A Clean Slate in Oshawa Politics

“Eye on City Hall”
A column of Information, Analysis, Comment, and unfiltered opinion
Bill Longworth, City Hall Reporter
June 21, 2010


A new facebook page, “An outreach to everyone. An opportunity to heal and move forward. It's time,” has been started by Bill Steele, one of the candidates for Oshawa City Council.

Mr. Steele writes, “I am reaching out to all politicians to work together for a ‘Better Oshawa.’ New Candidates and Current Council members can all start fresh as of today. New respect and the betterment of Oshawa is priority number one.”

Of course, I am sure that Mr. Steele is a candidate for public office because he feels that the present Oshawa City Council has messed up at every turn, and that he can do better.

I guess, though, Mr. Steele is not going to, in future, mention all of the mess-ups that have motivated him to run for election.

This is unusual as Mr. Steele seems to be an excellent candidate for city council whose campaign has so far flourished by exposing and campaigning on many of the “negatives” of this city council---a council that concentrates on entitlements and self-serving bylaws that take up far too much council time.

Perhaps Mr. Steele is an early victim of the caution extended by the mayor, and outspoken incumbents like Brian Nicholson, who have called exposure of council mess-ups destructive of the city.

Destructive of the city my eye! What is really destructive of the city is failing to remind voters of the specifics of all the council mess-ups, thus insuring the re-election of the incumbents and their destructive, tax wasting, inept and sometimes unethical actions and behavior in the leadership they provide for this city.

If Mr. Steele were in the news business, he’d have a “good news” paper, and go belly up following his first edition. The public expects things to be okay, and in most cases they are, and so the public wants to know of any anomaly from the expected. This is news!

And there’s plenty of that negative National Press coming out of Oshawa---$46,000 MBA funding, $45,000 spent on Mayor’s birthday party, $250,000 spent on Cullen Miniatures which are now rotting in a city warehouse, city handling of the student housing issue, council’s unethical handling of Ontario Ombudsman’s Report criticizing City Council for its illegal in-camera meetings, etc., etc., etc.

This negative news all resulted from city council actions, despite the fact that Mayor John Gray and Councillor Brian Nicholson say negative news is destructive of the city. I’d say, “Then clean up your act, boys!”

And, of course, regular council observers know that Oshawa City Council itself is a fighting forum akin to currently popular cage fighting, where every councilor is trying to viciously subdue every other councilor into a tapout.

This is a function of the general vote where every politician is a competitor with every other council member, fighting to the death for the same votes, with their handsome $100,000 salaries and perks as a reward.

Hell, murders have been committed for a lot less!

Part of the problem with city hall is that councilors generally circle the wagons to hide the negatives, even the indiscretions of their fellow politicians, lest anyone focus on the skeletons within their own closets.

In many cities, investigative reporting by the local press exposes weaknesses in the political system, and often moulds public opinion as a force for political change.

Note the federal politician’s of all parties’ recent conversion to the idea that their political expenses will now be audited by Sheila Fraser, Canada’s Auditor General. Federal politicians were powerless to resist public opinion stirred up by the “Critical” National Press.

In this case, Federal Politicians of all parties stood united against the audit. We had lost the “opposition” role of the non-government members, which is one of the protections of the common good in our system of government. The “opposition” role had to be played by the independent press.

It is the opposition that plays the important role of attempting to keep government actions above board, righteous, honorable, and honest. Without this role, governments can degenerate into personal fiefdoms of privilege and power. The opposition role is an integral and important part of “responsible” government.

Of course, Canada’s Supreme Court says information is a public right…and that democracy itself cannot exist without an informed public.

So an opposition to question and criticize government authority is at the very heart of our democratic institutions.

This is quite contrary to the argument that Mr. Steele proposes which plays into the hands of the incumbents in hiding, as best they can, all of the shortcomings of the current council.

An opposition voice is not divisive…it is responsible…and a necessary part of governing at every level in a free and democratic nation.

How can the public be in charge of their political destiny in the absence of the free flow of all kinds of information which informs the public and allows them to make informed ballot choices?

Our whole government system at the senior levels is set up with an opposition that criticizes and offers alternatives...a role that is required by candidates for public office at all levels

Every candidate has two roles in a political campaign…to criticize what they see as wrongs, mismanagement, and wasteful and unnecessary tax expenditures, and to state their plans to fix the system.

And despite council incumbent’s attempts at silencing their opponents by loosing some of their lapdogs on those who criticize, even at senior levels of government, this column and my candidacy for mayor will continue to speak out to try to insure a fully informed public.

If this is not done, we will get the same gang re-elected with the same and continuing devastating consequences by an unknowing, unwary, and happy public.

