Mayor Bob Bratina

[movingtohamilton]

Looks to me like the entrenched bureaucracy at City Hall is an impossible mountain to move. The best new councilors on earth will fail unless various city managers are sent out to pasture.

[HillStreetBlues]

You may be right. How do we make that happen, if that's what you think needs to be done?

[movingtohamilton]

To be honest, my comment comes from frustration. The upending of public-sector bureaucratic inertia is very difficult. There are obstructionist managers, like Public Works Manager Davis, who seems to care little about real solutions to simple problems.

A new dynamic mayor along with some new councilors would be a start.

[Jon Dalton]

On the supportive side, we have city manager Chris Murray who remains professional and does not get caught up in the bullshit. We have councillors Farr and McHattie leading the LRT task force and the support of the Chamber of Commerce and their new, pro-urban CEO.

We're not screwed yet. Toronto is getting 5 lines of totally free public transit despite their administration being even more of a circus than ours.

[HillStreetBlues]

Farr and McHattie are probably representing their constituents' wishes pretty well. Wards 1 and 2 residents seem the most interested in sustainable development and city-building. Is it possible to get councillors with similar forward thinking elected on the mountain? In Ancaster?

You guys who spend a lot of time on this forum mostly seem to live in the lower city, but not all. Could there be enough support outside of the city centre for pro-urban councillors?

[Dr Awesomesauce]

^I think that's highly unlikely. The suburban councillor isn't interested in city building and never will be. Their constituents fled the city for one reason or another and care only for their bottom line, not in making the city a better place to live. I don't think you can change that. Cynical, I know.

And I still laugh at Councillor Powers removing his support for LRT. I guess he feels he hasn't been getting enough attention of late. It's as if he's saying 'Hey, look at me! I'm important! I disagree with this and so do my constituents! It's too expensive! I'm a responsible politician.' The reality is, Russ, you're ignorant and irrelevant and shouldn't be sitting in the council chamber at all, at least not the one at 71 Main W.

The amalgamated city is a whole other ball of wax, I know, but when you look around the chamber you have to wonder how it all came to be that certain councillors have become so integral to the well-being of this city. It's a situation that can only result in the worst possible outcome for all involved.

[SteelTown]

http://www.thespec.com/opinion-story...ic-engagement/

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[SteelTown]

Mayor Bob Bratina steps down from police services board

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilt...oard-1.1859246

Mayor Bob Bratina is set to step down from the city's police services board.

He is expected to give a press conference to announce his resignation from the board on Wednesday around noon.

[SteelTown]

Dreschel: Integrity commissioner clears Bob Bratina

http://www.thespec.com/opinion-story...s-bob-bratina/

The integrity commissioner has cleared Mayor Bob Bratina of threatening city manager Chris Murray during a heated council meeting.

Earl Basse's report, obtained Tuesday, says Bratina's tone and comments to Murray during the April 24 discussion on light rail transit were "angry" and "not appropriate" but did not contravene council's code of conduct.

Basse's finding was based on the fact that Murray told him he did not feel intimidated or threatened by the mayor's actions, nor felt his professional reputation had been injured.

Basse notes that the mayor also apologized to Murray after the incident.

[thistleclub]

Controversy around state-of-city speech event dogs Bratina
(Hamilton Spectator, Andrew Dreschel, Jan 8 2014)

Bob Bratina hasn't even opened his mouth yet and already his Wednesday state of the city address is generating controversy.

First it was because Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation is contributing $2,100 to the breakfast speech.

Now it's because the mayor is using about $5,000 from his office budget to help cover costs for the revenue-generating event organized by the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce.

That's given rise to warring claims over Bratina's use of tax dollars. Councillor Sam Merulla says it's against city rules; staff says it isn't.

Bratina is delivering the address at a morning meeting on the 21st floor of the Stelco Tower downtown. Tickets are $50.

The chamber is hosting the event but the panoramic venue was suggested by Peggy Chapman, the mayor's chief of staff, when it was being planned in the fall.

Chamber president Keanin Loomis said he responded by saying he would love to stage the event at the Stelco Tower but couldn't afford the additional costs for renting tables, chairs and a sound system.

"They offered to cover them," recalled Loomis. "Peggy said to me 'We have a budget for these types of things.'"

The issue first came to light before Christmas when Bratina and Loomis were defending OLG's sponsorship on Bill Kelly's CHML talk show. Social media activists seized on it and soon Merulla weighed in.

Merulla argues Bratina's $5,000 contribution constitutes a sponsorship and therefore contravenes city policy limiting elected officials from making donations of more than $350 to a single organization in a year.

Merulla says the mayor needs council approval for greater amounts. He compares it to Bratina's unauthorized $10,000 donation from his office budget to the United Way in 2011.

"It's a brazen, blatant breach (of the rules)," Merulla said.

Chapman disagrees. "It is not a sponsorship," she said by email.

"These are considered meeting expenses. Under our policy we can spend on such things as room rentals and equipment if it is related to communicating with constituents."

Chapman says she proposed Stelco Tower because they'd been there for a Ticat event and the mayor had previously hosted an event there.


Read it in full here.

