City staff are scared of being punished for offering their best advice to Mayor Rob Ford and council, the city’s ombudsman said a day after Ford allies fired TTC chief general manager Gary Webster.
Fiona Crean’s comments Wednesday came as sources told the Star Ford is focusing on long-term subway expansion, knowing he can’t stop the Webster-endorsed, council-approved light rail plan this time.
Crean wouldn’t comment directly on the TTC board’s 5-4 vote Tuesday to fire Webster for his transit expansion advice, saying: “I do not have enough facts to make any comment. I just don’t know.”
But, in an interview, she called the timing “extraordinary” — only two weeks after she warned council that civil servants perceive there’s a risk to speaking their minds, and strongly recommended a new law to buffer them from politics.
“I would surmise that if you ask most senior public servants today, they’re even more worried, and the problem is, when you don’t know all the facts concerning an event, it makes it worse,” Crean said.
“It certainly heightens my worry about, on one hand, the treatment of public of servants and, on the other hand, them shutting down their best advice for fear there might be negative consequences.”
Webster, a 37-year TTC employee, advised council Feb. 8 that above-ground light rail makes good sense in some parts of Toronto, contrary to Ford’s subway-only mantra.
Council agreed 25-18 with Webster and TTC chair Karen Stintz, reverting to a plan similar to former mayor David Miller’s Transit City.
After helping decide Webster’s fate during a three-hour closed-door session Wednesday, Ford ally Councillor Frank Di Giorgio said: “Excellence in a bureaucracy ... is the ability to put forth the positions that are consistent with those adopted by the mayor.”
In recent remarks, Crean specifically noted the need for honest staff input on issues including Transit City, while calling on council to ask the province for a law to clarify the roles and responsibilities of Toronto city staff, including the top bureaucrats.
Asked Wednesday if such a law would have protected Webster, she said: “I don’t have enough information, but I can tell you that a Public Service Act embedded in legislation will protect public servants and enable them to give their best advice, whether it’s popular or not.”
Crean, a lawyer and former Ontario government assistant deputy minister, became Toronto’s first ombudsman in 2009, after being appointed by a Miller-led council.
Asked if she fears that speaking out in even general terms imperils her job, Crean laughed and said: “I do not,” adding that speaking truth to power is integral to her role.
Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion also spoke out at a council meeting Wednesday about Webster’s firing and Di Giorgio’s comments, the Star’s San Grewal reports.
“One (Toronto) councillor made the comment that the staff must do what the mayor says ... that’s not the way it’s done here,” McCallion told her council. “We do not tell the staff what to bring forward in a report.
“I hope our citizens know that council rules supreme. The mayor has no authority above council.”
Mississauga Councillor Nando Iannicca worried aloud about a wrong message being sent to voters by Di Giorgio’s comments.
“I have spent 25 years of my life telling constituents, ‘I can’t do that. I can’t tell a transportation commissioner what to think,’” Iannicca said. “I’ve told (constituents) the opposite of what they’re now being led to believe.”
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: David Rider
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