[waterloowarrior]

interesting article...



O'Brien era's problems indicate Chiarelli's strengths: U of O expert


BY JAKE RUPERT , THE OTTAWA CITIZENMARCH 6, 2009 1:17 PM


OTTAWA — During Mayor Larry O’Brien’s time in office, it’s become clear former mayor Bob Chiarelli was a “very, very clever politician” who built consensus on city council under difficult circumstances, says one of Canada’s leading governance experts.

Gilles Paquet made the observation Friday, one day after O’Brien’s task force on governance released a report calling the current municipal government system broken and predicting “chaos” if the status quo continues.

Paquet, a professor at the University of Ottawa, said he agreed with most of the report’s findings, and that things need to change.

The report concludes the current system almost demands narrow thinking on the part of councillors voting in the interest of their geographic wards and political interests, which leads to a lack of long-term planning and focus on important city-wide issues.

To combat this, the task force recommends creating an executive level in municipal government, comprising the mayor and city councillors who chair various standing committees, to set a firm agenda on issues affecting the whole city. The panel said this would bolster the mayor’s influence over city-wide issues, and likely result in more consensus and achievement.

Mr. Paquet would prefer a borough system of government where groups of councillors would have complete say over issues affecting their geographic areas, and full city council meetings only to decide larger issues like tax policy, budget issues, and growth plans.

However, he said he thought an executive level would be helpful and doable under the current system.

He said the “dysfunction” at city hall has become acute because it’s almost impossible to gain a majority on individual issues with 23 councillors and the mayor each holding a vote. Council just too big, he said, with too varied interests on too many minute subjects to gain plurality support on a regular basis.

He said Chiarelli was able to govern effectively because he was able to put forward a clear vision on issues, work one-on-one with councillors to get them to buy into the vision, and was dogged in his pursuits.

He said O’Brien hasn’t been able to do this, but to be fair, it is probably asking too much.

“One thing people have learned in the O’Brien era is how clever Chiarelli was,” Paquet said. “He was faced with the same set of problems and challenges, but he was very good at dealing with people, had great moral authority and respect of other politicians, and worked very hard to achieve things.

“O’Brien is having a difficult time achieving because it is very difficult in the current system to do this. It’s like a bus with 24 steering wheels and 24 sets of pedals. It makes a hell of a racket, but it doesn’t go anywhere.”

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