Halifax Regional Council

[hfxtradesman]

I seen this last night on T.V. It was a joke, spacially when Dawn Sloane got up on STAGE and voiced her views. All I kept hearing was my area, my area, and heared notthing about the greater good of Halifax. It's a wounder why nothing gets done in this city. I would like too see the council down too about 16 plus the mayor.

[fenwick16]

This column was in the Chronicle Herald today. I think that it is very well done.

(source: http://thechronicleherald.ca/Editorials/9017458.html )

Halifax council shrinks at change

Thu, Aug 5 - 6:07 AM

Whenever someone on Halifax council calls for a vote to do nothing, the suspense is over. You know how that one’s going to go.

Do nothing was the outcome of tax reform this year, when council tossed out three years of work in favour of keeping the unsustainable status quo of betting on a perpetual property bubble to pay the bills.

It was the same story Tuesday at Halifax’s no-change zone and political paralysis preserva­tion district, a.k.a. City Hall. Councillors return­ed from a three-week break, rested and all-fired­up to keep things frozen in time in respect to the number of elected officials needed for a city of fewer than 400,000 souls.

A dozen councillors blew off advice from a committee of themselves (they didn’t see fit to ask anyone else) that tepidly wanted to shave council from the current 23 members plus the mayor to 20 plus his worship. That motion failed in a tie vote, after reformers’ more ambitious and credible proposals for 16 and 18 members went down to defeat.

Pressed by Mayor Peter Kelly to recommend something to the Utility and Review Board, which had ordered Halifax to comply with the Municipal Government Act and review its district boundaries, council voted 12-10 to stay the same. Cue the ’70s Billy Joel track: We love us just the way we are.

What a self-serving farce. Councillors have a conflict of interest in deciding how many of them are necessary. They only made this worse by failing to get independent advice.

The review committee was a councillors-only club, with no representation from citizens or outside experts. Though the committee did some public consultation, the city’s citizen survey, sent to 23,000 residents this year, didn’t even ask people directly if they wanted a smaller council.

Funny they couldn’t fit that in among the 300-plus questions.

In May, a Corporate Research Associates poll of 400 people did ask if council is too large and got an 83 per cent affirmative response. Asked to set an “appropriate" number, a majority of the shrink-council respondents picked 15 seats or fewer.

That’s hardly surprising. It’s been widely reported that larger cities than Halifax (Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Mississauga, for example) are operating with 11 to 16 council­lors. It’s just not credible for councillors to claim Halifax can’t manage with fewer than two dozen. Or to maintain this ridiculous position on the basis of talking only to themselves.

[halifaxboyns]

Originally Posted by fenwick16

This column was in the Chronicle Herald today. I think that it is very well done.

(source: http://thechronicleherald.ca/Editorials/9017458.html )

Calgary has a city council of 14; with the mayor being the person who breaks a tie vote.

[Keith P.]

Sloane needed to get a room for herself and Jack Novak on Tuesday night, because every time she got up on her hind legs she brayed about his book and how smart he was and how they all needed to read it because it was all about GOVERNANCE. Now, I doubt she actually knows what that word means, but it sounds good and I'm sure she thinks it makes her appear smart when she says it. Unfortunately what she fails to realize is that by lecturing everyone else time and time again without offering anything concrete, she simply sounds even more like a fool.

[halifaxboyns]

What I see as one of the major problems with this debate is simply someone gets voted out of a job. It's like musical chairs and someone doesn't have a seat when the music stops.

No matter what happens; it's not an easy debate and I dont' think it's one that HRM should have. A body, from the province, with a clear mandate should make the call. That way; it doesn't put city council in the position of having to vote on whether they have a job at the end of their term - it's done for them. Put yourself in their shoes; especially if you've been on council for a long time. You enjoy doing the job and are typically re-elected; would you want to give that up? Probably not...so it's not an easy decision to make.

[terrynorthend]

Surprise, surpise. Our good friend Tim Bousquet has an editorial in the coast about council's recent attempt at a crash diet. He is completely in support of the current size of council, and hinted that he wouldn't even mind seeing more councilors. He equated council to PEI's legislature... (23 : 400K) vs. (27 : 130K). Didn't feel the need to point out that one is a city and the other a province. He pointed to a study that fewer representatives per capita causes lower voter turnout percentages, and called a council reduction a blow to democracy. He suggests that business and well-connected interests (read cronies) will always have access, but everyday citizens become more disconnected with fewer representatives. I'm surprised he didn't go on to advocate special districts with "deputy" councilors for SIG's like HT and STV.
At any rate, he is the first person I have heard (aside from self-interested councilors) to actually defend our bloated city hall. God have mercy on us if he ever runs and gets elected.

[fenwick16]

There certainly isn't a lot of objectivity in his articles. I guess he has a right to his opinions. But I will stick to reading the allnovascotia.com and Chronicle Herald since they seem to be more even sided than The Coast.

[worldlyhaligonian]

They like it because they know that the larger council is... the more obstructionist their affiliates can be.

