned out to take more than a good suit to convince the voters that you were able to do the job.

She would appear at local events but never once made a delegation to city council where Councillor Craven remarked on the fact that the city had never heard from its MPP.

When Rick Wilson was doing great work to have a plaque placed on the waterfront that corrected the history  surrounding  what actually took place on our waterfront during the War of 1812 he found that he “blown off” by McKenna’s office when he put a call in to them for some help.  At the time MP Mike Wallace was doing everything he could to get the plaque that is at Burlington Heights in Hamilton corrected but as Wallace said at the time: “it was a provincial matter and there wasn’t much I could do”.

The day the creation of the plaque was announced McKenna was on hand apologizing profusely to Wilson for the goof up at her office.  Part of McKenna’s problem as an MPP was her inability to integrate into the community politically – she just didn’t have the experience and local Tory’s began to distance themselves from her.

You rarely saw Wallace and McKenna standing very close to each other when they were both at the same event.

There were serious problems with the local PC party association where it is reported the executive went through at least two changes.  McKenna didn’t have good working relationships with her constituency executive.  She had difficulty as well getting in on events when Cabinet ministers were in town.

Post front page

It was THE political coup of the provincial election when the Liberals managed to convince the Burlington Post to sell them a “mock” front page. Good for the revenue side of the business – but egg on the face editorially. The Post published a front page apology the following day. It happens.

On one occasion when the city was officially opening the Community Garden in behind the Seniors’ Centre on New Street, McKenna wanted to be on hand and wasn’t able to get an official invite from the city.  A polite call to the Mayor could have solved that problem.  The Gazette wrote about the difficulty and advised McKenna on how she could have a presence at the event.  At the time city hall talked the protocols they had to follow.  It is an unhappy day when the political representative for a large number, probably a majority, of the people in the city cannot be at a socially and politically significant event.  That was always McKenna’s dilemma.

The Burlington Progressive Conservative Association chose an unqualified person who was able to win the first time out because of the strength of the political base.  The member was expected to perform and deliver for the community and that just didn’t happen.

McMahon with birthday cake

McMahon had a strong riding association that was able to get feet on the ground to do that vital door knocking – but the thinkers involved in the campaign all came from the Liberal party head office – Burlington was a seat they believed they could win.

McMahon has a fine pedigree and her connections at the federal level are superb.  She is on a first name basis with at least three former Prime Ministers and is a campaigner that connect with people easily.  There is a humility to the woman who has core values that are more than admirable.  There is nothing sleazy about the MPP for Burlington.  Blessed with good health and a pleasant smile McMahon has leaned not to take herself too seriously.

She will use the next six months to get the feel of the provincial legislature and earn her stripes.  By Spring of next year we will know if Eleanor McMahon is more than a pretty face.

Can she be the first in a 70 year line of Liberals for Burlington?  Is there a Liberal sweep for Burlington at the federal level as well?  Will the local Liberals manage to come up with a solid candidate on their own or will they have to rely on the party to sniff out a winner?

 

 

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The provincial election from a Burlington perspective.

SwP thumbnail graphicBy Pepper Parr

June 12, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

It was a healthy crowd.  They were attentive and at Nelson High to listen to a debate between Progressive Conservative incumbent Jane McKenna, Liberal candidate Eleanor McMahon in and Janet Mowbray representing the NDP.  All want to be elected as the Burlington representative in the provincial legislature.

Other than the debate sponsored by the Canadian Federation of University Women,  debate this turned out to be the only opportunity to see the candidates debating

The audience was attentive with the focus on what each political party would do for the province in terms of education.

The lines between the policies were as clear as any citizen could possibly want them to be.  The Progressive Conservatives were blunt – they want to see 100,000 fewer civil servants on the public payroll which meant cuts at the educational, medical and public services levels.  While cutting in these sectors was to be brutal – the promise was to create 1 million new jobs in the private sector.

The issue for the PC’s was the level of debt the province is carrying.  The Liberals weren’t as constrained with debt – they saw debt as what was needed to fully recover from the 2008 recession.

The differences in the political party decisions are fundamentally clear – and we don’t hear that many people talking about a “great” program from any of them.

The New Democrats are still fighting the collective agreement battle of the 2011 election – the Liberal government  of the day certainly did themselves no favours when they tinkered with the teacher’s collective agreements.  Liberals now argue that the number of teachers needed problem has been fixed and that jobs were not lost – which the Tories say is part of the problem.   They point to declining enrollments but nothing comparable in the way of lowering of the teaching compliment.

The Liberals believe that the only way the province is going to grow the economy – we still are not fully out of the 2008 recession – is to ensure that we have the labour force with the education needed to take up the good jobs they believe will surely come if the province stays the course.

The Tory’s are obsessed with the size of the provincial deficit and are prepared to cut, slash and burn – whatever it takes to get the civil service reduced.

The Liberals argue that cutting those education, health inspector and hospital staff will significantly reduce the quality of life and the life style Ontarians have come to expect.

Three provincial candidates

If you voted the political party – these were your choices – and the differences are stark.

The campaign locally has been harder fought at the door to door level than most people realize.  The Association of University Woman held their debate during which it is reported McKenna did better than the Nelson High event.

The cancellation of the Chamber of Commerce breakfast (they said no enough tickets had been sold) was a blow to the community.  Many suspected the Tories in this town suggested the Chamber event be cancelled – McKenna wasn’t looking all that good at public meetings.

At some point during the campaign Cam Jackson was seen going door to door with McKenna.  Those must have been really old solid Tory polls.

The brilliant cover page ad the Liberals ran in the Post stunned many.  It sure looked like a real front page – but it was a paid advertorial that has McMahon sweeping the election.

Then she Toronto Star report that had Burlington going Liberal after 71 years of Tory rule- that boosted moral at the Liberal campaign office on Fairview.  Some may have been surprised that the Post sold their “front” page – but a buck is a buck – I guess.

There is a time when the quality of the candidate over rides the party choice – and on that level Eleanor McMahon was the most sensitive to the issues, the most persuasive with her arguments and the most able to listen.

McKenna has been backing away from cuts in the education sector. She is reported to have said the PC’s will not be cutting education spending however she did see a need for better allocation of resources in the educational sector.

Jane McKenna has served one term as the MPP for Burlington.  She was a close to last minute choice for the nomination in 2011 and was surely the most surprised and delighted woman in the city when Keith Strong approached her to accept the PC nomination.

The question many have about McKenna is: What has she done for Burlington?  At a city council meeting recently ward 1 councillor Rick Craven asked why they had never once seen McKenna. “We’re paying her” was Craven’s comment “she should at least appear before us.”

Where the Liberals are weakest  is with the profligate spending during the McGuinty years.  There was nothing wrong conceptually with Ornge except that the government forgot they were supposed to keep an eye on what their agencies do.  Where was the oversight?  E-health was necessary but how did the government get hornswoggled into paying the salaries they paid?

At one point during the lead up the vote it looked as if the Liberals might have squeaked through with a slim two seat majority.  That would not have been because they are the best choice – they are all disappointments and the citizens of this province deserve better.

Leadership is supposed to be about hope, promise,  a better day and a better society – having “chicken little” shout at me saying the sky was going to fall in was not something I needed – thank you.

When Wynne said again and again that she was sorry  about the gas plant decisions during the leaders debate I didn’t feel that we were in good hands.

That the gas plants were going to be cancelled was a given – all three parties knew that  -it was the way the government sent good dollars after bad out the window as they settled with the contracting companies.  The public had a right to better stewardship over public funds

At the Nelson High event candidates were given four questions prepared for the candidates taking part in the Nelson High event – they were given the questions before the event which explained why all of the candidates were reading from documents in front of them

Was it a debate?  Not really but it was certainly a chance to see where each candidate and their party stood on an issue.

Other than door to door visits most of the public had not had a chance to see two of the candidates.  The evening at Nelson High was an opportunity to see how much Jane McKenna had grown as a member of the legislature – unfortunately she hasn’t grown in either stature or a sense as to just what being the member of the legislature for a community is all about.

McKenna did however make it very clear what the Progressive Conservatives would do and many in the room felt the shudder of the Harris days.  However, there were many that recalled all too well what Bob Rae did to the province when he was the NDP Premier.

McKenna, who is usually very quick with facts and numbers, got caught up on her some of the numbers she was putting out.

The politeness and courtesy between Liberal candidate McMahon and NDP candidate Mowbray was so distinct when compared to the brashness and hard words used by McKenna.  At one point Janet Mowbray had run out of time answering a question and McMahon turned to her and said – “use some of my time.  It was noted as well that every candidate for the Burlington seat was female.

For those that went to the event as hard core partisans – McKenna did fine.  For those who were reflective and thoughtful – they would have left the room wondering what kind of a society they want and if McMahon represented that society.  The difference between McMahon and McKenna was palpable.

A speaker brought to the audience’s attention that Mowbray was once a Liberal and did not live in the riding.  McMahon was quick to point out that while she lives in Burlington her residence is about six blocks outside the constituency boundaries.

The issue for the audience was those 100,000 pink slips Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak has said he is going to hand out.  McKenna is quick to add that much of that reduction in people on the payroll will come through attrition.

The campaign is over, people are now making their way to the polling stations and by the end of the day we will know what we have in the way of a provincial government for the next four years. 

If it turns out to be Kathleen Wynne – expect her to face two different people the next time out.  Hudak’s leadership will not survive another loss – and the New Democrats will begin looking for a leader who had s a plan and a vision.

Should Tim Hudak prevail and become Premier Ontario then we have to wait and see how far he goes with his plans to significantly change the way the government provides services and support to the taxpayers and how they grow the economy of the province.

Monday of next week A Different Drummer Books and Burlington Public Library will feature a guest with both knowledge and insight on just how parliamentary democracies work.

Michael MacMillan will talk about his book: Tragedy in the Commons that documents the views of former members of parliament who speak out on Canada’s Failing Democracy.   Monday  June 16  7pm at the Central Library.

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Need to get the provincial election done with before you can focus on city hall. Just what is happening in that campaign anyway?

SwP thumbnail graphicBy Pepper Parr

May 25, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

All the election signs are either for Eleanor McMahon, the Liberal candidate or Jane McKenna, the Progressive Conservative incumbent seeking re-election.  Have yet to see a sign for the New Democratic candidate.  All those signs make it hard to appreciate that there is a municipal election working its way towards the day everyone will cast a ballot in October.

