After the last municipal election a group was formed to be a "watchdog" on the current Ottawa city council. I offered to join the team but was rebuffed because, as I was not a candidate in the election, I am a nobody. It is kind of interesting that when the team formed in 2006, there were a whole host of names of defeated candidates. Here we are in 2007, one year later, and the membership is one. Luc Lapointe was defeated in the downtown Somerset Ward (14), which is the 25 year (and counting) fiefdom of Diane Holmes.
I am less annoyed that I was not good enough for the "Eye on Ottawa"; I am more annoyed at all those former candidates that dropped away from the organization. If you are going to be a candidate for a council seat you had better be more than "just a candidate". You had better be dedicated enough to stick around, after your election loss, to act as a critic.
None of the original members of "Eye on Ottawa" who have since dropped out had better put their names forward at the next election. They have not earned the right.
But with all this said, that is NOT the bone I have to pick with the "Eye on Ottawa".
The "Eye", in its latest news release (December 13, 2008), slams the Ottawa Mayor for not delivering on his "Zero means Zero" election promise. Our "all wise" city council, not giving two hoots about fiscal discipline, is about to deliver a 4.9% property tax increase, plus a 2% surcharge for infrastructure maintenance, plus a 7.5% increase in bus fairs, abd including a 9% police budget increase... and they are not yet finished the process.
If the council had listened to Mayor Larry, and I do admit that Larry's message was not very succinct, they would have taken some firm stances on items such as the police budget and city staffing levels and forced some of the costs out of the system to save taxes. Could they have gotten to zero? Bloody right they could have!
The "Eye on Ottawa", and it appears that there is only one "eye", should be slamming councillors and backing the mayor rather than the other way around.
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3 comments:
Thank you for the kind email and blog. I also want to make sure that you understand that the following text is my personal opinion and response to your blog. I am not sure when you were refused to join but we try, as a group of individuals, to come to consensus. We do not support any particular candidate.
We are not a fan show for anyone but I will let the group correct me if I am wrong. I am sure that Mayor O'Brien can take of himself and so does council.
I guess there are two things that important to me. First, Larry O'Brien (and I voted for him) is not the first one to make empty promises. Personally I am sure that he meant to accomplish / reach a zero budget every year and so did our Premier (Dalton McGuinty) and many other politicians but then reality strikes (or as he prefered to say -- he had to take off is pink coloured glasses.)
Second is leadership. So if you want to the big job you better be prepared to be questioned and follow through on your promises. You can blame the other councillors but if my memory serves me well, they did not run on a ZERO % increase budget promise.
I think the title of your blog speaks well to the expectation we (Canadian) have of our politicians -- promise anything and if it doesn't work, blame your staff or the other level of government closest to you.
Do I think, there is room for efficiency at city hall? You bet there is and I hope they fix it because I am paying too much taxes.
Again thank you for taking the time to blog and If you have any further question, please feel free to send me an email...or blog!
Sincerely,
Luc Lapointe
Firstly, I appreciate your post today and feel we may have been a little too harsh on the Mayor although his quip about "rose coloured glasses" opened himself up for this type of barb. Every single member of Council is responsible for the state of this year's budget for not acting as they should have from April 2007. Their long range planning committee was anything but.
Secondly, there is no reason why you should not have been accepted to be part the Eye on Ottawa group. The group is open to anyone who wants to help monitor and report on what Councillor do versus what they say when running to get elected. Our next meeting will be in January and I hope you will attend.
And lastly, they are six active members and a few sometimers. We dropped the idea of listing everyone's name on the website so that only one person spoke on behalf of the group. Luc Lapointe is our Chair.
Glad you're still paying attention. You can see my personnal notes at my blog at www.BlakeBatson.ca.
I received both these responses this morning. I can understand the points being made but I do not agree with them. Mayor Larry is only one of 23 members on council, and with this council, when you ask a question you can expect to get at least 30 different answers. Put the blame on council where it belongs.
With respect to Mr. Batson's comment that the Eye members decided to put Luc Lapointe out front, it is good to know that he is not alone. But the web site states that there is only one member and he is on the steering committee. Certainly the organization would get more credibility and support if people knew that Blake Batson (I am being serious here because I know that Blake would have made a great councillor.) was behind it.
Finally, I would love to attend your next meeting but according to your web site today, the next meeting has been postponed to Tuesday February 13, 2007. I might be a little late for that one.
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