Rookie downtown Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam has sent a stinging letter to Mayor Rob Ford chastising him for presiding over an administration that operates “on the premise that your unilateral decree overrides the democratic processes of civic government.”
The councillor was particularly peeved that Ford dismissed any talk of bidding for the 2020 Olympics without seeking a second opinion from city councillors.
“I am concerned with the health of our local democracy,” she wrote Aug. 31. “The decision about the Olympics is only the latest in a worrying pattern” where the mayor makes decisions “by fiat,” she wrote.
For example, the mayor’s brother, Councillor Doug Ford, has hatched a controversial new plan for the waterfront, even though council approved a very different vision in July 2010; and Ford met secretly with developers, and without any knowledge or input or consultation with the local councillor, Paula Fletcher.
Then, this week, Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, as chair of the public works committee, initiated a review of the all-way scramble pedestrian crossing at Yonge and Dundas without alerting Wong-Tam or the Downtown BIA or Ryerson University.
When Wong-Tam got wind of it, and tried to get a motion to include the groups in the review, Minnan-Wong ignored the request.
Ryerson, the BIA and Yonge-Dundas Square put in years of discussion and hard work to deliver the scramble intersection that allows the crush of pedestrians to cross the street in all directions at once.
“I can’t have a lot of confidence in the process if it’s constantly being corrupted,” Wong-Tam said Friday. “There is a pattern of behaviour that forces you to look at everything with a lens of suspicion.”
Minnan-Wong says he is “playing within the rules” when he introduces other items onto the agenda, without giving general notice; and when he dallies with city-wide issues in any local wards.
Complaints about the mayor and his executive having too much control over the city’s agenda must go back to the previous David Miller administration, which drafted the current rules, he says.
Stunningly, he admits city staff are now so attuned to the political winds that council is not getting the best advice from staff. “This murkiness doesn’t make for better governance. . . . They bend to political influence,” he admits.
So, this is the landscape at city hall.
If the mayor doesn’t like something and wants it blown up — like Transit City — and it is within his legislative power, he just does it.
If there are rules preventing him, he subverts these rules with end-runs. So, on the waterfront, he totally ignores Waterfront Toronto, the agency of record that’s carrying out the city-approved plan for the waterfront. He co-opts another city agency and taps it to take over the Port Lands. He hires outside consultants to devise studies and reports to his liking. And then he uses the data to undermine the existing plans and provide a convenient cover for his council lieutenants.
So, where is city council, the check and balance against unbridled power?
Council needs a two-thirds vote (30 of 45 councillors) to stop many of the mayor’s procedural moves or to amend the council agenda. For example, if council wanted to put forward a notice of motion directing the mayor to consider the Olympic bid or quit meddling in the waterfront, this would require a two-thirds vote just to “vary the council agenda” to discuss it. The mayor can thwart such a move with his executive committee of 13 plus three more votes.
All that’s left to council are the votes on matters forwarded by the standing committees. And almost all the committees are controlled by mayor-friendly councillors.
“Mayor, I urge you to reconsider the governance style in which you currently operate,” Wong-Tam’s letter states.
Usually, councillor, bullies don’t stop until the victims strike back. The Sept. 21 vote on the waterfront U-turn will present one such opportunity.
Origin
Source: Toronto Star
The councillor was particularly peeved that Ford dismissed any talk of bidding for the 2020 Olympics without seeking a second opinion from city councillors.
“I am concerned with the health of our local democracy,” she wrote Aug. 31. “The decision about the Olympics is only the latest in a worrying pattern” where the mayor makes decisions “by fiat,” she wrote.
For example, the mayor’s brother, Councillor Doug Ford, has hatched a controversial new plan for the waterfront, even though council approved a very different vision in July 2010; and Ford met secretly with developers, and without any knowledge or input or consultation with the local councillor, Paula Fletcher.
Then, this week, Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, as chair of the public works committee, initiated a review of the all-way scramble pedestrian crossing at Yonge and Dundas without alerting Wong-Tam or the Downtown BIA or Ryerson University.
When Wong-Tam got wind of it, and tried to get a motion to include the groups in the review, Minnan-Wong ignored the request.
Ryerson, the BIA and Yonge-Dundas Square put in years of discussion and hard work to deliver the scramble intersection that allows the crush of pedestrians to cross the street in all directions at once.
“I can’t have a lot of confidence in the process if it’s constantly being corrupted,” Wong-Tam said Friday. “There is a pattern of behaviour that forces you to look at everything with a lens of suspicion.”
Minnan-Wong says he is “playing within the rules” when he introduces other items onto the agenda, without giving general notice; and when he dallies with city-wide issues in any local wards.
Complaints about the mayor and his executive having too much control over the city’s agenda must go back to the previous David Miller administration, which drafted the current rules, he says.
Stunningly, he admits city staff are now so attuned to the political winds that council is not getting the best advice from staff. “This murkiness doesn’t make for better governance. . . . They bend to political influence,” he admits.
So, this is the landscape at city hall.
If the mayor doesn’t like something and wants it blown up — like Transit City — and it is within his legislative power, he just does it.
If there are rules preventing him, he subverts these rules with end-runs. So, on the waterfront, he totally ignores Waterfront Toronto, the agency of record that’s carrying out the city-approved plan for the waterfront. He co-opts another city agency and taps it to take over the Port Lands. He hires outside consultants to devise studies and reports to his liking. And then he uses the data to undermine the existing plans and provide a convenient cover for his council lieutenants.
So, where is city council, the check and balance against unbridled power?
Council needs a two-thirds vote (30 of 45 councillors) to stop many of the mayor’s procedural moves or to amend the council agenda. For example, if council wanted to put forward a notice of motion directing the mayor to consider the Olympic bid or quit meddling in the waterfront, this would require a two-thirds vote just to “vary the council agenda” to discuss it. The mayor can thwart such a move with his executive committee of 13 plus three more votes.
All that’s left to council are the votes on matters forwarded by the standing committees. And almost all the committees are controlled by mayor-friendly councillors.
“Mayor, I urge you to reconsider the governance style in which you currently operate,” Wong-Tam’s letter states.
Usually, councillor, bullies don’t stop until the victims strike back. The Sept. 21 vote on the waterfront U-turn will present one such opportunity.
Origin
Source: Toronto Star
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