Larry O’Brien

The near LRT disaster and the Sewergate fiasco of summer 2006 have shown us we need better communications and a better way to make decisions at City Hall.

These are but a few examples of why it is absolutely essential that we continue to push for cultural and governance changes at City Hall.

When the 1,000 days of Transformation was launched in April of 2007, I knew the big challenge would be getting governance right at the mid-term review that will occur this fall.

Aside from finally getting transit right for Ottawa, this could be our biggest success this term. Let me tell you why!

You can predict the success of any organization by the quality of the decision-making process and the ease of communications inside the organization. But the culture and the governance will need to improve for our City to continue to be the best place in Canada to live, work and play. And this is the year we have the chance to make these improvements.

This year the City is undertaking a mandatory mid-term review of our governance. A staff review of the City system or manner of government coupled with the Taskforce on Governance will provide recommendations about how to make better choices in a more business like fashion for the citizens of Ottawa.

Good management can be boring, sometimes like watching grass grow if it is done right. But the business of the City is running on your tax dollars and the citizens of Ottawa want to know how well we are doing. Most of you do so by reading, listening or watching some form of media.

This is why the media can play a real and important role in bringing attention to the topic of governance.

I sat down with the Ottawa Sun and the Ottawa Citizen for a kick-off conversation on the topic to bring the issue of governance to life for their readers.

The Ottawa Sun article outlined the key issues that will face Council come the governance review. Although the Ottawa Citizen ran an article outlining the membership in their Friday paper, unfortunately residents read an opinion piece in the Saturday edition instead of a news report on the issues. Still I thank both dailies for taking the time to sit down and discuss governance and I hope they will continue to be engaged throughout the process as will our local television and radio stations.

Getting it right on governance will require a lot of open and frank debate and more importantly public consultation.

During the upcoming four months there will be a litany of terms discussed like executive committee (Board of Control), delegated authorities, committee structures, citizen engagement, relationship between Council and City staff and many others.

Each term will have consequence to the way we make choices for you, so I encourage you to be involved and make your thoughts known

Interestingly even the Mayor’s Taskforce on E-Government has concluded that the key issue for taking full advantage of technology, to produce what they call a citizen centric municipal government, revolves around governance. This Taskforce report will be released this Tuesday at the Mayor’s breakfast series sponsored by the Ottawa Business Journal.

The stars are aligned for progress in the way we run City Hall and I am looking forward to the challenge and to our transformation.

For immediate release
June 12, 2008

Mayor Larry O’Brien Names Taskforce on Governance

OTTAWA - Today Mayor Larry O’Brien released the names of the Chair and members of a Taskforce on Governance.

As part of his City Address in January, Mayor O’Brien committed to strike a Taskforce on Governance in anticipation of this fall’s mid-term governance review with Council.

The Taskforce’s mandate is to examine the current governance model at the City of Ottawa and develop recommendations based on best practices, Bill 130, and other municipal governance models.

These recommendations will concentrate on enhancing the effectiveness of the decision making process at City Hall to allow the Mayor and Council to take a more strategic approach to governing.

The main areas of focus for the Taskforce on Governance are: long-term planning and visioning for the City of Ottawa, City Council and Committees, citizen engagement, the role of Mayor and Councillors, accountability and transparency, delegation of authority and effective relationships with staff.

Dr. David Zussman, Jarislowsky Chair in Public Sector Management, of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa, has agreed to chair the taskforce.

Each Taskforce member has a proven record in the area of business and/or public policy and is conducting their work on a volunteer basis. They first met on May 22 and will report in August.

The recommendations of the Taskforce will complement the work of City staff as a lead up to the mid-term governance review. This report will be the focus of a Council summer strategic session meeting that Mayor O’Brien plans to organize in August on the topic of governance. The Taskforce report will also be tabled with Committee and Council in the fall.

“Today marks day 422 of my commitment to 1,000 days of change,” said Mayor Larry O’Brien. “I am confident the members of the Taskforce on Governance will offer valuable insights to shape the debate this fall.”

