January 22, 2010 - 3:42 pm |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
City Manager Penny Ballem chose wisely when selecting the tool to make necessary cuts.
My first take on this is that 44 jobs being cut thus far is far better for City of Vancouver employees than the original 120. The fact that “opportunities for potential placements of impacted staff” was always a part of the equation is impressive, and this revised number is the result of such efforts.
As I detailed in an earlier post regarding the services review that was just completed at City Hall:
“Achieving efficiencies, rolling back expenditures and cutting staff are never an easy set of tasks for any organization. That being said, what has happened as a result of the shared services review was something that was years overdo, and previously lacking the political will and the institutional leadership to make it happen.“
One would think that the unions, having plenty of advance notice that the layoffs are coming, will be very pleased with this adjusted result. In spite of the rhetoric from CUPE’s Paul Faoro to his membership in an open letter written last month:
“City Council chose to ignore all of the citizens and organizations, including civic unions they heard from during their consultation,”
it is now clear that the opposite is true.
If cutting a bloated and often duplicated bureaucracy results in a mere 44 jobs losses out of 9,000 jobs within the City of Vancouver, I’d say that it represents an impressive result largely brought about by team effort and innovation.
Alright…enough of inside baseball.
December 23, 2009 - 10:48 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
Everyone pitched in with the City of Vancouver's efforts to achieve internal savings throughout City Hall.
Over the past few months, there have been several posts on other websites either raising concern over the way that change was being implemented within City Hall, or detailing the laments of those directly or indirectly impacted by the cuts coming down throughout the organization.
And, if you read enough of these “the world is going to end” posts, you might think that anarchy is about to set in, or at the very least, a mutiny is coming against the City Manager.
Well, here’s another perspective.
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December 4, 2009 - 4:35 pm |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
Mackinnon was baffled and baffling in front of Council last night.
Last night City Hall attracted quite a crowd – approximately 90 individuals by my sources’ count – with the majority obviously there to speak in front of Council about their opposition to the cuts being made as part of the budget process.
Mayor Robertson let children and seniors speak first, and some of these early presentations, including an adorable group of brothers and sisters between the ages of 5-11 talking about how they love reading and how they wanted libraries to stay intact, were very touching and I am sure difficult for Council to hear in light of the decisions they still have to make.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: All assertions use paraphrasing based on several first hand accounts, meaning that there was no tape recorder to confirm exact wording. Thus, this is only my interpretation of what has been communicated to me).
Park Board Commissioner Loretta Woodcock made a very quick presentation, talking about how the Bloedel Conservatory and the Stanley Park petting zoo have been “orphaned” and encouraging Council to consider modest tax increases to make up the shortfall. Woodcock was articulate, direct and to the point, as well as being reasonable in her requests.
Stuart Mackinnon, on the other hand, didn’t make out as well.
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November 16, 2009 - 11:06 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
Civic affairs were front and centre in an interesting and engaging forum hosted this past Saturday.
I really wasn’t sure what to expect when I walked into the “Year In Review” forum hosted by previous NPA candidate Michael Geller, largely because I suspected an overwhelmingly NPA supportive crowd would be the only ones to show up.
And, for the most part, I was correct – former and current NPA board members, elected officials and supporters roamed the room, with few Vision or COPE supporters in tow. In fact, one of those former NPA elected officials tried to tell me that the morning remained civil and well-behaved because “the right-of-centre” had been behind the organizing, suggesting that had the “left” been at the helm, chaos and hostility would have ruled the day.
This is exactly the type of comment that I have come to expect from your typical NPA, Quadra-type of supporter. When confronted with the question, I told the individual that having grown up in Marpole/Kerrisdale, I knew first hand that civility was by no means exclusive to her end of the political spectrum.
That bit of nonsense aside, I found the morning to be a fantastic endeavour that could prove to be a model for civic engagement for all parties – assuming, of course, that the pool of interest is widened with future sessions.
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