Jack Dennison: an incumbent with more than 20 years as a council member – and his seat is at risk.

By Pepper Parr

October 25, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON

 

He is the best educated member of this city Council.

He has far more real business experience than anyone else on this Council.

He knows more about property and buildings the city owns than any other member of Council and he cannot help but get right down into the weeds on almost every issue.

During a discussion on what was causing the flooding August 4th on Dryden Street Dennison explained that all staff had to do was walk out into a storm water pond and cut a couple of feet off a pipe and the flooding would stop.

Jack Dennison loves the art of a deal. He is like a used car salesman with an unsuspecting buyer – he can’t help himself.

The idea of selling the Tyandaga Golf club was being discussed and Dennison thought that was a great idea – he had worked out how many upscale houses could be built, what the take for the city would be – he couldn’t wait to take a city owned asset that frequently lost money and turn it into something that would raise cash.

Mayor Goldring didn’t like the idea – he described it as a “cash grab” which is exactly what Dennison wanted it to be. That one didn’t fly.

 

Dennison wants the city to get out of the Simms building which is across the street from city hall where a number of city departments are housed. He feels we could have bought the building given the rent that has been paid in the past 10 years. Dennison wants to either add two floors to the back of city hall or get out of the city hall building, which is far from energy efficient, and put up a purpose built structure with underground parking.

Dennison got drawn into politics back when Jack Diamond, a renowned architect who was advising the city on the development of Spencer Smith Park. He was fascinated with what a city council could do – there were deals galore just waiting to be done – all with tax payers money. In those days Dennison truly wanted to make a difference.

When a development proposal comes to council and what the developer is asking for is more than the city wants to give, Dennison does everything but take his pencil to their drawings and lob off a couple of units. Never too many; just a couple to leave the area residents feeling that they at least got something.

Dennison once said that he had yet to meet a municipal bureaucrat who couldn’t figure out how to spend more than was needed.

Dennison owns a heritage home on Lakeshore Road, yet would put the Joseph Brant Museum on a raft, push it into the lake and set it ablaze. He had no interest in saving the Freeman Station.

As the owner of Cedar Springs Health Racquet and Sports Club he does a significant amount of business with the city and from time to time he declares a conflict of interest.

He lives in a community (Roseland) where the voters are fully informed and up to date on what is happening and are fierce when it comes to protecting the integrity of their community.

They live in million dollar homes and they don’t want anyone trifling with the value of their property or the character of the neighbourhood they live in. Large spacious lots are the norm in Roseland and the burghers over there want to keep it that way. Thus when Dennison applied for a severance of his property with the intention of building on and then selling the new lot, he was breaking a cardinal rule in the community – you don’ take what we have going for us and lessen its value.

Roseland likes the idea of large lots along Lakeshore Road – they speak of affluence, prestige and old money.

Dennison felt he had a strong case when he made the severance application to the Committee of Adjustment but he attempted to buy a strip of land from his neighbour to the east to create a little more in the way of lot size. They refused to sell and became key players in the Carol Gottlob campaign to replace Dennison.

Jack Dennison lives in a world where there are friends who do you favours and you do them favours in return.

Dennison never understood that as a Council member he was held to a higher standard than others. He was chosen by the taxpayers to represent their interests and to resolve their problems.

Dennison didn’t understand, still doesn’t, that while he has the right to apply for an adjustment to his property – it is a right the public does not expect him to use.

The locals felt he had broken all the rules and when it looked as if he had a vote already in place at the Committee of Adjustment (COA) the Roseland burghers were apoplectic. “We’ve become a banana republic” said one attendee at a very long contentious meeting.

Dennison chose to speak for himself at the CoA meeting; not his wisest move. He had to tangle with a planner that knew the file inside out and was not going to get tripped up by a member of council no matter how slick they might be.

Ward 4 doesn’t have a community council per se. The Roseland Community Association was created to fight the attempt to sever a Hart street property – they won that battle and hope to win the Dennison appeal of a CoA decision now at the OMB. That association now has 150 members; they incorporated because they realized there were going to be other severance applications that would end up at the OMB.

Dennison, the best friend small developers have on Council, doesn’t understand the angst of the Roseland homeowners who believe small developers see their community as their company’s inventory for their business – not a community of homes and trees. The RCO is determined to maintain the character of the area: the developers want to buy, sever, build, sell and move on to the next opportunity and in the process significantly change the character of the community.

Dennison applied for membership in the Roseland Community Association; his application was rejected and he found himself in that ignoble position of being black-balled by the people he had been elected to represent.

Dennison, like Councillor Taylor consistently pushes more tax payers dollars and grant money from the province into the infrastructure deficit but doesn’t own up to the fact that that deficit was built up during the past 20 years they were both members of council.

Dennison doesn’t flinch for a second when he reduces the portion of the gas tax payment from the province that normally goes into transit and increases what is used to “shave and pave” the city’s roads.

One sometimes thinks that Dennison sees transit as a necessary evil; for Dennison everything and everyone is supposed to pay their way. That others may fall on hard times is something Dennison understands but he doesn’t think it is the role of Council to be there to help out – usually.

But then there was the horrific flood August 4th and people needed help – and Jack Dennison was there to help. He had an election to win and he needed to get the anger over his severance application off the front page; helping people with their flood issues was just the tickets He consistently told people that he had been into more than 1000 basements – given the number of days that had passed since the flood the math didn’t support his claim.

Both Councillors Sharman and Dennison were now very active helping people who had been flooded.

These people were not going to have to get themselves out of this mess – their Council member was there to help them.

While campaigning door to door Jack found himself calling upon a woman who he had once been on city council with and was a little stunned to see a Gottlob sign on the lawn. He appeared to think that the collegiality that once experienced on Council was still in play. It wasn’t.

The 2008 recession did a lot of damage to the Burlington economy. Dennison’s sports operation relies on discretionary spending and that had been reduced significantly in thousands of Burlington households.

Cedar Springs is a large operation with fixed costs that have to be met. Tax bills from the city came in but didn’t get paid. Dennison found himself as a business person whose taxes were in arrears but serving as a member of the Council that direct staff.

There was nothing illegal about delaying the payment of taxes; funds that would have been used to pay taxes were used to cover operating costs. Cash was king and Dennison did what every business person does – you do what you have to do to stay alive.

And he did stay alive – it wasn’t easy. The business community in this city fully understood.

Dennison holds his community meetings in his sports club. It used to be that if you wanted to see the ward 4 Councillor you traveled over to his office at Cedar Springs on Cumberland. During much of the 2006-2010 term Dennison didn’t have an office at city hall – felt he didn’t need one and that the job was really just part time. He didn’t have a full time assistant either – shared one with another council member.

This ward’s election issue has settled down to a battle between a candidate with no municipal experience and an incumbent with more than 20 years as a council member – and his seat is at risk.