Larry O’Brien

Council made some important decisions today on the re-organization of City Hall, revitalization of Lansdowne Park and a new economic development strategy.

Re-organization of City Hall/staff reductions:

Today the City Manager announced his second wave of management streamlining. These changes will reduce the number of senior managers from 31 to 24 (a 23% reduction). Three senior managers were terminated on October 8, 2008 and today four senior directors were dismissed effective immediately and three acting directors were reassigned to their substantive positions. In addition to the 100 positions eliminated a few weeks ago, another 238 staff will be cut in 2009. The current hiring freeze will stand until those cuts are completed and phase three of management restructuring will occur early in the New Year.

Vote: This decision is a delegated authority to the City Manager and does not require a vote of Council. It is the result of a motion Council approved last year on $100 million of management savings and another on 500 job cuts.

Revitalization of Lansdowne Park:

Council decided to direct staff to evaluate the Lansdowne Live proposal and suspend the design competition indefinitely. I continue to be of the opinion that a design competition is a waste of taxpayers’ money as the City has already received a formal proposal from the Shenkman/Minto CFL consortium. It is important for Council and City staff to evaluate this proposal first before continuing a design contest. If not we risk losing Lansdowne Live.

Vote: Councillor Clive Doucet withdrew his notice of motion listed on the Council agenda that ultimately allowed this process to move forward without a vote.

Economic Development:

City Council approved revamping its economic development strategy. I believe this 5 year-old plan is no longer valid and not very effective. I moved a motion a few weeks ago at Corporate Services and Economic Development Committee asking Council to change it entirely to focus on how we can actually help local business grow and attract new employers to the Nation’s Capital. We will approve a new economic strategy in 2009.

Vote: Carried on consent

The Auditor General tabled two audits this morning. The first was on the 2006 Keefer regulator site sewage spill in the Ottawa River and the second on the City of Ottawa water rate in relation to the Township of Russell water extension.

This past summer, with the assistance of Councillors Monette, Jellett and Bloess, I called for the Auditor General to conduct an independent review of the 2006 incident that spilled 764 million litres of sewage into the Ottawa River.

Please click here to view the Auditor General’s report in full.

Today Council also approved two important policy matters:

1. Board of Health: Council decided to move to an Independent Board of Health comprised of six members of Council and five public appointees.

This decision will allow the new board to provide greater review and debate on important public health issues. It is expected that the public appointments will consist of a wide cross section of public health advocates.

Vote: 19 to 5

Yeas: Mayor Larry O’Brien; Councillors Hunter, Bellemare, Bloess, Leadman, Wilkinson, Brooks, Qadri, Jellett, Monette, Feltmate, Thompson, Chiarelli, El-Chantiry, McRae, Desroches, Bédard, Deans, Cullen

Nays: Councillors Legendre, Doucet, Harder, Holmes, Hume

2. Pedestrian Countdown Signals: City Council approved a new policy to change the specifications to include countdown timers when we install or replace pedestrian signals.

The signals are currently on display in Jean Pigott place at 110 Laurier Avenue.

Vote: 14-6

Yeas: Councillors Bellemare, Legendre, Bloess, Leadman, Wilkinson, Doucet, Brooks, Holmes, Feltmate, McRae, Hume, Bédard, Deans, Cullen.

Nays: Qadri, Jellett, Monette, Chiarelli, El-Chantiry, Desroches,. 

3. Licensing landlords: Council decided not to move forward with any staff studies on licensing landlords.

Vote: Carried with no dissents

City Council held a meeting today and made some key decisions on the environment, the Ottawa River and the proposed staff pothole and road patrol.
 
$99 million committed for fixing sewers:

As part of the water and waste water rate budget, Council dedicated $99 million to fixing our sewer systems to improve the quality of the Ottawa River. I announced this envelope of funding a few weeks ago (click here to view announcement for more information). We will be fixing 65 per cent of the spills and 100 per cent of the accidental spills with our initial $30 million investment.

Vote: Item passed on consent

Green Partnership Program and Green Fleet Emission Reduction Strategy:

Today Council approved moving forward with a new Green Fleet Policy and we also made the Green Partnership Program permanent in our City.

Both of these initiatives help us move towards a greener and cleaner City. I would like to congratulate Councillor Rainer Bloess and Councillor Shad Qadri for their hard work to establish the Green Fleet Policy.

Vote: Both items passed on consent with Councillor Hunter dissenting.

Proposed Pothole and Road Patrol Program:

Following an inquiry I made at Corporate Services Committee (please click here to view this inquiry) Council decided today to not hire an additional 7 staff at a cost of $1 million including operating expenses. Council made the right decision today. These are difficult economic times and we need to tighten our belt. I will continue to pursue the 500 job cuts in time for the 2009 budget.

Vote: defeated 18-6

Yay: Councillors Hunter, Bellemare, Holmes, Deans, Doucet, Cullen

Nay: Mayor Larry O’Brien, Councillors Desroches, Wilkinson, Qadri, Brooks, Hume, Monette, Harder, Bloess, Leadman, El-Chantiry, Chiarelli, Jellett, Legendre, McRae, Bedard, Feltmate, Thompson.

eGovernment

Council approved recommendations from the Mayor’s eGovernment Task Force Report and my motion to move towards paperless Committee and Council meetings. This will eliminate 2.7 million pieces of paper per year and result in direct operating savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next three years. This initiative will streamline our process and reduce our environmental impact. It is a model I hope we can duplicate throughout the organization.

Vote Result: Passed on consent with no opposition.

Trash

I am excited the Green Bin program (Source Separated Organics) is moving forward in October 2009. I believe this is an important step forward to turn part of our garbage into a “green” benefit rather than an environmental problem. Increasing diversion is our ultimate goal with this project.

Council debated the possibility to move to bi-weekly pick up of garbage six months after implementation of the Green Bin program. Council voted in favour to reconsider this item at our next meeting on Sept. 10.

Vote Result: 7-13 in favour of reconsideration. You only need one-third of Council to reconsider an item on the agenda. Councillors Bedard, Monette, Deans, Harder, Wilkinson, Bellemare, Desroches voted in favour of reconsideration.

Budget

Council voted in favour of a new budget process that includes a comprehensive budget document that will be easier to understand. This increased clarity will allow Council and the public to better understand what makes up our budget, the pressures we face and how we can try to manage them in the most effective way possible.

Council also approved the Budget Challenge Working Groups today. This additional level of scrutiny will ensure that by the time we meet to finalize the 2009 City Budget we have had the opportunity to have our questions asked and answered and we can be confident in our budget estimates.

Vote Result: Carried on consent with 2 dissents from Councillors Doucet and Legendre.

La Cité collégiale

Today Council approved the donation of land for La Cité collégiale’s Centre for Innovation at a value of $1 million. This trades school will drive economic development in Ottawa’s east end.

I would like to acknowledge Councillor Bob Monette for his excellent work on the La Cité collégiale project. We have worked in partnership with the Province on this and the $6.7 million funding announcement this week from Colleges and Training Minister John Milloy will allow this important project in the east end to move forward and improve access to essential skills training.

Vote Result: It passed 22-2 with Councillors El-Chantiry and Cullen voting against.