An exceptionally well connected business person, sometimes described as a pundit, was approached by a member of one of the city’s advisory committees and asked how the pundit would rank things in each of the wards.  The member of the city advisory committee had decided that it was time in his career to get involved in local politics and make a contribution at the city council level.

Our potential candidate at first thought he would take a shot at the job of Mayor but decided that he needed to learn to walk first before starting to run.

Councillor Blair Lancaster" not a big fan of public meetings.

There are at least five people who want to eat her lunch: Councillor Blair Lancaster has a fight on her hands – if she runs again.

The pundit ranked things this way:  Ward 6 is going to have a different council member come October he is reported to have said.  Given that there are now five people seeking that seat – the incumbent has yet to file nomination papers – that would seem to be a safe assumption.  A lot of people seem to feel Blair Lancaster can be beaten.  With a possible six candidates on the ballot it would be a mistake to count the former beauty queen out just yet – name recognition will take a candidate a long way.

Ward 5 is the next easiest to win in opined the pundit.  The sense of the pundit was that the incumbent Paul Sharman doesn’t own his ward yet.  

Ward 4 is still a tossup, the Roseland Community Organization doesn’t like any of the people who have their hat in the ring and they dearly want to see a strong candidate defeat the incumbent Jack Dennison who will be at his Ontario Municipal Board hearing Thursday and Friday of this week.  Dennison has yet to file nomination papers but then he always waits until June to do so.

"I don't want to hear anymore delegations" said Councillor Jack Dennison.

Councillor Jack Dennison: is he running again?

Councillor Dennison asked the Committee of Adjustment to allow him to sever his Lakeshore property into two pieces so he could sell off a part for a reported $900,000.  Many in Roseland thought that was an atrocious thing to do and took exception to their Councillor doing something that would lessen the value of properties along Lakeshore Road.

Ward 3 is going to be a fight for anyone who decides to take on 22 year veteran John Taylor.  He can be beaten but it will take a candidate with a lot of energy and a strong start to topple Taylor.

Ward 2 is thought to be suicide territory for anyone who decides to run against Marianne Meed Ward.  She is certainly popular – but she has yet to be tested.  If she is re-elected by a significant majority – and she should win – she will be a leading candidate for the office of Mayor in 2018

Ward 1 – Rick Craven has a tight grip on that ward – nothing happens in Aldershot without Craven knowing about it and giving it his blessing.  He goes bananas when Meed Ward buts in on his territory.

Of the two newbies running in ward 1 Katherine Henshell is the only one that can give   Craven any kind of a run for his money.  The woman is focused, does her homework and is also very pregnant.  Will that make any difference?  Shouldn’t – might even get her the Mommy vote – and in Aldershot that counts for quite a bit. 

Councillor Rick Craven, centre, with a copy of the 2013 budget on a memory stick. Craven did a superb job of chairing the budget committee last year.  He will have no argument with candidate Henshell over the need for additional shopping facilities in Aldershot - getting themt there has been the challenge.

Councillor Rick Craven, centre, managed to hide behind a council chamber partition while a vote on an Aldershot matter was being debated. Here he sits with Councillors Dennison and Taylor during a budget meeting.  The three are the most experienced members of Council.

Henshell did tweak Craven’s nose when she told a city council meeting she was the only person speaking for Aldershot and the Bridgeview development brought to a Standing Committee meeting at which Craven didn’t say a word – he wasn’t even in the council chamber – he remained outside the room for all of the more than an hour long debate – walking in seconds after the vote was cast.

One political observer we hear from regularly asked how much the developer had donated to the various election campaigns – we weren’t able to find that information on the city web site.  While city hall has the data they don’t put it up on the web site where people can look at the file and learn who gave and how much did they give.  This kind of information should be available for every member of council for every election then ran in.

Wonder what the Ministry of Municipal Affairs has to say about that kind of information net being available.  A good city Clerk would have ensured the information was readily available.

For anyone to actually beat Craven would be an upset – but then that is what politics is all about.

His worship appears to be heading for an acclamation which is unfortunate.  Rick Goldring needs a strong contender to stiffen him up.  He’s not a bad mayor, many see him as a weak leader but a closer look, particularly at the way he handled the bringing in of an interim city manager when Burlington got dumped by then city manager Jeff Fielding showed some really good leadership on the part of the Mayor.  Maybe he is growing into the office.  Nevertheless, a good stiff competition would keep him on his toes.

You won’t be seeing city council candidates at your door until the provincial election is over – could that be a blessing?

There will be plenty for you to ask questions about as we wind our way through the summer.

Mayor Goldring picking up donation in the Santa Claus parade - met with other GTA Mayors to pick up provincial finds to help with the ice storm damage.  Maybe he should have taken the hockey stick and the sock with him?

Mayor Rick Goldring.  He is in the race – just doesn’t have anyone to race against right now.  Early in this term of office Goldring said he wasn’t going to go the getting his picture in the paper route.  Here he collects funds in a parade for the Old Timers hockey league.

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How does a five year contract get filled in 26 months? Calgary is paying Fielding just $65,000 more. His leaving is not about money.

SwP thumbnail graphicBy Pepper Parr

April 15, 2014.

BURLINGTON, ON.

Mayor Goldring noticed Thursday afternoon that he had an appointment on his calendar with the city manager – it wasn’t one he was aware of and thought he might have gotten something mixed up.

Perhaps he wishes there had been a mix up – when the meeting did take place Jeff Fielding, who has been with the city for just 26 months, advised the Mayor that he was going to accept a position as the city manager for the city of Calgary.

That news was a blow to many, perhaps not all that bothersome for some members of Council who may have experienced some indigestion as a result of Fielding’s style.  He has said to this council on more than one occasion to “just do your jobs”.

Fielding, sold himself to Calgary as  “pretty much a financial conservative,” and touted his detailed service-based approach as designed for public digestion. “It begins a dialogue within the community about whether they’re getting value or not,” he said.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, one of the most admired Mayors in the country, held Calgary together during the Spring floods in Alberta.  He has the electorate in that city in the palm of his hand; few council members dare oppose what he suggests.  Staff in Calgary are said to bridle at some of his approaches.  Burlington’s Mayor was putty for Fielding – he will have his hands more than full with Nenshi.

The Calgary decision to hire Fielding was the culmination of a months-long competition that included international applicants and at least two City of Calgary general managers. So – while we didn’t know it, Fielding was on his way out the door before we had finalized our budget for 2014.

Calgary is not new to Fielding – he once worked in that city’s planning department more than a decade ago.

Calgary is a different municipal beast: it is western Canada’s largest city that keeps building new suburbs on farm fields.

Fielding was a great breath of fresh air for Burlington.   He brought focus and discipline to just about everything.  There are more than a dozen staff members, not all senior people, who have grown professionally under Fielding’s guiding hand.

They will miss him both personally and professionally and now they have to try and pick up from where he has left them – and Fielding hasn’t exactly left the city in great shape.

The approach to service based budgeting that he convinced the city to take on is far from complete and while the city has some top notch people working on getting the budget for 2015 set up for the new approach – none are experts and don’t bring the almost evangelical drive Fielding brought to making the people who decide responsible and accountable for their decisions.

It is going to be very difficult to maintain the progress that has been made to date on the service based budget concept.  We are newbies at this and we don’t have a leader with the depth needed to put it into place.  We will soldier through – but it would have been easier with Fielding at the helm.

The city is on the hook for a $300,000 – three year contract for the services provided by Angus Reid and his son’s Critical Vision operation.  Fielding knew he needed faster feedback from the public and called the tool “Insight Burlington”.  His staff  was in the process of fine tuning the service.  So far all his team had managed to do was get one question out.  That tool might sit on the shelf with Fielding gone.

Perhaps that three year contract with Critical Vision is similar to the contract Fielding had with the city. I thought a five year contract ran for sixty month – Fielding has put in 26 months.  Personally, I argue that having taken the city down the service based budgeting path we knew little about, Fielding had an obligation to stick around long enough to complete the job – another year would make a big difference.

During the last budget Fielding told the cultural community he would do his best to find the funds needed to hire a Cultural Manager.  Kiss that one goodbye.

The city will be into mediation on the legal problems left over from the construction of the pier – the project that went from $6.7 million in 2006 and ballooned to more than $14 million and it isn’t over yet.

Fielding took the financial file and the legal file out of the hands of General Manager Kim Phillips – left her with Parks and Recreation and fire stations and was the lead hand on the working relationship with the city’s solicitor and the lawyers handling the city’s law suits.  Those lawyers started off suing on behalf of the city and now find that the tables have turned and they are defending themselves against the claims of the original contractor.  Fielding had meetings with the lawyers the city engaged to map out a mediation strategy.  He was expected to be the lead talker for the city. We would have been well served with him at the table.

Fielding was deeply involved in the longer term thinking on how we get something useful out of the downtown core and had a team looking at what we have in the way of physical assets and what we don’t have, including a city hall that doesn’t have room for all those people on the payroll.

There have been renewed discussions with McMaster University and the use of the Elizabeth Street parking lot – some of the people involved in those discussions were stunned when they read the news of Fielding’s departure.

Fielding did a superb job in maintaining the staff compliment and held salary increases to 1%.  He could be really hardnosed when it was necessary.  The Seniors’ are going to miss him – he gave them everything but a new kitchen sink for their operation.

Burlington paid Fielding $249,940,24 in 2013 plus $8,898.60 in taxable benefits.  Calgary is going to pay him $319,000 plus a possible 10% bonus.

So where does Burlington go from here?  Does the city call in a recruiting company and ask them to begin running ads?  Does Council do what they did when they parted ways with Roman Martiuk and have General Managers Stewart and Phillips carry the ball until Fielding was hired?

Scott Stewart was one of the applicants for the job of city manager and got beat out by Fielding.  Is Stewart ready now for the top job?  He has been doing a large part of it for the past year; carrying a lot of the weight this past six months. Fielding has done a great job of grooming Stewart.

City Council will meet in a Special session Tuesday after the scheduled Corporate and Community Services meeting.  That will be a closed session with perhaps Executive Director of Human Resources Roy Male serving as the pro tem Clerk.