A blow to democracy? Lol, thats a pretty rediculous statement considering the current system is undemocratic due to the ties, etc.

[halifaxboyns]

Calgary is much bigger, but has a council of 14.
I've gotten to know a few of the Alderman and many of them wish their wards could be broken up so they had less area to cover - because the problems in each community are so different sometimes.

For many of the inner city alderman though, their wards are almost carbon copies with regards to issues (usually related to inner city redevelopment, crime, land value and parking).

I could see HRM needing this many councillor's if it were a population of say 850,000 - since it's reasonable to assume that the city would become more spread out (since only 25% of any population increase is planned to be absorbed into the existing urban area - according to the the HRM regional plan) - so greenfield burb growth would be enormous. But for a region like this, you could easily combine some of the more rural areas together into 'super districts' and then reduce council that way. Or even downtown and South end could be combined...?

[Haliguy]

It’s time HRM council was cut down to size

By MARILLA STEPHENSON
Tue, Aug 24 - 7:26 AM

Marilla Stephenson

Think of toasty warm blankets, hot chocolate and fuzzy slippers. Think of sleep.

Then think of Halifax regional council.

The out-of-touch municipal herd of politicians checked in earlier this month long enough to vote for a vital job-retention project in the region — their own jobs, that is. They then checked out again for the second leg of their six-week summer break.

Sheesh. Nice work if you can get it.

They did have to be around to throw candy at kids along parade routes and partake in other annual Natal Day traditions, so it made sense to slot in a few meetings in early August.

At the top of the list on those meeting agendas: Voting against a recommendation to downsize Halifax regional council, while embracing the status quo. The 12-10 vote to remain as 23 councillors plus a mayor will be forwarded to the provincial Utility and Review Board.

The board will examine the recommendation from Halifax when it undertakes the required review of the regional council’s size and structure next year.

While many folks have complained about the process that requires councillors to make their own collective recommendation on the number of seats in the municipality, it is worth noting that the provincial Municipal Government Act requires them to do so.

There is no doubt that the majority of councillors who voted against downsizing to a more workable size — even in the face of overwhelming evidence of public support for a much smaller council — deserve a political kick in the tail feathers.

But the finger may also be pointed at the provincial government, which is responsible for the legislation that has allowed the farce at Halifax city hall for continue for so long.

Halifax is 14 years past municipal amalgamation, but the structure and size of its regional government continues to work against it. The existing district boundaries within the region only reinforce the pre-merger municipal boundaries.

The size of council contributes to political wheel-spinning, parochial voting and an absence of will to make decisions with the advancement of the region in mind.

And while council couldn’t stomach the thought of paring itself down, it had no problem in approving a plan to give additional powers to community councils, thereby adding to the layers of bureaucracy in the municipal government.

Duh. The plan for stronger community councils was meant to be teamed with a smaller regional council. That part of the equation failed to sink in, apparently.

This political cherry-picking is just another example of how this leaderless city — once the undisputed leader in the Atlantic region — has been reduced to a mere shell of its former self.

Suburban strip malls rule. Desolate, boarded buildings are the norm in a once-thriving downtown core. Councillors have finally taken some action to address the deteriorating downtown, but they are ridiculously late to the game. They have repeatedly failed to acknowledge that a weakened city core will gradually undermine the entire region.

The provincial government, thanks to a recent report from consultant Donald Savoie, now has the ammunition to take action to shore up what used to be known as Nova Scotia’s provincial capital. Years of rural-focused provincial government, coupled with the mind-numbing incompetence at city hall, have done enough damage.

It is time for Premier Darrell Dexter to step up. The NDP provincial government can do many things for the region and overhauling the legislation that has protected this oversized regional council should be high on the to-do list.

It won’t happen soon enough for the next municipal election. But revisiting councillors’ abilities to protect their own turf, at the expense of creating a dynamic, functional regional government, would be a great place to start getting Halifax back on its feet.

( mstephenson@herald.ca)

[halifaxboyns]

While I've not normally agreed with Marilla - in this case I have to agree.
23 councillors is a bit much considering Calgary only has 14 and is way bigger.

I think you could easily combine the south end and downtown into one district, leave north end Halifax (Blumenthal's district) alone. Then combine parts of Fairview/Clayton Park into one and so on.

I could easily see a council that could shrink from 23 to 15 or 14 (with the mayor being the tie vote breaker).

[someone123]

Originally Posted by halifaxboyns

Calgary is much bigger, but has a council of 14.
I've gotten to know a few of the Alderman and many of them wish their wards could be broken up so they had less area to cover - because the problems in each community are so different sometimes.

The problem is that their job conflates multiple duties. On the one hand, they are expected to make important regional decisions and on the other they are expected to listen to things like complaints about cats.

The low-level complaints can be handled by appointed bureaucrats. I think even handling individual development agreements with council votes is a real stretch - these people by and large are very biased and have a limited understanding of the files they have to look at because there is so much content and because the councillors do not necessarily have any special level of expertise.

