Municipality of Ottawa is out of control.
August 24, 2008
In my research data published on July 22, 2008 reference was made to City senior staff interfering in the political decisions of Council. (The Mayor and all Councillors were directed to my website). By the third week of August several councillors challenged staff on previous directions that were not carried out. The relative Staff Managers have since apologized and those directions are now being implemented.
Further, the City Manager, Kent Kirkpatrick, issued a direction to all senior staff to report on all outstanding Council directions. The resultant report will be provided to Council in the coming weeks. This subject was covered extensively in the Ottawa Citizen and the Ottawa Sun in the past several days.
We are now seven and a half years into amalgamation and it is only this past Friday that the City Manager publicly took ownership of what should be the most important function of the job. That is, administering the operations of the City of Ottawa as directed by Council. The fact that he has not had control of this aspect of operations is totally unacceptable by any professional standards.
The lack of control at City Hall is also evident as it has taken Committee Chair Councillors and Councillors at-large, especially in one case, several years to realize that directions to Staff were not carried out. There is a responsibility of the Committee Chair to track the implementation of directions and report on same to Council in general. It isn’t only the responsibility of City Staff.
The Ontario Municipal Act clearly dictates the responsibility and duties of city council. The elected Mayor and Council have, as a body, the duty to exercise all of the powers of the municipality provided to it. This doesn’t seem to be the case as I will explain.
Who is running the City of Ottawa? Is it the Mayor and councillors or the City Senior Staff? Or is it the unions and arbitrators in Toronto? We as resident taxpayers better find the answer soon.
The City of Ottawa is a good city and its residents are the best. However, the operations of the city are letting its residents down by not living up to its great potential.
There are several important changes that will have to be made by the City of Ottawa elected politicians.
Number one is the election of ward councillors by all resident taxpayers of Ottawa while maintaining the ward system. Currently, only residents within a ward elect their representative. Council has the power to make city-wide voting for councillors a reality now, just as the City of Oshawa has done. This would ensure that councillors would put the issues of the city at-large first and foremost before their ward. As it is now, the ward comes first and the City of Ottawa second. This will be the subject of my next blog.
The second most important issue is to repatriate the power of Council to maintain control over all union contracts rather than shun the responsibility and give the power to some unknown arbitrator in Toronto. It is a fact that the City of Ottawa has spent 81 percent of the new money generated since amalgamation on compensation to its employees. The audited statements of the city reflect this percentage as 72. Now, it may be that the union contracts negotiated by the Toronto arbitrators are ok, but the decision must be taken back into the hands of councillors in order that councillors are collectively held responsible. Councillors make pretty good money, but I would challenge the remuneration they receive if they continue to allow almost 50 percent of the annual revenue of this city to be controlled by outsiders.
The third issue deals with staff. The majority of staff is deemed to be conscientious in performing the duties of the job, but amalgamation and the slow growth of the city over the past seven years does not account for the current number of employees working for the city. A real effort must be made by council to make efficiencies if senior staff continues to stack the numbers and information provided to Ottawa residents.
The fourth directive would require the Auditor General to do away with an annual report on audits of various departments. Whether an individual audit result is good or bad, it should be reported to council and the public immediately on completion of the audit. This would provide council with the necessary tools to maintain better control and provide the public with factual information. As the auditor general has access to all city departments and information thereof, it would be beneficial to the operational control of the city by our councillors.
The fifth issue relates to public disclosure of external contracts to consultants, other individuals and companies. Ottawa is one of the few cities that do not disclose this information in a clear format on its website. This should include the publication of the request for bids for materials or services and the winner of same. It is always said that the more information publicized the less chance for problems to arise. The residents of this city need to know the names, purpose and amount of contracts over $10,000 similar as to what is disclosed by departments of the federal government and other provincial and municipal governments.
The sixth issue relates to grants to various organizations and individuals in the City. The amount of taxes spent in this area has increased beyond logic over the past seven years and councillors must take a look at the situation. The resident taxpayers should be able to access on the city website the names of the individuals and organizations that receive the grants and the amount and purpose of the grants.
The last priority, but not by any means unimportant, is for city councillors to continue to pressure the provincial government to repatriate social and health costs, as these expenses have no business being part of the resident property tax system. We already pay provincial taxes to cover these costs.
And to put everything into perspective, where there is a will, there is a way.
Bill O’Malley
Ottawa