This is a vital meeting for this council.  There are those who believe the Mayor is on for someone to serve as an interim city manager while Councillor Sharman has something up his sleeve but wasn’t prepared to say anything more than that.

Mayor Goldring has described Sharman as the best strategic thinker on council and relies heavily on his advice – which Sharman very willingly gives.

Council does have one other alternative.  Former city manager Roman Martiuk is looking for work – perhaps he would take on a short term assignment.

High performance executives do not leave for money. They leave because they are frustrated or handicapped/handcuffed from achieving success by the very culture of the company.Back in 2012 the city was given an opportunity to accept an offer from the insurance company that carried the performance bond to assure the completion of the pier.  Council turned that one down – with very little time spent considering the offer.  They instead issued a new tender – and we paid even more for the pier than originally planned.

There is an opportunity for a really sensible decision to be made on Tuesday.  Don’t blow this one.

The last word on this sad situation for today comes from a reader’s comment: High performance executives do not leave for money. They leave because they are frustrated or handicapped/handcuffed from achieving success by the very culture of the company.

That sounds a lot like why Frank McKeown quit as the Mayor’s Chief of Staff.

Fielding leaves his desk May 16 and starts work in Calgary June 2, 2014′

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Just how much public input should there be in city hall decisions? Some think there should be more input than they have now.

By Pepper Parr

March 23, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

Point: Notices were mailed to all the people in the rural community about a meeting to consider the idea of a special cultural/heritage district, unfortunately they went out a couple of days after the event.  Turnout was less than expected.

Point: The city posts all kinds of detail on its website and develops stories encouraging people to consider running for public office – but, for reasons which were never made clear, they took down that portion of the web site that had all the financial returns from the 2010 municipal election.

The financial return is the document that sets out how much money each candidate raised, who the donours were and what the funds raised were spent on.  Vital information for anyone who decides they want to run against an incumbent.

The documents have since been put back up on the city website.  Why were they taken down and who made that decision?

Public input on the budget was limited to an overview and a workbook  people could make comments in.

Point:  The city holds a public meeting on the budget the finance department has prepared.  While there is just the one meeting held in the downtown core, it is well attended and staff are very attentive in answering questions.  There is talk of plans for additional public meetings in 2015 in the Dundas part of town now that the Alton campus is operational.

The city had very competent staff on hand at public sessions to answer questions – on decisions that had already been made.

Vanessa Warren, one of the people who led the public reaction to the dumping of landfill on the airpark site on Appleby Line, asked why the city was coming to the public with spending that was already decided on.  She wanted to know why the public wasn’t being asked how it wanted its money spent BEFORE decisions were made.

City manager Jeff Fielding, would dearly love to have feedback from the public on key issues and has devoted a significant part of the budget he has to run his office to a process that he hopes will give him almost instant access to a panel of people who can answers questions. The unfortunate part of this $100,000 + expense is that the public response has not been overwhelming – there were less than 500 people on the panel at last count.

It is a two-sided coin – the public wants information – well the more vocal part of the public wants more information, and the city is being moved in a direction where public input will be critical.  Getting to a point where what the public wants and what the city would like is the challenge for the city.

Back in 2010 the late John Boich and former Mayor Walter Mulkewich authored the Shape Burlington report in which they identified an “information deficit” in the city.  City hall didn’t take all that kindly to the report – a report on which they haven’t responded to all that well since its publication even though city council voted unanimously to support the document.

The Shape Burlington report said the city has an \"information deficit\"Boich and Mulkewich recommend that there be a Citizens charter – a document that sets out what every citizen can expect from the city.  There is such a document but you would be very hard pressed to find the thing on the web site and the “implementation plan” for that document has yet to be completed.

Would it be fair to say that the administration at city hall isn’t really behind the concept of a charter other than collecting data and then doing nothing with it?

There is a demographic divide at city hall – both within the administration and at the council level.  There are people in the planning department and over at finance who genuinely want the public to know what is being done and are eager to hear what people have to say.

The city manager certainly wants public input and is delighted when he meets people who can help him determine the public will.  However, getting all of his senior team onside has been and is continuing to be a challenge.

There is an item on a Standing Committee agenda somewhere in the works that will discuss the Community Engagement plans; this doesn’t appear to be a priority item but then real community engagement has never been a priority for this city. 

Two of the current city council members were on the Shape Burlington committee – one would think they would be chomping at the bit regularly to get some movement on the Citizen’s charter.  Both Councillors Blair Lancaster, ward 6 and Paul Sharman, ward 5 have said very little about this during their term of office.

It is going to take a city council with a younger, more committed demographic to bring about any change.

Both Councillors Blair Lancaster, ward 6 and Paul Sharman, ward 5 have said very little about this during their term of office.There are a few, precious few, on council who want to hear what their constituents think and treat those people who write out their delegation and trudge over to city hall and take the time to make their point of view known.  Yes, there are people whose delegations are  sometimes poorly prepared and on other occasions delivered in a less than respectful manner.  But there have been a number of excellent delegations that have resulted in a change.

On many occasions city council is hearing from people who are angry, mad and upset.  Their council is making decisions they don’t like about the place they call home.  Look at the 250+ people who were opposed to the building of a six storey apartment building on New Street – they just didn’t want to see that kind of change in their neighbourhood.  They said they could live with four storey but other than Councillor Meed Ward, who asked some very pointed questions and got mushy answers, no one explained why a four storey structure couldn’t be built.

The city did nothing to educate that public. Sure, public meetings were held but there was not very much that was educational about those events.  Usually a planner representing the interests of a developer is explaining what they have already decided to do.

Could the planning department not think in terms of putting in place a process whereby staff review an application and decide at that very early stage if some public education is necessary?  Then assemble a team of people who would put together an outline of all the up sides and down sides of the development – cover everything and prepare a public for the change coming their way.

Ken Greenberg, a noted planner was brought to Burlington as part of the Mayor’s Inspire series.  He explained how in Toronto developers first went to the community with their ideas and looked for buy in at that level before they put as much as a pencil to a piece of paper

In Toronto developers first went to the community with their ideas and looked for buy in at that level before they put as much as a pencil to a piece of paperGreenberg told the Burlington audience that this approach gave the developers a clear sense of what the community would tolerate and gave the community an opportunity to have their ideas seriously considered before anything went too far.

What Burlington is looking for is a way to move forward with developments and at the same time find a way to effectively communicate with the tax payers.  We’ve not managed to do that – so far.

But there is hope – the proposal to do something to further protect the rural part of Burlington plans on having very significant community involvement.  More about that proposal later.

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Province proposes to limit salary increases for MPP’s until the budget is balanced – in 2019.

By Pepper Parr

March 21, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

The media release said the province was going to freeze MPP salaries until the provincial budget is balanced.  Sounded reasonable – but the news release didn’t say how much MPP’s are paid now nor did it make any mention of the allowances and perks they get.

The pay freeze, if it passes, would extend the current freeze on MPP salaries until the provincial budget is balanced in 2017-18. The MPP Salary Freeze Act would not allow pay increases to take effect until April 1, 2019, after the Public Accounts confirm a balanced budget.

Compensation costs account for over half of all Ontario government spending, either paid directly through the Ontario Public Service or as part of the government’s transfer payments to universities, hospitals and other public sector partners.

The government has identified the management of public sector compensation as an important part of its plan to control costs while also maintaining public services that families rely on like health care and education.  

In 2004, a salary freeze for MPPs was implemented from October 2003 until April 1, 2005.

The 2009 budget announced that MPP salaries would be frozen for one year beginning on April 1, 2009. That salary freeze was extended in the 2010 budget for two years and in the 2012 budget for an additional two years, bringing the total length of the current pay freeze to five years.

The media release makes no mention of any increase between April 2005 and 2009. It is the decision to be selective with the information that is given out that ticks off the public. The men and women who serve as MPP’s are entitled to a decent wage and a pension plan plus expenses that they incur when they do their jobs.

The Burlington MPP gets an allowance to pay for accommodation in Toronto for those evenings when the legislature runs late. It’s a 45 minute drive from Queen’s Park to Burlington – no need for the cost of an apartment to stay over. If a session runs really, really late – OK let the MPP get reimbursed for a hotel room – a moderately priced hotel room if you don’t mind.

We would love to know how often MPP Jane McKenna stays overnight in Toronto and how often members of her family use the apartment when they are in Toronto. Same goes for how often Ted Chudleigh, the Halton MPP stays in Toronto.

In 1996, the defined benefit pension plan for MPPs was wound up and members and beneficiaries were paid the value of the benefits earned to that date. MPPs now have a defined contribution pension plan.

Since 2009, Ontario has initiated compensation restraint measures for members of the Ontario public sector and broader public sector, and has indicated that compensation costs must be managed within Ontario’s existing fiscal framework.

Ontario public sector wage settlements continue to be below the average of private sector, municipal sector and federal public sector settlements.

Tax payers want a government that they see as people looking out for the interests of the public. We frequently hear people running for election say it is an honour to serve the pubic – that tends to stick in the throat when we read about the massive cost of WORD of shutting down the construction of two gas plants before the last election and then reading details of the amounts paid to consultants and law firms to handle the shut down and then learning that documents critical to an honest investigation of who did what when are no longer available – erased from hard drives on computers.

These politicians toss around the loss at more than $1 billion – a BILLION – most of us have to pause to figure out how many zeroes that is.

The current Premier seems like a decent hard-working woman; she is certainly out there working hard. But one could have, and many people said the same thing about former Premier Dalton McGuinty who resigned as Premier on really short notice.

We need government – and the people who do that work are entitled to good incomes. It is hard work and they are in the public eye almost every hour of every day.

We just want better value for the money we have to spend.

Burlington currently has its own little employee perk problem. City hall staff get free parking which comes in at about a quarter of a million a year. How many people get their parking paid for by their employer?

When ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward brought this up during the budget deliberations there wasn’t a line up of council members ready to support her position. The city manager said at the time that what Meed Ward had brought to council appeared to have merit. Jeff Fielding doesn’t use language like that lightly. Most of the Council members wanted to see a detailed report on what the city was required to do if in fact paid parking was a taxable benefit.  They all voted to have a report prepared – but there was not date set as to when that report would come back to council.