Watch Joey Coleman's livestream here.

[mattgrande]

From Joey's twitter: "Mayor Bratina asked if he'll lobby to end tax breaks for parking lots. Says we don't have enough parking. Then, our parking is too cheap."

You can't make this stuff up.

[matt602]

Get rid of this guy already.

[SteelTown]

Take another look at amalgamation: Bratina

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/43...ation-bratina/

Hamilton should take another look back at the impact of amalgamation even as it looks to the future with a new confidence, says Mayor Bob Bratina.

The mayor focused much of his state of the city address on Hamilton's "dynamic urban transformation" and potential success that will come with "a new confidence" in the coming years.

But Bratina, who last raised revisiting the divisive restructuring debate in the previous election campaign, startled some listeners by adding it was "very reasonable, and perhaps critical" to again look back more than a decade to evaluate how Hamilton's reluctant amalgamation has served citizens.

To that end, he invited residents to check out a 3 p.m. academic presentation on the costs and achievements of municipal restructuring at the Sheraton from University of Western Ontario professor Timothy Cobban.

Bratina wouldn't immediately answer questions about the amalgamation study, saying he would wait until after the presentation.

But in his speech, he linked the study to the need for "a new dynamic" between municipal and senior levels of government, calling amalgamation a prime example of the problems associated with "top down" governance.

Bratina has yet to announce whether he'll run for office again, but the surprise amalgamation reference will inevitably be seen in an election context, said current councillor and 2014 mayoral challenger Brian McHattie.

"That was what stood out for me. Do we really want to revisit amalgamation again?" he said after the speech. "I thought in this context it was inappropriate."

Liberal Hamilton MPP Ted McMeekin, who praised the speech for highlighting major and ongoing accomplishments in the city, added there's nothing wrong with learning from the past.

"But it can never be about looking back to go back," he said. "That sort of nostalgia is not healthy."

More to come.

[mattgrande]

I believe this is the first time he's brought up deamalgamation since the last election campaign.

[LikeHamilton]

De-amalgamation talk is a waste of air. All 3 provincial parties have said they would not entertain any de-amalgamation of Hamilton.

[ScreamingViking]

Wasn't he planning to launch a study after the last election? Did that even get brought up in council early in the term??

How about figuring out better ways to work together, save costs, and expend effort/energy more efficiently instead.

[thistleclub]

Bratina’s big-bucks presentation could prove costly
(Hamilton Spectator, Andrew Dreschel, Jan 15 2014)

Mayor Bob Bratina's dog-and-pony show on amalgamation could cost taxpayers as much as $15,000.

That's the upset limit Bratina's office expects to spend for hiring a Western University professor to present his research findings on the impacts of amalgamation, a move many view as little more than a re-election stunt.

The mayor hasn't been invoiced by professor Tim Cobban yet, but believes the bill will fall within the set amount.

"We checked with finance and procurement staff," Bratina said in an email. "We had the budget, and the 15K is within the amount we are able to spend under the policy. We adhered to the policy."

The money is coming out of the mayor's office budget. But under the city's procurement policy he needed approval to sole-source the work. Acting general manager of finance Mike Zegarac signed off on his request.

Bratina ostensibly organized the presentation at the Sheraton Hotel last week to alert the public and province to Cobban's research showing soaring staffing levels in amalgamated Ontario cities.

But it was roundly criticized by some councillors as a divisive electioneering.

Bratina was seen to be using his office budget to take care of an unfulfilled 2010 election promise to review amalgamation, widely regarded as a ploy to appeal to diehard deamalgamationists. While acknowledging it's not likely, Bratina has refused to rule out deamalgamation himself.

Bratina hasn't registered as a candidate for this year's election but he's strongly suggested on more than one occasion he intends to seek a second term as mayor.


Read it in full here.

[thistleclub]

Mayor accused of ‘political opportunism' on closures
(Hamilton Spectator, Teviah Moro, Feb 8 2014)

Mayor Bob Bratina is picking "winners and losers" during an election year by riding on the coattails of a campaign to keep an inner-city high school open and ignoring others across Hamilton, says Councillor Terry Whitehead.

While Bratina refuses to comment on Whitehead's charges, he is questioning the motive of the Ward 8 representative raising his concerns with the media.

"He's a politician, who's possibly running for re-election, I don't know," the mayor said Friday, adding his own political future is not yet settled.

"Who's electioneering? ... The only conversation that should be had is that the councillor walk a few feet from his office to my office, or phone and speak to me directly. If he hasn't got the courage to do that directly, he shouldn't be phoning up the media."

Bratina's late-hour advocacy against the closure of Parkview Secondary, a special-needs vocational school on Balsam Avenue North, is "political opportunism," said Whitehead.


Read it in full here.



Also: At the urging of members of the public, City Hall will be flying the rainbow flag in support of LGBT rights. For around two weeks, every two years or so. On, you know, principle.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

^That and the rainbow flag. Well-timed.

It's true what people say, though, that politicians need only get their act together six months to a year before an election. If they do and say all the right things during that period, many of their missteps will be forgotten.

[SteelTown]

It's called the divide and rule strategy.