TTC boss Gary Webster fired for differences with Toronto's mayor
While I'm not close enough to Toronto politics to comment in detail on the firing of the general manager of the Toronto Transit Commission, Mr Gary Webster, it does lead to some reflections on differences between Toronto and Vancouver and the respective roles of politicians and staff.
Mayor Rob Ford was elected by a significant majority, nearly 100,000 votes. His political opponents have never forgiven him for winning.
A key piece of Ford's platform was to build subways not streetcars. As someone who recently touted the benefits of streetcars I won't go too far into that debate here, but I'm fascinated by the politics.
When Mayor Gregor Robertson appointed City Manager Penny Ballem, she threw the Vision platform onto the table in front of her corporate management team and said, here are your marching orders. Independent staff advice took a very back seat.
Is that bad? It depends on who you ask. I've been on the record continually about my concerns about politicizing staff at Vancouver City Hall. Even Ford's supporters are raising the alarm about staff politicization in Toronto.
At the time of the Woodwards redevelopment, staff advised that it should be no more than 10 storeys. Then City Councillor Jim Green overruled their advice and pushed the 40 storey project through. The results have been transformational for that community.
On the other hand, staff were not invited to give their opinion on STIR (short term incentives for rentals, a system of trade-offs to encourage lagging market rental development). They implemented Mayor Robertson's political solution with a polite smile and public shows of support. In the end STIR was an abject failure.
The COPE/Vision council of the day ignored the financial advice of staff regarding housing and the Olympic Village. We all know how that one ended.
One thing Vancouver staff, always professional, will never do is embarrass the politicians. So did the TTC's Mr. Webster cross that line?
What should he have done? To so publicly take on his elected Mayor on a key piece of his platform would seem to be a death wish. It certainly won't stop the carping by Ford's critics on this file, however. Rob Ford won the mayor's seat because he read the public mood on transportation. We'll see if that happens again when voters return to the polls in about two and a half years.
* See also City Hall firings not invented by Ford *
- post by Mike.
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Thought of The Day
“…but no, seriously. The only one qualified to be doing all the firings, in all the joints, in all the world, is… Donald Trump!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGlv2Rk5RcA
True. Rob Ford did not invent the City Hall firings.
But sure he did have a great mentor.
In all fairness, the first known person known to be fired was Jesus. God said to him: “Son, I don’t quite like what you’re doing down there, speaking harsh words against the Roman authority… so, sooner or later, I’ll have to let you go, at least to save face with the mortals, for goodness sake! Don’t worry though, if you quit now, you’ll get a nice severance package, medical coverage and a round-the-world trip, all included.”
But did he listen? We all know how that ended,eh!?
Naah.
It’s not worthy, to talk bad against “Authority”, unless “Authority” doesn’t know who you are, or, unless you are prepared to tie up yourself around their waist and parachute base jump, with no parachute.
At least people would raise a glass of wine in your memory, every anniversary.
It takes guts to do that, however, it takes not one grey cell to do what Garry Webner did. I know, he did the right thing, but… he is now on the outside, looking in, tell me it ain’t so. Civic Clout for him now, approaching ZERO.
Not wise.
On the local front now, if at least 25% of all the senior managers “let go”, “retired”, or simply “Toderian-ized” spoke up… whistle blew, we would not have such a politicized City Hall in Vancouver, right now.
Instead they waited patiently for their own, oh, so predictable Crucifixion, prying for alcohol rubbing and stainless steel nails instead, you know, for better protection against infection…
Penny Ballem’s years of terror and public servant humiliation, will be remembered as such, but so will they, the ‘servants’ from Judy, Jody and Ark to … Brent. With no exception they took the ‘severances’ and… ran.
What’s left behind is a lot of unanswered questions, a huge public debt at the hands of an incompetent Vision Vancouver appointed administration, and a complete lack of trust in today’s bureaucracy.
As taxpayers, as dwellers of Vancouver, as honest Canadians, we should keep our public servants to the highest standards of ethics, and when they abuse the power and authority we gave them, we should keep them accountable, to the fullest extent of the law.
(I know, it sounds just like out of Rodney Dangerfield routine, but hey, when you’ve got No Respect!? what could one do?)
“Nemo Me Impune Lacessit!”… shall be our new motto.
“No one can harm me unpunished”… and you want to know why? Because…
We live in Vancouver and this keeps us busy.
Good to have you back, Glissy. Now you just need a Gravatar.
Public servants are hired for their expertise and should be expected to analyze a situation and then provide a recommendation based on the analysis to their political masters. That opinion needs to “speak truth to power” and should not be sugar coated or simply put out there to keep folks happy. The politicians can reject, or amend the recommendation BUT it should never be put forward only to keep someone happy. The public servant has a commitment to all the citizens NOT just the currently elected politicians. Crazy you say….. it used to be that way so what has changed?