An opportunity to lead was missed – by ever one of the except for Councillor Meed Ward.  Councillors Craven, Taylor, Dennison, Sharma and Lancaster as well as the Mayor punted the ball back to staff – they very people who enjoy the benefit.  Anyone of the six could have said:  If this is a problem we need to fix it quickly.  Instead they put made sure the funds to pay for that free parking came out of the tax revenue account and into the parking revenue you account where it is then used to pay for the free parking.

The city finance department should have known if the benefit was taxable or not and brought a recommendation to council.

It’s exasperating.

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No Ides of March for this city. Mayor is safe – so far, but it is far from over.

By Pepper Parr

March 15th, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

Still quiet on the municipal election front.  No Ides of March for the Mayor of this city.

To date just one of the incumbent members of city council has filed nomination papers – Mayor Goldring scooted downstairs from his eighth floor office and gave the city clerk his fee early in January  – and his hat was in the ring.

The Goldring family whoops it up the night of the 2010 election. Same scene for 2014?

The Mayor didn’t stop there.  He recently held an impressive fund-raiser – a reported 125 people at $100 a pop attended where we understand His Worship announced that Cheryl Taylor will lead the campaign with Jim Matts doing much of the grunt work the way he did last time out.

So far there isn’t a second candidate for the job ready to declare  for the top spot.  None of the other council members who are warming a seat at the horseshoe in the council chamber have declared yet, however all, except for Dennison have said they want to return and the Mayor has said he would like to see all his colleagues returned.  They might be waiting until the Premier decides if there is going to be a provincial election and if she does ask the Lieutenant Governor to issue an election writ – they may all stay inside until that wind blows over.

Ward 1 Councillor did say at a meeting at the Conservation Halton offices that he had thought about running for the office of Mayor.  “It’s not out of the question” was his comment at the time.

We can report that there are very credible candidates in wards 5 and 6 getting their ducks lined up – expect at least one very interesting candidate to step forward out of rural Burlington.  It’s about time those people had someone representing their interests at the table.

There are now candidates in ward 1 – two of them so far, no one in ward 2 yet; Meed Ward might well be acclaimed in ward 2, unless of course she decides now is the time to run for the office of Mayor.  It’s the only chance she has of winning that office which she has wanted from the day she first ran against Rick Craven in Ward 1 back in 2006.

Meed Ward has a hard political calculation to make.  Run again in ward 2 and win hands down but find herself facing a formidable candidate in 2018 if Frank McKeown runs in ward 4 – which is not out of the question yet.  McKeown apparently has a promise from Jack Dennison, the ward 4 incumbent to campaign with McKeown if he runs.  Not exactly a promise you can take to the bank.

Frank McKeown, then the Mayors Chief of Staff explains a concept to Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman. McKeown was described as the 7th council member during the Strategic Plan sessions.

McKeown might decide that he doesn’t want to serve as a council member for four years and then run for Mayor – he might decide to just go for the brass ring now.  Many felt that McKeown was the thinker behind the Mayor when he ran against Cam Jackson in 2010.  Most of the position papers Goldring released were reportedly written by McKeown.

During the more than six half day meetings on the development of the Strategic Plan McKeown was frequently referred to as the “seventh council member” – not always politely by the way.  He brought a level of sophistication to the discussions that was badly needed at the time.

There was not a lot of love lost when McKeown advised the Mayor in July of 2012 that he was going to resign effective the end of the year.  That gave the Mayor plenty of time to find a new Chief of Staff.  The replacement was certainly no Frank McKeown.  It will be interesting to see what the Mayor comes up with in terms of an election platform and if he issues any quality position papers this time out.  Will there be a reference to his One Vision debacle?

We hear that the “Duffster” – that being John Duff, might be asked to handle media buys and campaign literature design for the Mayor.  (We incorrectly called Duff – Duffy in an article recently – that was fixed.)

Martin von Zon of Intercom Marketing was going to do that job but he then won an RFP to do some work for the Performing Arts Centre and felt he might have a conflict of interest if he did any work for the Mayor while performing a service for the PAC.   People in this town certainly have a very narrow definition of just what a conflict of interest is – Jack Dennison certainly doesn’t define conflict quite as narrowly.

One has to wonder if van Von has his ear closer to the ground than most and is picking up vibes others are not aware of? – and if that is really the reason for declining.  Van Von certainly didn’t get the PAC contract because of the Mayor.

Ward 1has two nomination;  Jason Boelhouwer and Catherine Henshell.

Catherine Henshell has her eye on the council seat for Ward 1

Ward 2 is closed territory unless there is someone who wants to create some name recognition and get a chance to rake Councillor Marianne Meed Ward over the coals.  She will win that race unless she is found at the end of the pier under a full moon howling into the night sky – and even then she might still win.

There is one declared candidate in Ward 3; Lisa Cooper filed her papers and hasn’t been heard from since.

Alexa Kubrak once put together some ideas on re-branding for the Burlington Art Centre.  Got stiffed and decided the only way to make a difference was to be at the council table.  running in ward 4 where the incumbent has yet to declare.

Ward 4 has been busy; while incumbent Dennison hasn’t declared – and may not – three others Have.  John Sweeny, a former Deloitte business development executive, Steve Kempf who lives on Indian Road, outside the ward and Alexandra Kubrak, a young entrepreneur who may lack experience but is a bright young lady – all have their hats in the ring.

John Sweeney running in ward 4 takes part in public budget discussions.

Ward 5 has yet to hear from incumbent Paul Sharman but expect him to be in the race – he has nowhere else to go.  There is another candidate doing the final touches to his campaign website – look for an announcement very early in April – hopefully not April 1st.  Ian Simpson has also declared in ward 5.

Ward 6, which had the tightest race in 2010 when Blair Lancaster beat Mark Carr by a slim 125 votes, will face a very strong contender expected to announce early in April.  There is a declared candidate in the ring now – real estate broker Jim Curran announced earlier this month.

Still a lot of fence-sitting going on.  For those who want to run for office and be seen as serious get along to the Clerk’s office.  For those that have declared – begin getting your message out.

Background links:

Mayor satisfied with his first term

Catherine Henshell files nomination papers for Ward 1

Jason Boelhouwer announces his candidacy in Ward 1

John Sweeney will run in Ward 4

Alexandra Kubrak will be running in Ward 4

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You will learn what the budget total was – when you get your tax bill. Council decided you won’t be able to delegate.

By Pepper Parr

February 27, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

Sometime next Tuesday afternoon city council meeting as a Standing committee will recommend the current operating part of the 2014 budget.  Traditionally that recommendation goes to city Council about ten days later for final approval and the tax rate is then set.

Citizens then have an opportunity to delegate before city council and attempt to plead for changes to the budget.

People in Burlington will not have an opportunity to do that this year.  Council voted on Thursday to have the Mayor call a Special Council meeting immediately after the Standing Committee meeting and approve the budget immediately.  There will be no opportunity for the public to delegate because they will not know when the meeting is taking place.

Councillor John Taylor moved a motion on Thursday that the budget be made final at a scheduled council meeting on March 17th.  There was very little debate on the motion and Councillor Taylor wasn’t particularly direct or forceful with his comments.  Councillor Meed Ward was direct; the city manager didn’t seem to care if the date was set back to the March 17th

The vote lost 4-2; Mayor Goldring had left the Standing Committee shortly before the vote.

What is disturbing with the vote is that Council is being very deliberate in not ensuring the public has some opportunity to read about the contents of the budget; go on-line and watch parts of the debate if they wish.  It is almost as if this council has something to hide and at this point we don’t see that as the case.

It is a complex budget; we still don’t know what they plan to do with the $2.6 million 2013 surplus which they call retained savings.  Staff had difficulty getting some critical reports before the Standing Committee on time – which meant the public didn’t get much opportunity to inform themselves.  The transit advocates are close to spitting nickels over what they call the transit shenanigans.

The report on what the snow levels are to be before equipment is put out on the road was late – part of the reason for that was due to snow still falling.

“I don’t want to hear anymore delegations” said Councillor Jack Dennison.

Councillor Dennison said he didn’t want to hear any more debate on spending decisions; Councillor Sharman felt the public had had more than enough opportunity to make themselves aware of what council is doing.  Not quite sure how he arrives at that conclusion when council has yet to make many of the budget decisions.  Councillor Lancaster has never been a big fan of meeting with the public.

The public was given just the one opportunity to look at the budget in an open public meeting when they met at the Art Centre in January. .  At that time people complained that they didn’t see anything before the meeting and that all they were able to do was respond to what was put in front of them.

There were close to 100 people at that January meeting which was held south of the QEW.  Burlington now has a brand new campus in Alton Village where a second public meeting could have been held.  The finance department staff chose not to do so this year but have indicated they will do so next year.

In 2010 Burlington received the Shape Burlington report; a document put together by the late John Boich and former Mayor Walter Mulkewich who were supported by a strong committee that, believe it or not, included Blair Lancaster and Paul Sharman before they were elected to council.

Councillors Sharman and Lancaster: both part of the Shape Burlington committee who seem to have forgotten what the report was all about – civic engagement

The Shape Burlington report made it very clear that Burlington suffered from an “information deficit” – the public just didn’t have the information they were entitled to – city hall wasn’t making it available.

When the report got to Council it was unanimously adopted – then apparently forgotten.

An informed public can make informed decisions and given that it is the public’s money that is being sent giving them an opportunity to make themselves fully aware would seem reasonable.

It is sort of like the cashier not letting you see the tape with all your purchases on it but just grabbing your cash and ringing up the sale.

The public is entitled to better treatment and if democracy is to prevail the elected officials should ensure that the public has more than adequate opportunity to inform themselves.

Odd that the four people who voted against giving the public time to review the budget decisions plan to ask the public to re-elect them to office in October.

Background links:

Just the one public meeting on the budget – comments are telling.

Shape Burlington points to “information deficit”.

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Premier Wynne needs to put the “fair” part of the minimum wage act into the document – $11. an hour is not fair.

By Pepper Parr

February 27, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

Got an email from Yasir Naqvi, an Ontario Liberal party MPP who told me he was proud to stand with Premier Wynne when she announced the government was increasing the minimum wage to $11 an hour on June 1st of this year. 