The members of the Taskforce on Governance are as follows:

Dr. David Zussman, Chair, Jarislowsky Chair in Public Sector Management, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and the Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa

Rob Collins, Former CIO at Cognos and current Chair of Mayor’s E-Government Taskforce

Graham Fox, Strategic Policy Advisor, Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP.

Dr. Katherine Graham, Dean, Faculty of Public Affairs, Carleton University

Dr. Gerald Grant, Associate Professor and Information Systems Area Coordinator, Sprott School of Business, Carleton University

Pierre Richard, Q.C., ICD.D, Senior Partner Lang Michener LLP, Chair Hydro Ottawa Holdings Inc. and Hydro Ottawa Ltd.

Nick Tilgner, Co-Chair of Ottawa Rural Summit 2

Dr. Rick Van Loon, Past President and Professor Emeritus, Carleton University.

Debbie Weinstein, Co-founder and Partner, LaBarge Weinstein LLP.

Bob Plamondon, Volunteer Advisor

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The day ended at the Gala for the 25th Anniversary of the partnership between the Rideau Centre, Ottawa Congress Centre and Westin Hotel.  It was great to see OCC Chair Jim Durrell receive accolades for the Congress Centre renovation project.

MPP Yasir Naqvi and Minister John Baird were also there to celebrate, along with Rideau Viking President Michael Herman and everyone who has helped to make the past 25 years a success. The food was excellent and the Gala was a great way to end the day. Congrats to all!!
The AG’s report was released yesterday. The response I heard from middle management and senior management was quite different. Middle management and the working level staff in City Hall were quite happy, and in some cases relieved, at some of the AG’s recommendations. 

Senior management, although accepting, were still a little defensive in their responses. From my experience this is normal when the communications in an organization is not working well.  Bad news and problems need to be conveyed from the operating managers to the executive and senior staff must carefully listen to the concerns. Communications and the focus on execution need to continue to improve, but I believe we are headed in the right direction on both.

On continual improvement, next Tuesday, June 17 at the Mayor’s Breakfast Series Rob Collins will be releasing the E-Government Report.  Yesterday I sat with City Manager Kent Kirkpatrick and Executive Director of Business Transformation Services Steve Finnamore to review the results and recommendations.  Again, no surprise that in parts of the report there will be a reluctance to accept the results but that is always the case when a change of culture requires the entire conversation to alter in order for progress to be made. Change is mandatory and progress is optional. I vote for improvement and progress…so did you in the last election.

Today my office is releasing the mandate and composition of what will be the key task force remaining— The Mayors Taskforce on Governance!! The way an organization makes decisions and how we respond to change is a key measure of how good the organization is.  This task force will be charged with recommending changes to how your Council does business.  I look forward to posting more on this later today.

The recent developments on the Ottawa River sewage spill file demonstrate the need to continue the Transformation of governance at City Hall.This is more than an employee not reporting the sewage spill of August 2006 to the Ministry of Environment - accountability is the bigger issue at play.

The fact that this volume of untreated water could end up in the Ottawa River and the details were only known to a small number of staff exposes that we potentially lack adequate management procedures and need to improve communications with City Council and the citizens of Ottawa.

We need to foster a climate where information is shared throughout the organization and that staff at all levels feel comfortable bringing this kind of information forward.

Creating this culture of trust can be very difficult in the public sector because of the visibility.

Although the City Manager will be conducting an investigation into the sewage spill, Council has directed the City’s Auditor General Alain Lalonde to conduct his own independent investigation as well. It is unfortunate that it takes an incident like this, but it is our duty to learn from the experience and to take the proper steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

My colleagues in the east-end and I called for an external review and following discussions with the City Solicitor it was determined the AG could complete his investigation quickly and has the legal powers to subpoena witnesses. Council also voted in favour of further independent review of the AG’s findings if necessary.

I have faith we will be well served by the A.G’s independent review and he will report back with not only the facts but also solid recommendations on how we can improve.

As always, my main priority will be to ensure an open, transparent and accountable municipal government serves the citizens of Ottawa.

In the coming weeks I will be announcing the membership of my Governance Task Force. From the beginning, I have said this Task Force will be working to bring accountability and transformation to City Hall.

Governance is a process but accountability is the destination. I look forward to leading the debate this fall during the City’s mid-term Governance Review.