PETER CONRADI/Bullet News
I have a headache
I often have headaches on Thursday evenings. That’s because I usually sit through regional council meetings, and last night’s was a doozy.
It was billed as a committee of the whole session to continue the discussion on governance. It became, well, it wasn’t about governance, that’s for sure.
Let me rephrase that. It sort of was. Politicians actually dealt with a motion to never debate governance again for the remaining two years of this term. That’s right. Had this motion passed (mercifully it did not), they would have been banned from talking about governance. No more talk about amalgamation of municipalities. No more talk about an elected chairperson. None of that.
Lincoln Coun. Mark Bylsma wondered aloud if that was not a violation of his civil rights. Neverthless, councillors actually voted on this. They voted on whether they could ever discuss governance again. At the meeting to advance the discussion on governance.
Confused? Perplexed? A little annoyed? You should be. This is your council at work.
Even though they defeated the silly motion to put a gag on governance chatter, they did identify their top two governance issues – which really weren’t about governance at all. The majority of councillors determined that confusion over service delivery and inadequate communication (i.e. telling everyone what a great job they’re doing) are the most pressing ‘governance’ issues facing the Region.
Uh huh.
For this they brought in two outside facilitators – Brock University professor and municipal affairs expert David Siegel and former regional clerk Rod Hollick (at a cost of who knows how much) – to tell themselves all will be well with better public relations.
That was 3½ hours no one will ever get back.
What a huge, colossal waste of time and disappointment. Two years ago Gary Burroughs made governance one of the cornerstones of his pitch to become regional chairman. That he was elected would indicate that the majority of councillors thought it was time to get serious about the issue. When the rubber hits the road, though, they run and hide.
They tell us the public doesn’t care about governance, that electors don’t want to hear about amalgamation, that no one thinks there are too many municipalities in Niagara or too many politicians. No one, they say, is breaking down their doors to talk about this stuff.
Really? Maybe no one wants the city of Niagara – or maybe they do. We don’t really know. But I’m betting most of us want a full exchange of views on the concept with a mind toward at least pointing us in that direction. Isn’t that what our commerce leaders have been saying with their insistence that the Region streamline its business development operations? Isn’t that what is happening with the move, albeit somewhat haltingly, toward a regional chamber of commerce? Isn’t that what has happened in Toronto? In Kitchener-Waterloo? In Ottawa? In Hamilton?
One Niagara? Perhaps not. But 12 municipalities, 12 councils, 12 mayors? Definitely not. For the Region to continually dodge the subject that admittedly would be signing the death warrant on many of their own jobs is a gross abdication of duty.
Do they truly care about efficiency in government? About saving the taxpayers money? You have to wonder.
Politicians always tell themselves at these meetings that they are doing wonderful work. Niagara politicians like to remind us that they are a bargain – that they work hard and for far less than their brethren in other regions of the province. I can only hope that wasn’t a warning shot in a bid for more money. At any rate, it’s an argument that misses the point. Maybe we should pay politicians more money. Maybe it should be full-time work. But not for 31 of them, plus all the city and town councillors. It’s not just about saving money on salaries. It’s about streamlining operations, cutting red tape, unifying operations, bringing some consistency to municipal offices.
Burroughs said near the end of the meeting that things hadn’t gone as he expected. He said that was a good thing, because it was the will of council. Fair enough. Yet how could Burroughs, the ringmaster of this circus, possibly feel good about this debacle?
The first step of the evening was for councillors to identify what they felt were problems related to governance. Burroughs spoke about the need to foster trust and respect. Minutes later Grimsby Coun. Debbie Zimmerman and St. Catharines Coun. Andy Petrowksi were exchanging insults across the room. It was not a pretty sight. So much for respect.
Oddly enough, these two were actually on the same side.
Petrowski expressed disappointment that council centred on issues which are far from fundamental problems. Zimmerman noted, “Our biggest problem is ourselves. This governance issue will never happen by revolution, it will be evolution.”
But evolution can’t happen if you’re not talking about it.
Voters do need to know what regional councillors are talking about, and they should start taking notes in preparation for 2014.
Council feels it will be better off if more people know what it’s doing. Not if Thursday night is any example.
5 Comments on "Column: Give Niagara regional councillors a big ‘F’ for failing once again to talk about governance"
I have two election ads from Niagara Falls Regional candidates who now sit on Regional council and
state “fiscal responsibility” is their first priority. Oh well lets have a committee meeting to debate what
“fiscal” means.
Peter Conradi, I have sent the following letter to all the politicians in the Niagara area with many not responding, some giving negative feedback or a very few giving positive feedback. I am tired of the high taxes we pay, and the disinterested government both regional and municipal that keeps our area second class and always the last ones to get anything from the province. This area could have a lot. We could still keep the agricultural areas where they are with the wineries, horticulture and such and still have industries in areas like Welland, Fort Erie and St Catharines and keep our tax rates down. Look at Hamilton. We need to have fresh ideas and energetic people running our cities with open minds and a real concern for our cities and region’s future. The following is the letter that I sent
Dear Citizens of Niagara
Reduce Local Government Duplication and Cost – A Call to Action!
We ask for leadership in elected officials to reduce the costly duplication of local government in Niagara.