The government introduced the Fair Minimum Wage Act in the Legislature which is apparently going to tie all future increases to inflation because it will create consistency for businesses and Ontario workers.

While the increase is certainly welcome – why is the province being so cheap.  A household hasn’t a chance of getting out of poverty at $11 an hour.  Indexing that amount to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) assures society that those below the poverty line will always be there.

The increase to $11 an hour in June is fine.  Now take it up to $12 in a year, then to $13 a year after that and then to $14 a year after then THEN index the amount to the CPI.

Naqvi assures us that “businesses, labour groups, youth and workers support our legislation because they helped shape it: the Minimum Wage Panel was made up of all these stakeholders. They held province-wide consultations, received over 400 submissions, and brought forward unanimous recommendations that we are acting on.”

I’ve yet to meet anyone earning a minimum wage tell me that they are happy with this increase and the indexing.

MPP Naqvi points out that “the New Democrats ignored the Minimum wage panel and were silent on minimum wage—in the House, the media, and the by-elections. After a year of ducking, it’s too late for the NDP to try and be leaders. They need to do the right thing and support our plan.”

“Between the NDP’s flip-flopping and the PC’s radical ideas, we know the opposition will try to stall, so we need your help to pass this legislation.”

That’s just so much politicking – shame on the Ontario Liberals for doing this on the backs of the poor people.

“The Liberal plan for jobs is practical and it’s realistic” says MPP Naqvi. “Together”, he adds “ we are building a fairer, more prosperous Ontario.

There is no fairness in this act and at $11 an hour there is no prosperity for people earning a minimum wage.

Revise the bill Madame Premier make it really fair and decent.

Pepper Parr is a lifelong Liberal who has voted for every federal Liberal leader as far back as Louis St. Laurent.  He has served as the president of Liberal Party Associations on more than one occasion. He is the publisher of the Burlington Gazette and expect to tell the Premier that her that the “fair”of the minimum wage act just is missing.  She can fix that.

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Might Burlington lead in the transit service it provides its growing seniors population?

By Pepper Parr

February 23, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

The process Burlington Transit is going through as they rationalize their routes and look for more efficient ways to serve the needs of those who choose to use transit and those who have no choice got me to thinking longer term.

Stay with me on this.

Students or first time drivers have to go through a graduated license process and don’t get to drive on the 400 series highways the moment they pass their first test.

Will Burlington choose to be a leader in transit for seniors?It will not be too long before rules like that are going to apply to seniors.  I personally find that my eyes don’t work the way they used to in the dark of night and my reflexes aren’t as sharp as they were when I was 25.

I frequently find myself driving behind a senior who gives the word cautious a whole new meaning. There is timidness to older drivers and once there are more of them on the road – and that day is not far off – traffic is going to move slower.

Between older people driving slowly and young people believing they can text and drive, the roads in town will become hazardous places.  But that is not my point.

We will need buses that can carry dozens of people with walkers – because they won’t be driving.

I believe there will come a time when the province will require doctors to report any patient whose responses are such that they perhaps should not drive at night.  Many of you  know of adults who have had to go through the difficult process of telling Dad that he has to give up the keys to the car and not renew his driver’s license.

What do those seniors do then?  Are they to be land locked in their homes – because they aren’t going very far with the service Burlington Transit offers?

It doesn’t require a degree in rocket science to figure out how many seniors we have and where they live – the federal census data will give you that information.  We already know in large numbers how many seniors we have and which postal code they live in.

We know where the libraries are, where the food stores are and where the hospital is.  If we know the ages of the people in this city, and we know where they live and where they will most likely want to go – then we can begin thinking about what kind of transit we are going to need to move these people around.

That is the kind of long term thinking a city council should be doing.  I have watched and listened to council members discuss how many people were on a particular bus route at a specific time – none of their business – that’s what the transit people do. 

Council’s job is to think today and plan for tomorrow on how the city is going to meet the transit needs of all the seniors that we are going to have living in the best medium size city in the country.

Specialized buses will be needed and it will take longer to load passengers.

When the capital budget for the next 10 year is drawn up there should be funds set aside to buy the kinds of busses the seniors will need.  We need to begin putting money into that reserve find now and doing some early education work as well.

Perhaps we will see a Staff Direction to this effect sometime soon?

Will Burlington lead in the transit service it provides its seniors?

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IKEA pull out is an “embarassing disaster”; both tax revenue and reputation will take a hit and in time the company may take a hike.

By Pepper Parr

February 21, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

In the old Soviet Union, if you didn’t deliver they took you out and shot you.  The Soviets have cleaned themselves up and the Koreans now do that.  Sweden has always been a kinder softer country – but bet everything you have on someone at IKEA having to refresh their resume over the massive screw up on the decision to look at the North Service Road property as a possible new home for them in Burlington.

Multi-national corporations don’t make mistakes like this.  IKEA has a brand, we now call all the strong brands iconic these days, that they promote heavily.  They wanted that brand visible from a roadway where there is loads of traffic.  Thus the decision to find a property along the QEW.  That part of the decision making process IKEA went through may have been the only part that made sense.

There were problems galore with the site – there were also a lot of problems with the way IKEA said they wanted to situate the buildings and parking on the site.

A portion of our prosperity corridor – IKEA had picked a spot close to Walkers Line.

The Burlington Tourism office will tell you that IKEA was close to the #1 tourist attraction in the city; they drew from a dense and very rich market.  We are the only IKEA operation west of the GTA core.

A five minute drive along the North Service road made it very clear the road would have to be widened to at least four lanes.  We did that back in June of 2012 and reported on that.

A little research would have revealed that the Ontario Ministry of transport wanted more room to expand the width of the QEW and the only width available was to go north – which meant pushing the North Service road back – which would eat into the property IKEA had taken an option on.

The property has a barrier on the north side – a railway line.  Walkers Line was known to be close to its capacity – so there was work to be done there.  Creating a turn from Walkers Line onto the North Service Road – going both east and west was a challenge

Add to all that – the Creek that runs along the eastern side of the property. 

IKEA is taking the public position that the site is not quite what they need – take that position with a grain of salt.  The IKEA spokesperson assured anyone who asked that the decision was strictly based on the site. She added IKEA Canada is doing well financially.

Mayor Rick Goldring

Burlington’s Mayor is “discouraged” but adds that the IKEA application “did identify a need for infrastructure improvements”.  It did much more than that; it showed land that was being very much under-used.  Goldring does see a “silver lining” – the IKEA application showed that the transportation corridor either side of the QEW had to be improved. Did we have to wait for the IKEA application to figure that one out.  The economic development master minds should have known that – and the planners could have at least suggested we pay some attention to that part of town.  McMaster moving to the South Service Road should have been hint enough.

The city has managed to convince itself that IKEA pulling out has given us an opportunity to create a shovel ready site for anyone who wants to move to Burlington.  Has anyone seen the line-up of people wanting to move to Burlington?

In the world of property development – two things matter: location and timing.  Why it took IKEA a couple of years and perhaps as much as $1 million to arrive at the conclusion that the site wasn’t what they needed is a tough one to get ones head around.   IKEA had made a decision to move.  The objective was to have space for the headquarters office.  They also wanted to expand the sales side and offer WHAT.  All those IKEA plans are still relevant.  IKEA’s intention was to WHAT and the city rezoned the property so they could do that.

IKEA lives in a competitive environment – they fight every week for market share.  What they sell in this market works its way all the way back to the head office in Helsingborg, Sweden, where they are now asking a lot of questions.  If some IKEA heads don’t role there are surely bonuses that will be a lot smaller.

IKEA wanted to be bigger and a whole lot better – and that plan isn’t going to change. sooner or later – they will move from this site.

IKEA has a very interesting corporate structure.  At the top is a holding company in Luxembourg, tax reasons for that, with group services in Belgium, Franchise in the Netherlands, retail Centre Division in  Denmark, and Finance in Sweden.  The company appears to work as a series of national franchises – wonder who owns the Canadian franchise?  The whole operation is owned by two parties: 51% Inter IKEA Group and 49% INGKA Group.  Complex!

Burlington is trying to put the best face possible on the disaster – and make no mistake – this is a disaster for Burlington.  Not only is there a major client that is not happy, even though much of the mess is their own fault, there is revenue that is lost to the city and we are now in the unfortunate position of having to pay for all of the changes needed on Walkers Line by ourselves.  IKEA was going to be picking up a lot of that expense.

We have also done ourselves a lot of damage in terms of reputation.  The development community knows we parted ways with the former Executive Director of BEDC.  There aren’t that many job opportunities in that field; there are some good people out there but they don’t want to align their careers with loser communities and right now Burlington isn’t looking all that good.

Heaven’s Hamilton is seen as one of the top ten development growth communities and we all know how dysfunctional that city council is.  Burlington has to figure out quickly what it needs to do and then do it.  The problem is that the only people who can manage this type of problem are up to their arm pits with other tasks that are just as important.  The city manager is a) re-casting his capital budget, b) totally revamping the way services are to be delivered and making people personally accountable –talk about a culture shift; c) reviewing  the work force the city has and aligning it with the human resources we have and are going to need. He doesn’t have the time to resolve this problem and the one person he has that can do the job has his plate more than full as well.  The city manager unfortunately doesn’t have the bench strength he needs to run the place and it is going to take him three years, at a minimum, to re-develop all of the human resource side of the city.

Definition of a silver lining: a metaphor for optimism in the common English-language.Heck BEDC can’t get themselves to the point where they are ready to go to market and find the person they need.  They have to restructure and get that approved at the May AGM.

Thinking that we can wait until the BEDC AGM in May is what a high school student might try.  Is that our level of sophistication?

The Mayor and Councillor Dennison seemed to have found a silver line in all this; if IKEA couldn’t work through the difficulties with the location what makes us think someone else will?  The forthcoming staff report will sum up everything – but that’s about all.  Bet on someone finding a way to thank someone for all the hard work that was done.

There is trouble in paradise.  The silver lining the Mayor is talking about might be a thought to put the new city hall on the site.  The late James Gandolfini  of The Soprano’s fame had a word for ideas like that – “fu-ge-da-boud-it”

There are three IKEA stores in the GTA market, Burlington, Etobicoke, and North York.  There is a store in Vaughan and a store in Ottawa.  There is room to the west of Burlington for an IKEA store and Hamilton’s demographics are becoming a lot more appealing to IKEA.