The result would be four more years of mismanagement, growing political entitlements, and a too frequent unethical behavior by some politicians who have been on council too long, and have grown comfortable with stretching the rules of their conduct and behavior.

I'm in this race because I'm damn concerned about Oshawa, and how the present bunch are destroying virtually everything they touch---and I'm in the race to spend the next four years starting to turn things around to get things on track again.

I want a progressive, ethical, open, and accountable city council to serve the people of Oshawa. The growth of our personal investments in this city depends on it.

This column will continue to expose the rotting and smelly deadwood on Oshawa City Council. This has been the vital role of Canada’s free press since Confederation.

This is also a message I will bring to the Mayor All-Candidate Forums, and in my campaign generally, in my efforts to inform on the need for voters to “usher out the old” and “bring in the new!”

The clean slate the city really needs is fresh bottoms sitting on all of the council chairs.

And now for my giant vision and positive proposals for Oshawa….see www.wepromise.ca

Be sure to follow Bill’s radio broadcasts, “Eye on City Hall”,
every Monday, 6-9 pm EST, on http://www.ocentral.com/thewave/

Introductory Column...Nov. 15, 2009

“Eye on City Hall”
A column of Information, Analysis, Comment, and unfiltered opinion
Bill Longworth, City Hall Reporter
November 15, 2009
Mr. Longworth is a retired school principal with a Master’s Degree from the University of Toronto and an Undergraduate Degree from Queen’s University. He was Oshawa’s Federal Conservative Candidate in the 1990 Federal By-election and a past president of Oshawa (Parkwood) Rotary Club. Since retirement, he has worked in China, England, and Egypt. He has been an Oshawa resident since 1972. He writes the blog www.oshawaspeaks.com which comments on Oshawa City Hall.

I am pleased to have been asked to write this weekly column, “Eye on City Hall” and host a weekly radio show commencing in early December on the same topic.

In both of these endeavours, I will cut through the spin at city hall to bring you the “truthful” message that politicians do not want you to hear.

I have been a long-time city hall watcher. I’m also a strong believer in the key democratic ideals and principles of an open, accountable, responsive, inclusive, and honest government whose key role is to serve the people-- important principles which I’m confident you also believe in…but which are being eroded in Oshawa

Because of my strong belief in these principles, I worked for a number of years to bring ward voting to Oshawa and was personally responsible for bringing ward elections to Oshawa in 1985. I personally designed and presented the winning case to the 21 day OMB hearing, the longest of its kind in Provincial history, and at the time was widely acknowledged as a premier expert on the question of ward voting vs. the general vote for the election of municipal councils in Canada. A study of our case and our strategy was published at the time by a Trent University Professor in “Municipal World” Magazine.

Also, because of my strong belief in these democratic principles, I will give you the respect and honest and straight-forward analysis you deserve…something that is drastically lacking from the bunch at city hall. City politicians often treat you like the typical mushroom…they feed you sh-- and keep you in the dark. I believe you deserve more.

A case in point---City Hall placed a plebiscite question on the last municipal ballot in respect of ward elections vs. the general vote. They worded the question in the most complicated way possible and voted to not provide you any information about the question…what it meant…what difference it would make to you…why the question was asked since the existing system had never been subject to any public concern…or why a change was needed...or why the system we used which was also used in virtually every community in the country was insufficient for Oshawa. If City Hall wanted an accurate measure of voter opinion, don’t you think they would have provided you this background information?

Realizing a large number of voters will vote “YES” to a question they don’t understand, council worded the convoluted plebiscite question which required voters to vote “NO” to keep their existing ward system while “YES” supported the change the councilors wanted. The mayor in a deceitful manner states the question had to be worded in the “affirmative”…a “spin” that may convince many people but one that my Master’s Degree does not help me see this as supporting the way the question was asked. The fact is Provincial Law governing plebiscites makes no such condition---only that plebiscite questions must have “YES” or “NO” answers.

In another deceitful comment, the mayor said that it was not the city’s responsibility to inform voters about the meaning and ramifications of the plebiscite question stating this was a responsibility of the concerned public to fundraise and inform the public. He knew such third party campaigns are contrary to Ontario Election Law and that the same law provides unlimited spending ability to the city to inform the public about such matters. He would have been truthful if he respected you!

Councillor Nester Pidwerbecki was quoted at the time as saying Oshawa was just getting too large for ward voting. Ludicrous! Exactly the opposite is true. Large jurisdictions absolutely require ward voting.

Don’t we deserve an honest mayor and honest councillors that level with the people?

We shall examine many specific examples of deceit and foolishness in future articles in this column.

Democracy absolutely requires an informed public and City Council refused to give you information you required to make an informed and knowledgeable choice. Because Council refused to provide the information, they didn’t care about the accuracy of the result. They just knew the result they wanted and manipulated the system to get it. This is not the democracy our soldiers fought and died for. Because of Council’s failure to insure an informed public, the plebiscite result is completely invalid and does not justify a change in election system.

