Feb 11th Disfunctional Council Meeting

[waterloowarrior]

Council meeting spins out of control

Yelling matches, accusations mar debate on bridge, strike issues

BY PATRICK DARE, THE OTTAWA CITIZENFEBRUARY 11, 2009 11:14 PM


OTTAWA-A marathon meeting of Ottawa Council at times spun out of control Wednesday, with yelling matches between councillors, city staff openly criticized by a councillor and councillors shaking their heads at the behaviour.

At one stage Wednesfday evening Mayor Larry O’Brien adjourned the meeting so that Rideau-Rockcliffe Councillor Jacques Legendre could cool down. Mr. Legendre, who was fighting to kill a proposed inter-provincial bridge at Kettle Island, had accused city solicitor Rick O’Connor of improperly handling the issue, though it wasn’t entirely clear how.

Earlier in the meeting, Mr. Legendre had accused city management of “politicizing” the operation of the transit system through a series of recommendations for enticing riders back onto the transit system after the city’s disastrous two-month transit strike.

Mr. Legendre yelled at Innes Ward Councillor Rainer Bloess, who supports a bridge at Kettle Island and managed to get a motion through council last night that would rule out study of another possible bridge route at Lower Duck Island farther east. After Mr. Legendre criticized the city solicitor, Mr. Bloess swiftly walked over to where Mr. Legendre was being calmed down by the mayor and Mr. Legendre and Mr. Bloess exchanged words.

Earlier in the meeting, Bay Councillor Alex Cullen yelled at Gloucester-Southgate Councillor Diane Deans, and suggested she wasn’t listening to debate, as she was attempting to have the provision of bike racks on city streets carved out of a major new project to replace all of the city’s street furniture. Ms. Deans was doing this so that a local company can continue to provide the racks, which have been successful.

Earlier in the meeting, Mr. Cullen had been extremely upset when a move to put an additional $50,000 into bus tickets for poor people failed on a tie vote. He called the decision "obscene."

By hour 11 of the meeting, council members were acknowledging that the day had been a failure.

"We messed up today ó bad," said Mr. Legendre.

"It's been a bit of a circus today. We've let council get out of hand," said Mr. Bloess. "We've accomplished very little."

One of the critical topics of the meeting was the bridge question because the National Capital Commission is eagerly awaiting the city's position on the issue. Ottawa Council has for years criticized the NCC for its lack of transparency and failure to listen to feedback in decisions. But city council's position on the issue has been unclear and the NCC has organized a special meeting of its board for Friday to make a decision about which bridge route proceeds to the second stage of the study after the city's position is made clear.

Council decided late last night to rule out study of the Lower Duck route being suggested by opponents of the Kettle Island route. They also voted down protection of a possible corridor from Cumberland to Masson-Angers. However, council also voted to allow a reconsideration of the issue at its next meeting, which means the issue might still be unresolved.

I was watching a bit this evening. . . it was pretty bad. It is clear we need some kind of shake-up for politics in Ottawa.... New mayor, transit commission, term limits (?? not sure how effective they are), new blood?