While IKEA has made a decision to remain in Burlington, that may well be just a place holder.  They wanted bigger and better and they put their money on the table to get that.  The deal couldn’t be closed – someone else, somewhere else might come along with an offer IKEA just can’t refuse – and don’t for as much as a second think that there aren’t people out there right now figuring out how to cook up a deal.

Hamilton took International Harvester right off our plate.  Are we going to see a repeat of that kind of play?

One of the smarter commercial real estate types we talked to said: “this is embarrassing”; it might also turn out to be very expensive.  Add this one to the egg on our face with the pier and we aren’t looking so good right now.

Background links:

North Service road couldn’t handle traffic load.

 

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Three in the ring for the office of Mayor? Goldring, McKeown and Meed Ward? Stranger things have happened. .

By Pepper Parr

February 13, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

Thursday morning – the 13th – it is going to be an exciting day. Canadians are cleaning up at the Olympics, the hockey team will be on the ice at noon and expectations are high.

Burlington’s Standing Committee on Community and Corporate Services will make their Current Budget  recommendations which will set the tax rate for 2014 – will it come in at under 10% for the term of this Council?  That’s what was promise, rather foolishly made by the Mayor back in 2011.

The residents of two risings in the province go to the polls today – Thornhill and Niagara Falls will vote in by-elections which will determine to some degree when the Premier calls a provincial election.  She told this reporter that the provincial election would be “sooner rather than later”.

Move down the food chain into Burlington and where are we?  Well the city council incumbents aren’t exactly rushing to the Clerk’s office to file nomination papers.  Of the seven to be elected the Mayor is the only person to file papers.

So – what’s going on under the surface?  There is some carrier level thinking going on.

The focus is on wards 2 and ward 4.  Does Frank McKeown decide to run for office?   If he does what office does he run for?

Some early thinking was that he would run in ward 4, perhaps have Jack Dennison, the incumbent, going door to door with him.  McKeown would serve four years as a council member and then run against Goldring for the office of Mayor.  McKeown had served as Mayor Goldring’s chief of staff for just under two years.

If that scenario were to play out ward 2 councillor Meed Ward would have a very tough go of becoming Mayor in 2018 if she had to run against McKeown.

Well, what if McKeown decided he really didn’t want to serve as a council member for four years and decides to go for the office of Mayor now?   He is as qualified as the current Mayor Rick Goldring and he has an excellent working relationship with city manager Jeff Fielding.  They both think along the same lines.  Not that Goldring doesn’t get along with Fielding – they work well together.  McKeown just works better with Fielding.

What would Meed Ward do in that scenario?  Well she could decide to run as Mayor now as well and give the city a three-way race for the office of Mayor: Goldring, McKeown and Meed Ward in the ring at the same time.

Meed Ward has very high name recognition – she could give McKeown a run for his money whereas in 2018 McKeown would be well-known.

Were she to lose – and that isn’t a certainty, all she has to do is sit it out for a year and get herself the federal Liberal nomination for the 2015 federal election for Burlington and take out current MP Mike Wallace.

And if you don’t think that’s possible  see it this way.  A Justin Trudeau sweep, not as big as his Fathers in 1968 but a sweep nevertheless.  That would get Marianne Meed Ward into federal politics which I don’t think she would mind at all.

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Not the kind of address that inspires, moves people or gets a Mayor re-elected. Candidates may want to look closer at their options.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON.

January 23, 2014

How did he do this time?

It really wasn’t all that different than the last two State of the City addresses the Mayor has delivered.  I think he thanked everyone who pays taxes.

He introduced everyone that was elected and is paid by the taxpayers then chose to pass up on a chance to ask Burlington MPP Jane McKenna if she would talk to the Ministry of the Environment about the water table testing needed due to the tens of thousands of tonnes of landfill from God knows where that was dumped on the land without site plan approval.

At the same time he could have asked for some help from the Ministry of Transport on the road work that has to be done to keep IKEA in town.

15 hectares (37.2 acres) of land in North Aldershot that was donated by Mr. John Holland and will become part of the Cootes to Escarpment park system.

It was more polished speech this year, someone spent some time on giving the document more than a once over, but it didn’t move people.  People basically sat on their hands.  When John Holland got thanked for the 37 acres of land he donated to the city he got a great round of applause.

The address ran 13 pages long, hardly a laugh in it – it was basically an update of where we are which I guess is what a State of the city is supposed to be – but there are some concerns – real concerns that weren’t even touched on. 

The city recently re-built a stretch of Goodram from Spruce south to Lakeshore – at a cost of $2.9 million.  There are 54 homes in that stretch of the city.

At some point every street in the city is going to have to be re-built – that’s just the nature of infrastructure.  The cost of re-building just a portion of Goodram is not sustainable.  We need to find a different more sustainable way to pay for the work that has to be done.

Mention was made about the Economic Development Corporation.  The audience for this address by the Mayor was brought in by the Chamber of Commerce – these are the business leaders of the city and they are heavily represented on the Economic Development Corporation – which is in very serious trouble.

We keep sugar-coating the problems with the BEDC.  It was evident two years ago that the Executive Director had to go – but heels were dragged, excuses given (one was that the city couldn’t afford to buy the guy out)– but when they did eventually part ways the Chair of the BEDC made some intemperate remarks that cost the city a couple of thousand extra in the severance package.

We are told that a new “business model” will be revealed at the BEDC’s AGM in May.  The hope at BEDC right now is that they get the $275,000 they’ve asked for to do yet another study.  Meanwhile the city’s Industrial Commercial Institutional tax revenue is less in 2013 than it was for 2012 and is projected to be less again in 2014

Something is brewing between the city and the University campus on the South Service Road. Mayor wasn’t ready to let that cat out of the bag this morning.

There is some good news – has to do with some project development with the McMaster Burlington DeGroote campus on the South Service Road.  The Mayor kept that card close to his chest – perhaps it will be an election campaign announcement although any credit will be due to the sterling work being done by the city manager.

Burlington’s relationship with the university has been mixed a best.  The city got stiffed when McMaster pulled their plans for a campus on what is now the Elizabeth Street parking lot.

Mayor Goldring spoke of all the new jobs – but made no mention of those we lost and we lost some good ones.  DependableIT is moving to Hamilton – they couldn’t find the space they needed in the city and apparently no one at BEDC was talking to them.

Dependable IT is –just what they say they are – working in Information Technology support.  Their first two clients were Rogers and Cogeco.  Dependable doesn’t flip hamburgers; they pay good wages and those dollars are on their way to Hamilton..

Property values are increasing.  The Mayor said the average price of a home at $500,000 while the Finance Department has it at the $450,000 plus –and he said prices increased 7% over 2012.  The people in the Beachway would certainly like to see some of that value accrue to their homes.

We managed to keep IKEA in town – not much mention of just what that is going to cost the city.  Rebuilding the Walkers Line/North Service road interchange is going to cost a big bundle and the province didn’t get the least bit generous with funds.

The Infrastructure and Development people have had to make the best of a bad situation – anyone who drives the North Service Road west of Walkers Line will scratch their heads when they think about how many cars are going to drive along that road – it’s just two lanes wide now.

When it was all over and the tables were being cleaned up I chatted with a few people to get some feedback.  No one was inspired – Ho hum summed up what I heard.  As  drove back to my office I thought about what moved me – and realized it was the reference made to John Holland and his donation of 37 acres of property in remembrance of his wife Eileen.

The applause was sustained, it was genuine, it was real; far more than just polite.  We had just heard a Burlington story.  As I thought about that bright spark – it was the only one, I realized that Mayor Goldring isn’t comfortable getting beyond the numbers.  XXX number of jobs; XXX square feet of new commercial development; XXX new jobs.

These were kisses without hugs.  That’s not what makes a city, that’s what makes a living but surely living is beyond numbers?  There was no emotion – it was pretty bland.

While the program said there would be some Q&A – that seemed to get dropped.

Disappointing?  Kind of – but more worrying is that we are in an election year and we have to decide if we want to keep the leadership we have.  The Mayor has filed his nomination papers and so far he is the only person seeking the office of Mayor.

Now if I were a betting man I would find myself wondering how many other people came away feeling the way I did and was there anyone who wondered to themselves – I can do better than that.

It is pretty common knowledge that Ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward wants at shot at the office – did she hear enough to convince her to take a run at the brass ring in 2014 because the competition in 2018 will be pretty stiff?

Is the dark horse ward 4 candidate wondering if he shouldn’t just go for the Mayor’s job now?

 Is Paul Sharman, who filed nomination papers as a Mayoralty candidate in 2010, and then pulled them to instead run for the ward 5 council seat Goldring was going to vacate?  Does Sharman think he can do a better job?

It wasn’t a pathetic speech – but it just wasn’t good enough.  After three years in office the people at the Burlington Convention Centre deserved better – and needed better.

“Council unanimously approved the Revised Core Commitment for downtown”, said the Mayor. “With over 1800 touch points from our public consultation process, came the vision “Creating an active waterfront downtown destination that showcases the cultural heart of Burlington.” The City will play a leadership role in setting policy and committing resources to implement the strategic actions required to create a more vibrant and prosperous downtown. I have often stated that I believe that our downtown is the heart and soul of our community.”

We are in trouble in the downtown core is the heart and soul of the community.

For reasons that I can’t explain Rick Goldring isn’t comfortable with himself.  He won’t tell the incredibly human stories that are in him.  I would have loved to hear him tell about the picture exhibit Don Smith put up at the Performing Arts Centre just before the publication of the book he sponsored that told a good part of the Burlington story.  Goldring found himself tearing up at that event.

I wanted my Mayor to “romance the stone” to make me feel proud of why I am here and move me  to want to get involved and make this place even better than it is.

I don’t know why I didn’t hear that – I just heard a lot of platitudes.

Background links:

Full text of Mayors 2013 State of the City address

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Ward 4 going to be a fun race in October. Snarky comments already out there; former candidate doesn’t want newbies in the sandbox.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON.  

January 23, 2014

Hopes ride high in the minds of many that the 20 year incumbent will take the hint and move on.  Jack Dennison, who is as sly as the best of them has his game plan figured out and he will do what is best for him when the time comes.  Dennison knows better than most how to handle a fluid situation.

