By Pepper Parr
April 5, 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
It is sometimes difficult for media to establish a working relationship with senior people in any organization. Some executives understand what media is and the role it plays – others work at spinning media, trying to make it work for them while others find a way to work with media and use it to amplify what they want to communicate. There are, unfortunately, those who don’t fully understand the need to communicate.
The Gazette has worked with three different city managers. Roman Martiuk was the first – he had not worked with the kind of media the Gazette was setting out to be. We report but we put what we are writing about in context and analyze at the same time.
Media has changed from just the 5 W’s – who, what, where, when and why.
Martiuk was replaced by Jeff Fielding who turned out to be far more city manager than city council was ready for – and this Council turned out to be less than what Fielding needed to do things his way.
Fielding left London, Ontario partly because things there were getting toxic and he had a Mayor that just might be going to jail – not for city related misdemeanors – but it was not a healthy environment.
Fielding was wide open with media – he had no problems whatsoever answering questions and was consistently available for background.
Will Burlington see substantial change in the way staff serves taxpayers; will there be real transparency and accountability?
Fielding then got the opportunity of a life time to work with perhaps the most progressive Mayor in the country – he was on a plane to Calgary with less than half of his contract fulfilled.
Pat Moyle was parachuted in as city manager from his retirement from the Regional government to oversee the work that then General manager Scott Stewart was doing running the city.
Many thought Stewart should have gotten the job of replacing Fielding but for reasons that are never going to be fully understood Stewart wasn’t what the majority of Council wanted.
Does one say No – to this man?
They instead hired James Ridge, who had never run a city before, but had a strong pedigree and was seen to be the person who could bring some order and discipline to a city staff that had seen three different city managers over a four year time frame. There was also a morale problem and staff retention was becoming an issue.
Stewart stayed on to get Ridge through the best part of a year and found a place in Guelph where his growth potential might be recognised.
Ridge has a quiet style – it has taken some time to get a sense as to how he operates. He thinks things through – manages an organization that once had three general managers and now has none.
Ridge has chosen to have the nine Directors report directly to him – he meets with all of them as a team once a week.
The weak link in this approach is that there is no fall back senior manager for the city. Each of the Directors has their individual and unique strengths, abilities and weaknesses – but none that is an obvious future general manager.
Ridge does say that he isn’t locked into the current administrative structure – it is what he is going to go with for the immediate future.
He has parted ways with one Director and word has it that while his style is to be friendly and outgoing in his own at times shy way – he can be very strong and tough when he has to be.
His focus has been on getting a sense as to what he has in the way of a city council and how he directs himself to fulfill the tasks they direct him to deliver on and at the same time meet the requirements of the Municipal Act and other provincial legislation he must comply with.
James Ridge – walking around hi part o the city.
Ridge doesn’t do the both guns blazing that Fielding had as an operating style (it was exciting and for many staff members exhausting); his tends to be a single, well-placed single shot kind of guy.
He isn’t one of those pat you on the back chamber of commerce boosters; this man thinks it through.
The downside for James Ridge is that he doesn’t have all that much Ontario experience and basically no Burlington experience. It is a complex city; wealthy by any measure and yet insular in many ways – almost as if it doesn’t’ quite know what I wants to be when it grows up. Its very talented population lives in the city but applies its talents elsewhere and wants a city that is safe, clean that provides the services they need.
He may not act as quickly as Fielding did – but there will be fewer mistakes.
He has managed to run afoul of one or two people when he has failed to deliver.
City manager Ridge, centre, at the last session of the Strategic Plan Committee of the whole meeting.
His focus has been on putting together a significantly different Strategic Plan and then developing work plans for himself and coaching his Directors as they develop their work plans to ensure that the many promises in the Strategic Plan are met – and the plan is loaded with promises.
He has to maintain whatever he has in the way of juggling skills as the city bumps into its debt load capacity policy. In the almost immediate future the city’s borrowing capacity is going to have to be increased and council will look to the city manager for recommendations on the numerous unfunded projects that are being worked up by staff.
Ridge is going to have to find a way to deal with the way this Council chose to fund its portion of the Joseph Brant hospital upgrade/rebuild. The $60 million the taxpayers have to pony up has stressed the city’s borrowing capacity.
On the upside for Ridge is the more than a handful of managers who show great promise – mostly female by the way, – he appears to spend a considerable amount of time nurturing these people and giving them the room they need to experiment and do things differently.
One has to listen carefully to get a true sense as to where Ridge is going – when he speaks it is usually in measured tones but he seldom fails to make his point.
He is fully aware of the weak spots in his administration; he hasn’t yet shown us if he is really prepared to go outside the existing staff compliment for new blood – he has made at least one major appointment without advertising the position.
There are hints as to the kind of city hall Ridge intends to create. Delivering on the service side and being truly accountable appear to be part of his philosophy.
Bfast, Burlington for Accessible Affordable Transit, recently held a citizens Forum on transit issues. The Forum held last year didn’t manage to seem important enough for the Director of Transit to make an appearance. There was apparently a “conversation” between the City Manager and the Director of Transit.
Director of Transit Mike Spicer and City Manager James Ridge.
The Forum was held at the Central Library which is on New Street. Transit service had been re-routed while the Region was putting in new water mains – making it impossible to use a bus to get to the Forum. Ridge apparently brought this situation to the attention of the transit department and a shuttle service was put in place.
Burlington hasn’t seen that kind of quick response to a problem situation in the past.
The Strategic Plan is more than a year late and probably way over budget as well. Is Ridge able to meet the time lines he puts in place?
Ridge gets out into the community and we are not aware of any outrageous promises he has made to any of the stakeholders or community groups. The city is not likely to see the kind of giveaway Fielding did for the seniors when they ran into some accounting problems. He isn’t likely to go along with the significant property enrichment that Fielding allowed with the property swap at Walkers Line and the North Service Road.
City Manager James Ridge at his first city council meeting.
When can some conclusions be made as to the operating style this city manager will use. His next budget will be telling and when he is a full year into executing on his Strategic Plan we will see how big the space is between his talk and his walk.
Now to get him to talk a little bit more; loquacious he ain’t.
Has he got a true sense of what he has in the way of a city council; it couldn’t have taken him all that long to see the dysfunction. City managers have to live with the council the public elects.
Former Mayor Rob MacIsaac had a sterling relationship with Tim Dobbie his city manager – between the two of them they ran city hall – they also gave us that pier didn’t they.
Ridge does not have and isn’t likely to have that kind of a tight working relationship with the current Mayor and you won’t see any wild eyed dreams from this very buttoned down former military officer. He is a man of principle and will stick to his guns