To City Council, the end justifies the means. Lying and deceit are a common practice in putting forward support for their decisions. We shall examine many such examples over the coming weeks.

In terms of the plebiscite, City Council knew the result they wanted and manipulated the question and the process to get their desired result. They wanted a result that would protect their council seats and their rear ends from any serious electoral challenge. With salary and perks like holiday travel expenses to any place they can find an excuse to visit, car allowances of $100 per week, pension and health benefits, food and entertainment expenses, advertising expenses like their Remembrance Day messages purchased with your tax dollars, and now their university tuition expenses etc., etc., etc., all approaching $500,000 for part-time work over their four year terms, they wanted a system that would protect this windfall. That is the real reason why we will have the general vote. City politicians wanted a system that would serve them---a system that let them hide in the weeds and still be elected--be damned accountable, responsible, inclusive, representative local government, all of which have taken a back seat to politician’s own interests.

Your city politicians have given Oshawa an election system not used in any large city in the country. If it was a better system, don’t you think it would be widely used?

Oshawa will be the largest city in the country and probably the world to use this system of voting. The only way this system could work is when combined with the use of municipal political parties which are outlawed by Ontario Municipal Election Law having to do with fund raising, expenditure reporting, party approval of candidates, and lack of party identification on the ballot. If the general vote was better, wouldn’t it be used widely in the country?

The general vote makes all politicians responsible for all parts of the city. Try that organization in your workplace and let everyone be responsible for everything. When everyone is responsible for everything, no one becomes responsible for anything! City politicians have stolen your guaranteed community represention on council.

The general vote also makes every city politician responsible to twice as many voters as our Federal and Provincial Government members. That is ludicrous for a local government that is supposed to be closest to the people. Mark my words. It won’t be long before politicians are asking for wage parity with these senior government members as they’ll be claiming equal responsibility.

The general vote will produce an impossible and unworkable ballot with the names of up to 100 candidates for the various offices with the names of incumbent politicians standing out because of their efforts to get their names known. Politicians will do whatever is required to get elected. If name recognition is important, that will dominate politician’s efforts and time. This leads to a dysfunctional council as all politicians are competitors for the same vote and thus they will backbite, bitch, bicker and grandstand to grab the press.

We have seen ample evidence of this dysfunction. Mayor John Gray has called certain members of his council “Stooges” and Councillor Louise Parkes has recently sent an email to ratepayer groups in which she refers to municipal staff as "unelected bureaucrats with big dreams," and councillors as "blindfolded overseers with rubber stamps that treat their council job as a hobby." While controversial to air dirty laundry in public, the quote about her fellow councilors is probably quite accurate. The gist of her email though was to prohibit city bureaucrats from answering press inquiries since in a general vote, it is important for politicians to grab all the press ink to enhance their “name recognition.”

Under ward voting, politicians have to serve the public and respond to their concerns because every single vote is important. Not so in the general vote where 25,000 votes or so will be required for election. Instead the gods to the general vote politicians will be large groups like churches, trade unions, the golf club, etc. in the hopes that these groups will encourage their city-wide membership to support “friendly” politicians, and of course, the development industry which will provide the huge city-wide election funds to “friendly” politicians. Which system would serve you and your neighbours best?

Under Oshawa’s last period of general vote elections, the 7 councils leading up to the change to ward elections in 1985, not one politician out of 107 elected over that time lost their seat by the vote. All change took place through the death or resignation of members and not one politician lived south of King Street. Half of council members lived the old ward 6 in the city’s North End’s and a third of council members lived in one polling subdivision of about 100 houses at the east end of Regent Drive. Only the richer areas of Oshawa were represented on Council. Not one politician lived south of King Street which in those days was about half of Oshawa. By adopting the general vote, politicians have stolen your and “real” vote.

Political accountability is a direct function of voter’s ability to defeat underperforming councillors. Since councilors couldn’t be defeated, they were not accountable. They could (and did) do anything to you without the fear of electoral defeat. With sky high taxes and the exploding Oshawa debt, and many other foolish decisions, present politicians certainly have fear of the ward system that increases the need for careful and prudent management of the city’s affairs.

With the general vote, politicians know that they will get away with such fiascoes as the Cullen Gardens Miniatures purchases, the discriminatory student housing practices, having the highest taxes in the GTA, the indiscriminate use of expensive consultants, their “search and destroy” missions to demolish city assets like city hall and our arenas and replace them with north end facilities thus depriving south end children of arenas…and the list goes on and on.

Wake up Oshawa. Don’t let the politicians get away with all this! We need ward elections to have some control over their reckless ways!