There is a future Mayor waiting in the wings and a past Citizen of the year trying to determine when best to throw his hat in the ring.  Brian Heagle, Burlington lawyer and past candidate who did rather well last time out doesn’t admit that he will run – but wowser – is he ever good at trashing any candidate that comes forward.

John Sweeny – Brian Heagle’s favourite nobody – filed his nomination papers for the ward 4 council seat. Heagle will be seen at the Clerk’s office very soon

John Sweeny filed his nomination papers earlier in the week – and before you could say Jack Spratt – Heagle was all over him like the basketball player he used to be.

Check out the dissing Heagle gave the guy.

While the incumbent, Jack Dennison, waits silently until June to announce if he’ll seek re-election – Mr. Sweeny is off and running as of yesterday.

Heagle tells his blog readers that Sweeny is in the race and then asks if Sweeny will he make any noise and be heard over the din of a likely Provincial election this spring?

While Heagle isn’t Sweeny’s campaign manager he is certainly telling his readers more than Sweeny is saying about himself.

1) PERSONAL. Mr. Sweeny has lived in Burlington his “entire life” and also has “a passion for the City“. Hockey and sailing are enthusiasms.

2) CAREER. He’s worked for employers in different places in the “High Technology” sector, primarily as an “Alliance and Channels” expert.

However, after more than 13 years, he no longer works in downtown Toronto with Deloitte. That job ended a few months ago.

3) REASONS / PLATFORM. In effect, this candidate is applying for a new job, and a career change. Why at City Hall?

A Councillor doesn’t commute to work. Knowing Mr. Sweeny worked in downtown Toronto, it’s understandable to want a lifestyle change! But what are his most substantive reasons? Is it due to recent circumstances, or a long-term desire to run for public office?

More importantly, what applicable skills and community experience would Mr. Sweeny bring to Council? How truly connected is he to our City, and Ward 4?

There’s nothing about supporting or volunteering for local groups (other than coaching hockey), nor anything about past leadership roles in the community.

I’m sure those essential details will follow in due course at the door, plus in a campaign website and pamphlets.

4) PROFILE. Do you know him? Ever heard of him before reading this blog post?

I’ve already exchanged emails/calls with Ward 4 residents about Mr. Sweeny. I don’t know him. I’ve never heard of him. That’s apparently true for everyone who’s contacted me so far, including several of his neighbours in Roseland.

Such anecdotes are not encouraging for name recognition, nor for someone looking to gain trust and get votes.

There was a time when the late John Boich truly believed that Brian Heagle was his dream come true – a candidate that could win the provincial seat for the Liberals. Boich sits on the right watching “his boy” work the small group. Heagle thought better things were out there for himself if he ran as a Tory – but the Tories didn’t want him

Wow – the gloves may not be off but you kind of know they are going to come off at some point soon.  Heagle has always wanted the Ward 4 seat and isn’t at all pleased that someone else has decided to jump into the sandbox.

Stand by –this is going to get better.

Background links:

Horses are getting into the gate for municipal election race.

Candidate falls on his sword.

Heagle decides to contemplate.

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Getting the horses into the gate is taking some time; starting buzzer doesn’t go off until September. Lots of time?

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON.

January 11, 2014

Getting the horses into the gate is taking a bit of time.  The Usual Suspects are not rushing to actually commit – other than the Mayor, none of the incumbents has marched down to the Clerk’s office to file nomination papers.

Is this a picture we are going to see frequently> Will there be a change in the name on the name plate at city council?

There is clearly a race in ward 1 where two candidates have filed their papers; they now wait for the incumbent Rick Craven to file his papers.  One total newcomer, Katherine Henshell and a solid Aldershot resident, Jason Boelhouwer, who thinks it is time for a change, have filed their papers.

Often, whenever ward 1 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward appears at events with the Mayor she sounds more “mayoral” than the man who wears the chain of office.

Ward 2 might be very quiet election night – there is every chance that incumbent Marianne Meed Ward will be acclaimed unless the hurt feelings within the developer community are big enough to have them find a name that can be printed on the ballot to run against Meed Ward.

It will be something to see Meed Ward sit out a campaign – she lives for the game, loves the play and the interaction.  A side-lined Marianne Meed Ward is not a pretty picture.  Trust her to find a way to insert herself into the election even if she is acclaimed; she could well use 2014 to begin her 2018 race for the office of Mayor.

That kind of thing happened in ward 1 when Jane McKenna took the bait an unhappy property owner put out and ran against Craven – only to be severely trounced.  However, that did give her a bit of a profile and she took the bait a second time when Keith Strong came calling with the Tory nomination in his hand.  This second run had a well-oiled machine behind McKenna and got her into office.  It will take more than a well-oiled machine to keep her there come the next provincial election.

John Taylor, Dean of city Council clearly doesn’t believe in term limits.

Ward 3 could be a cake walk for John Taylor – his profile is so high that it will take an exceptional candidate to overcome his name recognition.  While Taylor has served the people north of the 407 well, he isn’t one of them and you have to live on one of those side roads to fully understand what rural life is.

For reasons this writer doesn’t understand the rural community has not been able to find one of their own to represent them.  Ward 6, which has a large swath of land within its boundaries, is also represented by someone who lives in the suburban part of the city.  Burlington’s city council, and the Regional Council as well, desperately needs someone who can speak for the rural folk and represent their interest and life style.

Ward 4 will offer the most interesting race.  The incumbent is in trouble but he is redoubtable and is superb at the June to September campaign he runs where he cycles through every street in the ward which runs from Upper Middle Road, Appleby Line, Guelph Line down to the lake,  and pours on his charm and bats the baby blues.  They have worked for Jack Dennison in a number of his initiatives in his life.  Don’t count him out.

Brian Heagle – seen as a candidate for Ward 4. It is not the dog that wants your vote – could it it beat Brian were it to run?

Brian Heagle will run again.  Burlington will not be any better off should he win – and he did get within striking distance last time out.  They were separated by 1184 votes with Dennison getting 5292.  Had he worked a bit harder he could have taken the brass ring – but that’s the problem.  Heagle doesn’t do the hard work – and changing his political stripes hasn’t helped him

AND, there is a dark horse out there, thinking it over and taking his time while he decides if elected office is a next step in An already successful career.  If this horse is in the race don’t be totally surprised if you find him and Jack Dennison at your doorstep.  It is not unusual for an incumbent to decide it is time to leave and do so on the highest note possible.  Giving your blessing to a high quality candidate who could well go on to become Mayor in 2018 would add a little lustre to a damaged image in the ward.  It might even get Dennison into the Roseland Community Organization.

Intense to the point of making delegations uncomfortable ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman does know how to drill down into the data and look for results.

Ward 5 looks as if it is going to produce a flock of candidates.  There will be at least three in the race this time with a couple of other potentials mulling it over.  There were 9 candidates in 2006 and 7 in 2010.  Incumbent Paul Sharman has his work cut out for him.  If he can convince his community he has picked up some people skills and can deliver a bit more than parking spaces on the street and make a sound contribution during the budget debates and not throw everything off track the way he did with his 0% increase in the 2011 debates, he might prevail.  The ward has a history of putting forward a number of candidates that often turns into a crap shoot with the tumbling of the dice rather than a clear decisive vote count determining who wins.

Ward 6 – another part of the city with significant rural geography but not all that much in the way of population north of 407, has an incumbent who needs to change the image that has emerged.  The former Beauty Queen image doesn’t track anymore outside the die-hard Tory base.

Is north Burlington ever going to get the kind of representation it needs and deserves? It is going to be up to that community to find a local candidate that can draw support from the people south of 407 down to Upper Middle Road. Sarah Harmer – where are you when we really need you?

If a solid candidate emerges Blair Lancaster could be in serious trouble.  There is however an opportunity for her to show that she is indeed much more than a pretty face with a pleasant smile.  Serving as chair of the Development and Infrastructure Standing Committee  gives Lancaster an opportunity to show she does have “cajones” and can deliver on the level ward 1 Councillor Rick Craven does as a committee chair.  Only time will tell if she can pull it off.  She does have the city’s best General Manager in place to guide and support her. If she does make it happen – there will be no stopping her.  A strong performance as chair is essential for her to stay alive politically.

The race for the Chain of Office worn by Mayors is totally unknown.  Mayor Goldring has filed his papers but other than that there is no sign or sense that he has done anything which kind of reflects his first term as Mayor.  We would really like to see a better Mayor Goldring and believe it is in there – somewhere – it’s just not visible – yet.

 

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No coal for these Christmas stockings – the Significant Seven are not forgotten.

 December 19, 2013

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON.  We wish each and every one of the significant seven that set policy at city hall the Merriest of Christmases.  .  We have watched you; perhaps more than anyone else in the city, as you have done the job you were each elected to do.  On this your last Christmas this term we want to put our wish for you in that Christmas stocking you have hung.  No pieces of coal from us in your Christmas stockings. 

We have watched you for every meeting you have held – well not for those that you chose to go into a CLOSED session for – there were far too many of those by the way.

Has anyone ever done a count as to how many times you have gone into a CLOSED session on the city’s legal travails with the pier?   When you do get someone to count you will shudder.  It didn’t have to be that way.

Let us run through the seven and tell you what we wish for them.  It would not be fair to start with Ward 1 – everyone has been dumping on Councillor Craven recently, so let’s start with the Dean of Council – John Taylor.

John Taylor, Ward 3: Thoughtful, emotional always come out for the little guy.

We would wish John two things – more time at home with his wife and some time to think before he lets his emotions get to his tongue before his brain does.  John knows as much as anyone as to how the city works.  He struggles a bit to pull some of that information off the shelves in his head and pass the information along. 

Would that there were a Senate for municipal politicians – a place people like John could be sent to and where we could call upon them for sober second thought and some refection as to what municipal government is all about.

Jack Dennison, Ward 4  – Still athletic, still breaking he boundaries

For Councillor Jack Dennison in Ward 4 we would wish a membership in the Roseland Community Organization – they chose not to accept his membership cheque and so he is for the most part on the outs with some of the people who make things happen in this city.

We would wish as well,  an Ontario Municipal Board decision that is deserved, one that reflects the best for the community he was elected to represent.

