Let's Get Ready to Rumble
Looming election will be City Hall’s main event for 2014
BY JOANNE CHIANELLO, OTTAWA CITIZEN DECEMBER 29, 2013
This is just the start of a year that promises extra scrutiny of our municipal politicians, not just from the media, but voters and rival candidates as well, which should all make for an interesting 2014 at City Hall.
The last city council meeting of 2013 saw a number of our local politicians walk new business onto the council agenda at the 11th hour, a move that is so clearly in contravention of the procedural policy that doing so requires three-quarters of council to vote to waive the usual rules.
The councillors will tell you they needed to break with procedure because they were pressed for time, that because the next council meeting was six weeks away, they had to rush their items through.
Perhaps.
But the more likely reason is that councillors wanted to squeeze anything that might cause them political headaches through the gates before the year’s end so they could start the new year with a clean slate.
Because no matter what else happens at City Hall, the main event of 2014 will be the city election.
And here at the Citizen’s City Hall bureau, we couldn’t agree more.
That’s why our bureau — David Reevely, Derek Spalding and I — decided to help readers get a head start on thinking about how their political leaders have represented them, not just over the past 12 months but over their entire term of office. After all, by this time next year, there will be some new faces around the council table or at least one, as only a single councillor has confirmed he’s not running in 2014.
We’ve asked Mayor Jim Watson and all 23 councillors to review their own records, their personal highlights, lowlights and what they want to accomplish in the next year or beyond. We remind you how long they’ve been around and what committees they chair. And we’ve asked whether they’re running for re-election.
Of course, we can’t let the politicians have the last word. That’s particularly true when it comes to this question: “What’s your lowlight of this term, a decision, vote or public position you wish you could take back?”
Now, this is a difficult question for a politician to answer, especially in an election year. That’s why we asked it.
And some councillors gave decent answers: Keith Egli wished he had advocated for more consultation during the casino debate, Stephen Blais regretted his sometime abrupt behaviour, while David Chernushenko took the biggest risk in admitting that agreeing to a firm 2.5 per cent tax hike may have been a mistake because it prevented “substantial” change in the final stages of the budget process.
On the other hand, many councillors chose to discuss how they regret the decisions, votes and public positions taken by OTHER people. The mayor was no exception when it came to re-interpreting this line of inquiry. I had to ask him four times before getting a reply that came close to answering the spirit of the question.
And there were a few councillors who expressed regret about, well, generally regrettable situations: Mathieu Fleury is unhappy about homelessness, for example, while Peter Hume bemoans nature. Actually, the Alta Vista councillor bemoans the Emerald Ash Borer, and fair enough. But how does this answer our questions? We’re pretty sure that’s cheating.
So we’ve added our own observations — sometimes an explanation of an issue, sometimes an alternative answer — to the quotes councillors sent us by email, although I sat down in person with Watson for a half-hour interview.
This is just the start of a year that promises extra scrutiny of our municipal politicians, not just from the media, but voters and rival candidates as well, which should all make for an interesting 2014 at City Hall.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
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