The regional planning aspect is more important but is undermined by having a large number of representatives. In many cases the decisions come down to expert advice and it ends up being rejected in the HRM simply because councillors want spending in their district (or don't want development or whatever else). Having parochial elected officials making decisions about things like transit is very backward. Transit investment should come down to factors like cost and projected ridership, not politics.

[Dmajackson]

HRM Council sessions to hit the Internet October 19

(October 6, 2010) - Residents of Halifax Regional Municipality will soon be able use their computers to watch their elected representatives conduct business.

Vocalocal Media, through its news site www.haligonia.ca, will begin live-streaming regular public sessions of Regional Council as of October 19.

Mayor Peter Kelly welcomed the development, noting it would allow Council proceedings to reach an even wider audience than is already the case.

“By making full use of today’s technology, we will be that much more available to those who elected us,” he said.

The Mayor added he anticipated the new service would also help improve transparency in government.

Steven Morrison, one of the partners in haligonia.ca, said he was excited at the opportunity to partner with HRM to broadcast Council meetings over the Internet. “It’s another way to provide access to the inner workings of Council in a medium which most young people use nowadays,” he said. “It’s all about providing more choice.”

According to Mayor Kelly, computer users will be able to log onto the website and follow prompts to the live feeds. In addition, they will have access to replays of the previous week’s Council session, not only on their computers, but soon on mobile devices as well.

Eastlink TV will continue to broadcast regular meetings of Regional Council.

[fenwick16]

I watched part of the Nova Centre discussions yesterday on the internet (Haligonia.ca). It was not what I expected - based on what I had read, I partly expected councillors to start talking about cats and dogs instead. In reality, the HRM councillors were very professional and presented very clear honest opinions. Now that I have watched a session, my opinion of the HRM council has changed completely - now I think that the HRM has a great council.

[beyeas]

yeah I support the current decision of the council.
I do think that current "offer" by the province is just an opening bid, but it is certainly not an offer that the city should consider accepting.

I was also glad to see that they plan to have the AG for the city take a look at this and comment.

At this point things are too one sided, especially since the city would in effect pay more in a net sense but has absolutely no say in either the management nor the negotiation with the developer. It frustrates me that they can't act as a united front on this.

[Buckey]

Originally Posted by fenwick16

I watched part of the Nova Centre discussions yesterday on the internet (Haligonia.ca). It was not what I expected - based on what I had read, I partly expected councillors to start talking about cats and dogs instead. In reality, the HRM councillors were very professional and presented very clear honest opinions. Now that I have watched a session, my opinion of the HRM council has changed completely - now I think that the HRM has a great council.

I agree mostly. One problem I have is firstly too many councillors and maybe sometimes if they have 5 mins just say DITTO if all you are doing is repeating was the last councillor said. The more pressing problem is councillors asking questions where the answers are already known and documented. I am ok with clarification but certain councillors are never prepared and frankly if they do not have a clue about a given topic either find someone of staff to educate them or keep it quiet.

Minor really but yesterday was firsttime I had watched in years and I expected some of the normal rallying on sides to occur where counciloors would take sides just to be on opposite sides of regular adversaries but there was none of that. Gloria was all for the Center in principle and mentioned a number of times. The Gloria haters assumed she would be anti center because of her pro dartmouth stance. Matter of fact all dartmouth Councillors who I remember speaking were pro center. One this you rarely see was their absolute agreement on this project. Great idea but what a boondoggle presenting a deal like that

[beyeas]

HALIFAXBOYNS:

So what are your thoughts on the new mayor in Calgary?
Just read an article on him in the G&M and he seems like a potentially interesting guy.

[halifaxboyns]

Originally Posted by beyeas

HALIFAXBOYNS:

So what are your thoughts on the new mayor in Calgary?
Just read an article on him in the G&M and he seems like a potentially interesting guy.

Well the whole planning department is a buzz with this. I have to admit I didn't vote for Nenshi - not because of his position, him personally or anything like that - I haven't had time to really research his platform. I voted for Barb Higgins mainly because the union for inside workers endorsed her and I was strictly anything but McIver.

That being said - his campaign doner list is virtually devoid of developers and his stance on our new city plan for the next 30 years was quite clear; he hated that the density targets got watered down at the last minute.

I can't speak for the whole planning department; but I know my group is excited about the prospect of the new council because a lot of them seem to be in the same camp as Nenshi - we may be able to get some real big issues off our plate and do some good planning for the next 3 years (expand LRT, more TOD, higher density).

I did have a chance to wish Dave Bronconnier well the other day when I saw him as I was going for coffee. I also wished one of the Alderman who got voted out well - she hugged me. That was weird.

[Jonovision]

I heard a presentation this evening as part of the PechaKucha night as part of 4 days. Its a new site being launched this Tuesday that will keep track of voting records from council.

http://showofhands.ca/

[worldlyhaligonian]

Nice.

Judging by the comments on a recent CH article about council getting raises, I think his website will be a good resource.