PETERS: Hamer-Jackson’s committee moves will alienate council, increase gridlock at city hall

If Hamer-Jackson felt, as it is clear he does, that council is not working with him or ganging up against him, this is one way he can try to balance the scales.

The move itself was far from tactful and will only serve to stoke tensions that are already high.

Three of the committee chairs were unceremoniously ousted without being told why, replaced by unelected members of the public now thrust into civic leadership roles.

In some cases, the mayor has chosen people whose ideas the voters very clearly rejected last October.

If the mayor wants to completely throw in the towel on a working relationship with council, this type of antagonism certainly is a good start.

In trying to explain the moves to CFJC‘s Chad Klassen Thursday (Mar. 16), the mayor made three arguments.

First, he felt the councillors were overworked and wanted to take some pressure off.

None of the councillors has expressed that publicly or, to my understanding, privately to the mayor.

Hamer-Jackson cited council’s efforts to better define the deputy mayor’s role, but also admitted he doesn’t know what that will look like when it comes forward.

Second, the mayor said he didn’t think the committees were doing enough.

But it has only been three months since they were formed and, unfortunately, that’s a blink of an eye in government time.

Disrupting the flow of committees every three months will guarantee less gets done, not more.

While Hamer-Jackson says he wants to see the committees make more progress and get more done, stocking them with his own loyalists is likely to have the opposite effect and cause more gridlock.

Finally, Hamer-Jackson said he was concerned about a conflict of interest in the case of Mike O’Reilly chairing the Development and Sustainability Committee.

The mayor’s judgment on potential conflicts, though, has been suspect at best.

If the mayor’s moves this week were intended to smooth over his working relationship with council, they will have the exact opposite effect.

Hamer-Jackson has burned bridges when he should be trying to build them.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.

by James Peters

PETERS: Hamer-Jackson’s committee moves will alienate council, increase gridlock at city hall

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