Blair Lancaster, Ward 5:  Picture perfect

For Blair Lancaster, the ward six Councillor,  we wish a clear understanding as to just what a conflict of interest is and to understand as well the difference between the people she was elected to represent and those that have strong vested interests and want to exploit their relationship with her.

As well, we wish her the wisdom to reflect and fully understand the agendas set out for the Standing Committees she now chairs.  There are many watching her performance very closely; this is her chance to show those that wonder if she has what it takes.  And perhaps a can of tiara polish – might be needed to get her over the finish line come October.

Finally, an appreciation for those voters north of the 407.  They basically represent the number of votes Lancaster won by last time out.

Paul Sharman, Ward 5:  Focused, data driven.

For Paul Sharman – the Ward 5 council member who came on so strong during his first year and now seems to have gotten his wheels  spinning in a thing called the data rut.  The art of politics – and it is an art Councillor, not a science, is about people not strategies we wish a biography of Fiorello LaGuardia, the famous Mayor of New York city who loved every constituent he had and often took city buses just to be with them. Irascible, energetic, and charismatic, he craved publicity and is acclaimed as one of the three or four greatest mayors in American history.

We would add to the list of gifts for you, a Friends of Freeman Station – the one you could wear when you apologize for doubting their ability to pull of the magnificent job they have done.  Add to that T-shirt the grace to do the smart thing when they delegate next and thank them and ask how you can help.

But that touch of arrogance, just a bit, wouldn’t let you do that. So add a velvet bag you can put some of that arrogance into and then toss it out.

We would add for you a PRESTO pass that you can wave at campaign meetings to show that you are ready to take the bus.

Rick Craven, Ward 1: Plains Road, Plains Road and Plains Road.

Our wish for Ward 1 Councillor Rick Craven is for someone to give the man a good tickle along with a train set he can play with.  Craven has a bad case of serious, serious, serious.  The boy in him needs to be allowed to come out.  We don`t think Councillor Craven has bad manners but we do think he needs to use the ones he was given.  Politics is not a game for the thin-skinned.

A Dear Abbey book on manners will do the trick here.

So for Councillor Craven – the ability to laugh, have fun, engage people, like the people he   represents (not always easy)  Set aside your well-marked copy of the Procedural bylaw and accept the gift of Dale Carnegie’s How to win friends and influence people.   Politics is about people – ya gotta like them and you have to like yourself before you can like others.  Time for some deep reflection – there is a hill on the horizon Craven may not manage to get over.

Then there is His Worship.  He wants to do a good job, and desperately wants to do the right thing – and to be liked at the same time.  Leadership is being able to figure out what the right thing is for the community you lead.  That chain of office can be very heavy at times.  Each time you put on that chain of office – you need to also take on the strength of character voters thought they saw in you when they marked an X beside your name.

Mayor Rick Goldring: Compassionate, still looking for the right direction for him.

Many describe you as a weak Mayor.  Your reasons for running in 2010 were more emotional, with that worked out of your system you can now show the city who you really are with a thoroughly thought out plan.  Losing your senior advisor hasn’t helped.  There is a very good chance you will be acclaimed – which would not be good for Burlington nor for you.  You need to be challenged and further tested and given the opportunity to come through a hard fight and be the Mayor you could be – but that is going to call for you to be stronger, more forthright and more deliberate.  Were a strong well focused candidate to come forward – you can be beaten.

So for you Your Worship a good Churchill biography to gain some sense of how great leaders handle crisis and lead their people – the one done by Roy Jenkins is a perfect place to start.   We can promise that we will not have put another book by Lance Secretan in your stocking.

We wish you time to spend with the people in this city who raised you, perhaps a long talk with a high school teacher.  We wish you time to reach out and find people who can help you shape a second term.  Do something that is well outside your comfort zone –  be bold.

We wish as well, the smarts to better understand how Meed Ward has defined herself and the introspection to determine how you want to define yourself in the months ahead.

Finally, we wish a candidate that will test your mettle and force you to defend all the decisions you made during your first term.  You will be a better Mayor for it – and Burlington will be a better city if you win.

And finally Ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward we wish a dictionary with fewer words.  Of the three new Councillors she has grown the most and extended her reach far beyond the boundaries of her ward.  She is the go to person for many people in every ward – but she talks too much.

Marianne Meed Ward, Ward 2:  She has it figured out – now can she pull it off.

Meed Ward no longer has to says she might run for the office of Mayor – other people, many of them, say it for her.  She has changed the way all council members communicate with their constituents.  Her ward “council” is a close to perfect example of how a Councillor should interact with constituents.

Meed Ward may well run for the office of Mayor at some point in the future – but in the world of politics the future is a long, long way off.

She may well be acclaimed in 2014 – the chances of anyone beating her are slim to none.  There is no one on the horizon that comes even close to threatening her.

In the event that she is acclaimed that will keep her out of the 2014 municipal election race – which will drive her bananas.  She loves the game; she loves the job she has and she loves working for people.

While Meed Ward has certainly grown there are some lessons to be learned.  We wish several large colourful pictures for Meed Ward – each picture will save her 1000 words.

We wish her the opportunity to attract advisors who can guide her as she grows.  We wish her the time to take a summer course on economics and finance and how assets can be used as leverage.

There was a time when she had few supporters within staff – that is changing.  She has work to do at the senior levels – she is never going to get to the point where she will be exchanging Christmas cards with the city’s planner.

Burlington’s Significant Seven.

The Season is about to settle upon us.  Home, family, friends and time to relax and reflect are gift we wish for each and every one of you.

Return to city hall in January and meet with the Clerk to file your nomination papers.

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That pier of ours just might become an election issue after all. And they thought it had gone away – silly people.

December 18. 2013

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON.  Been awhile since we’ve heard anything on the pier.  Like children – when there is no noise you want to look in on them.

That mediation many thought was going to take place in January is not likely to take place for a number of months.  Why?

It was a great day in the history of the city.  The official opening of the Brant Street Pier – now the problems its construction created have to be cleaned up.  Looks like a Court room is the only place we can get this done.

Well turns out some “realizations” have brought about a shift in the thinking of several of the players in this rather expensive game.  You’ve heard the phrase – “there is an elephant in the room” – those involved in the pier litigation are realizing that the contractor was not the problem.

And the company that is the problem has recently realized they have a problem on their hands and they didn’t have their homework done and now they need time to dig through the mounds of paper and be ready for a trial.

Mediation is a step that must be taken before a trial can take place.  There is at least one player in the game that doesn’t see mediation as a solution to the grief they have had to go through – so mediation, when it does take place, might be very short.

We actually built the pier twice. First time it was built a crane toppled over ad revealed problems with the steel being used – it was all taken out. They ordered new steel and built it again. Now all the parties squabble over who is going to pay for the mistakes.

Getting trial dates set with so many companies involved is never easy.  Having a trial start in the middle of the summer would certainly tighten up things in the municipal election. 

What is clear is this:  there is a bit of a mess to clean up.  Under normal circumstances this would come under the normal day-to-day business of a municipal government but the pier became such a defining issue that took on a life of its own.

It became part of the agenda for three different mayors; each handled it quite differently.  For Mayor MacIsaac it was part of a dream that he left in decent shape as he turned over the chain of office.  For Mayor Jackson it was a problem he had hoped to ride all the way to the top – until the crane accident took place. Then it became an issue that gave a freshman candidate an issue to get elected on.  It wasn’t the pier and its problems that cost Jackson the election.

That young man will return to the pier for many years to see his hand print. At some point he will read about and understand how convoluted an exercise it was to get that pier built.

The Goldring administration thought their task was to clean up the mess and get the pier opened but along the way they missed several opportunities to keep the city out of a court room.  Those failures, when combined with the city’s significant and serious financial problems, are like chickens coming home to roost.  And coming home during an election year isn’t the kind of good news story people running for office like to tell.

Some distraction might take place in the Spring should the provincial government decide they need to get a majority and Kathleen Wynne decides to ask the Lieutenant Governor to call an election.

Much of January will be taken up with budget deliberations.  The 10% increase over the four-year term that Mayor Goldring tied himself to will weigh him down a bit – it will be interesting to see what this Council decides it is prepared to give up.

Once the budget for the next year is cast – the election race will take on energy of its own.  And that is just about the time that the whole story behind the pier might come to the surface.

Background:

Pier legal problems always discussed behind closed doors.

Pier gets a soft opening.

New steel girders begin to arrive – progress.

New pier tender opening delayed.

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Liberals get ready to convene in Montreal – should be looking for credible candidates.

December 12, 2013

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON.  The Liberal Party of Canada will be holding its Biennial Convention in Montréal in February of 2014 – the Burlington federal Liberals are asking their members to sign on for a weekend trip to Montreal.

While a federal election is not on the calendar until 2015 – the Liberals in this town need all the name recognition a candidate can get – and with the federal Conservatives in the mess of their lives – it would make some sense to find the candidate that can win in Burlington.

Its going to take more than a high-profile name to make Justin Prime Minister.

If the Liberals can get their BOY to be seen in the House of Commons a little more often and begin making comments that make sense rather than make him look a little foolish – there could be a different political party running the country.  But – it is going to take more than just the Trudeau name to form a government.

Provincially – with the chances of an election in the Spring better than even – the Liberals are still scurrying about to find a candidate to run against Jane McKenna who has done little if anything for Burlington, but she has managed to become a close to rabid partisan.  Should McKenna survive the next provincial election she will become close to impossible to remove.

Tim Hudak is not likely to survive the next provincial election – which will raise the star of our Lady Jane.

Burlington seems to vote solid Tory blue unless there is a really strong name candidate – then they go with the national flow.  Should Justin Trudeau up his game and begin to be seen as seriously credible a decent candidate will come forward and Mike Wallace would be in for the fight of his life.

But candidates are not like mushrooms – they don`t grow in the dark; they need sunshine and exposure; they need the interaction of vigorous debate so that voters can see the differences in character and ability and not find themselves having to rely on the political party label to make their decisions for them.

Burlington doesn`t have much in the way of a tradition to be proud of in picking candidates that are superior and able to really represent the city.  For a community that is made up of people who are for the most part well-educated and in the top half of the income charts – we can and should be able to do much better than we have done in the past in terms of our political representation.

It`s not the political labels that are the problem – it’s the people wearing the labels.

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