^^ Why do you think he would keep his hands off the Exchange?
The editorial from today's Free Press deserves to be posted in its entirety.
Mayor's pal underwhelms political masters
Updated: April 24 at 02:00 AM CDT
Mayor Sam Katz says he feels sorry for his good friend Phil Sheegl because the poor soul has made the mistake of actually wanting to work for the people of Winnipeg as the new director of the property, planning and development department.
The city, Katz suggested in a report by Free Press reporter Bartley Kives, is a horrible place to work, partly because it is governed by bothersome politicians with their own opinions and agendas. "I wouldn't wish that grief and aggravation on anybody, let alone a friend. But as you can see, he didn't take my advice."
It's hard to know if the mayor believed all those things, or if he was merely trying to distract attention from the fact his friend had just been hired to one of the most important jobs at city hall. This, from a man who likes to say he's not a politician.
Intended or not, the mayor's comments did not go unnoticed at city hall, where morale is said to have plummeted to a new low in recent years. The "us-them" battle between mayors and civil servants has been a constant problem at city hall since former mayor Susan Thompson was elected in 1992, but it continued under Glen Murray and now under Katz.
Winnipeg mayors have tended to use their influence to ensure that key openings in the civic bureaucracy were filled by candidates of their choosing, or at least their approval. It's one thing, however, to hire someone with whom you've had a past professional relationship and who has all the qualifications for the job. Quite another to hire a close personal friend and occasional business partner whose qualifications are in doubt.
As the new director of the property and planning department, Sheegl is responsible for a variety of complex tasks and services, including land-use planning, heritage preservation, building permits, housing programs, zoning, parking, riverbank management, real estate sales, business development and more.
As such, directors have tended to be people with professional credentials in public administration or urban planning, which is the study of healthy, secure and sustainable urban environments.
By all accounts, Sheegl knows nothing about any of those things. Councillors who questioned him at a private seminar after he was hired say he seemed out of his depth and displayed little knowledge about the complexity of large cities. In fact, some of his answers, including his view that unused heritage buildings in the downtown should be razed to make way for more surface parking, were alarming to those present. (It's those politicians again.)
Sheegl, an engineer by training, was a successful real estate salesman and deal maker who made his mark in Winnipeg and in Phoenix, Ariz.
In selecting Sheegl, the mayor is signalling that he wants the department and the city to be more entrepreneurial and more aggressive in encouraging development, selling surplus city land, and seeking better terms on leases. (The city got hosed on several lease deals in the past by building owners who had the nerve to complain about the city at the same time they were filling their pockets.)
It may be that Sheegl will wow everyone with his real-estate savvy and sell off every last inch of civic property, but hopefully he will also remember that the city is not merely a business, but a public service.
There is also an assumption in Sheegl's appointment and in Mayor Katz's comments on government that the private sector has a better idea of how to run a show than civil servants. The economist John Kenneth Galbraith dismissed this view by pointing out that he would sooner trust a bureaucrat who manages the development of superhighways than a businessman who markets breakfast cereals.
The fact is, the private sector knows very little about how to solve social problems or promote social harmony. The focus of business is on the bottom line, lowering costs and maximizing output and profits. Those are invaluable skills in business, but they don't go very far in addressing social questions.
Nevertheless, now that Sheegl is working for the government, he will have ample opportunity to learn the importance and meaning of public service and public trust. And when developers and builders start complaining -- as they most certainly will continue to do -- about the poor service and delays at city hall, he will be well-positioned to tell them they are being unfair and that they expect too much from the public purse.
dave.obrien@freepress.mb.ca
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