How? By combining the current 13 municipalities into a single City of Niagara.
Why? A streamlined, less complex government system is good for all taxpayers – home owners and businesses.
Action? #1. The ask is that the following motion be put before every municipal Council with a recorded vote – NOW: To enact a single tier city government for the 2014 municipal election that reduces service and job duplication and reduces cost #2. We ask that every citizen of Niagara make their voice heard – write letters / blog your elected officials (local and provincial) to the newspapers – OFTEN! Asking that the motion be approved by every municipal Council.
How Much Duplication? We have 12 city/town municipalities + 1 regional municipality to govern and service 430,000 citizens. That’s a duplication of positions, service delivery, facilities to house the people, technology / materials to run the operations and decision-making bodies.
Duplication of 13 times:
Elected Officials: That’s 13 Councils, 13 Mayors and 100+ councillors. Regional Council alone has 31! Our City of Hamilton neighbor only has 16 elected officials to govern 504,559 citizens. City of Mississauga has only 12 officials to govern 668,549 citizens. We have 113+ municipal elected officials to govern 427,421. Population source .
Senior Administration: That’s 13 Chief Administrative Officers, Regional/City Clerks, Fire Chiefs, Deputy Fire Chiefs, Treasurers, Commissioner/leads over Parks, Public Works, Planning, Legal, Building, Human Resources, Information Technology, Library and more. When you look at the next level below, the numbers and the duplication balloons.
Buildings: Everyone always needs a new one! City Halls (13), Works Yards, Fires stations, Libraries,
Services, Technology, Materials:
• All administrative services: finance, human resources, legal, information technology, and more
• Most Operations: roads, fleet, water, engineering, planning, emergency dispatch (can we really afford 4 separate dispatch centers for police, fire and paramedics?), parks, recreation, building, library, transit, fire, economic development, inspections, local elections and more
• Technology: phone systems (can fire and ambulance talk to each other yet at an emergency?), databases all with licensing and upgrade cost such as finance, payroll, scheduling, billing, computers, cell phones, and more
• Materials: fleet, computers, cell phone, photocopiers, paper (we didn’t have the time to calculate the amount of paper used to support all the sub-committee and council meetings held every month by 13 different municipalities) and more….
Decision Making: What is the track record of 13 decision-making bodies? Bureaucracy, parochialism and red tape!
• Battles over water rates, conflicts over land development
• Can’t agree to have 1 transit system – we have 3 separate systems and had to have a pilot with the region to get them to even start co-operating
• Increases in taxes (for the last 4 years Niagara Region has had 0 to .01% impact on taxes yet all 12 municipalities increased it)
• Losses in commercial/industrial tax base with business closures and businesses moving out of Niagara – business has to deal with 2 levels of government – 2 sets of different rules (we need 1 economic development centre!)
So How Much Duplication? Here is a small sample:
Reduce the Duplication Current Estimated Duplication Estimated Reduction
Reduce 113 councillors to 13 to
(1 mayor and 12 councillors likely 1 from each current municipality) $3.1 Million $2.1 Million
Chief Administrative Officers
reduce from 13 to 1 $1.6 Million $1.3 Million
Fire Chiefs – only need 1 $600 Thousand $450 Thousand
Treasurers – only need 1 $1.2 Million $900 Thousand
Senior Parks – only need 1 $700 Thousand $550 Thousand
Senior Planning – only need 1 $860 Thousand $600 Thousand
Sub Total (rounded) $ 8 Million $ 6 Million (savings!!)
Impact on employees? Now is the time to act. Take advantage of the retiring baby boomers and normal attrition so position reductions can be made without terminating people. To maintain services during a transition, hire a temporary replacement into impacted positions.
This action is a conflict for elected officials – there will be a reduction in elected official seats – their loss for the taxpayers gain. However isn’t that what we elect them for, our best interest? People will raise 100’s of reasons to not do this – we‘ve just shown you more than $6 Million reasons to do it (and that’s with reducing the duplication of only 5 common senior roles and Council. We need to stop competing against ourselves for scarce resources and put Niagara on the map! Our population is getting too big to think and act so small and divided. Keep and promote the local charm of each municipality but govern and service without the duplication, at a reduced cost and without reduction in services!!!
Who will take action for the citizens? Make sure it’s you!
Sincerely, E. Manocha, St. Catharines
The first person to comment cited fiscal responsibility in his comment. However, GOVERNANCE isnt just about fiscal policy – its about a whole host of factors that constitute GOVERNANCE.
I think a column on what GOVERNANCE actually means is in order.
Happy to write it for you.
Thanks for this, Peter. This is yet another sad illustration of the state of affairs in Niagara, where democracy is more often than not misconstrued as the right to stick to ones own opinion and stubbornly refuse to cooperate with anybody on anything.
Dear Mr. Conradi,
I don’t even pretend to be a writer but at this time and in the scenario that you describe in your article I simply respond.
Your article is like a very courageous shot of oxygen. It’s even more exhilarating to witness the strength of the commentators.
I responded vociferously to Mr. Puttick’s creative column as can be seen at: http://newsalertniagara.blogspot.ca/
The Niagara Regional Government has bamboozled the citizens far too long.
Mr. Conradi, Thank you