Hall Marks with Emma Reilly

Taj MaHall

Yesterday I had the opportunity to take a sneak peak into City Hall. I have to say, it's looking pretty good. There's been a lot of thought put into the renovation and the placement of departments within the building. My favourite spot was the seventh floor, which will be used as a sort of economic development penthouse. Potential investors will have a hard time resisting Hamilton once they see the view from up there.

Another interesting thing about the tour was the chance to get a sneak peek at the mayor and councillors' offices. Councillor Lloyd Ferguson, the chair of the renovations committee, said he assigned the offices based on ward numbers -- Brian McHattie in Ward 1 gets the first one, Bob Bratina in Ward 2 gets the one beside it and so on. Ferguson says he hopes this will avoid any drama about who ends up where.

We also got to take a look at how the mayor's office was shaping up. We were joking with the contractors about how convenient it would be if they installed video cameras and microphones in the mayor's office. When I mentioned to this to Eisenberger at council yesterday, he said his office will actually have to be swept for secret audio-visual equipment before he can move back in. He was told there's a "very real possibility" that that type of thing could happen.

Who knew?

Draft a Mayor

There's been a lot of discussion in the Hamilton blogosphere about a new website called Draft a Mayor. Its goal is to encourage cross-country voter engagement for this year's municipal election. Interestingly enough, the site is being run by Fred Eisenberger's former chief of staff Ken Audziss.

Hamilton's Draft a Mayor race has been an interesting one. For the first few days of the poll, the leading candidate was former broadcaster Dan McLean, the Federal Liberal candidate for Ancaster-Flamborough-Dundas-Westdale. To my knowledge, McLean has no intention whatsoever of running for mayor (though judging from this poll, perhaps he should!)

Currently in the lead is Hamiltonian publisher Cal Di Falco. He has certainly emerged as a grassroots favourite amongst Hamilton's online community. Some commenters have also pointed out that unlike other candidates, Di Falco seems to be the benefactor of an active online campaign to boost his score.

Fred Eisenberger is lagging behind most candidates, including his council members Tom Jackson and Lloyd Ferguson. However, in an email this morning, the Draft-a-Mayor admins said they're not allowing votes from computers connected to the City of Hamilton network in an attempt to cut down on voter fraud. This may explain why many of  Eisenberger's supporters haven't been able to cast a vote.

In the last municipal election, Eisenberger used YouTube and other social media quite successfully. At the time, it was a pretty avant-garde way to attract voters with very little money. This time around, sites like Draft a Mayor, Facebook, and Twitter will undoubtedly play a bigger role in the race to the ballot box.

So, Hall Marks readers, what do you think about social media sites Draft-a-Mayor? Do they encourage civic participation? Can we trust them?

Comment disclaimer: Please keep in mind that this post is meant to encourage discussion about the validity of social media sites like Draft-a-Mayor. It's not meant to be a platform for any specific candidate.

UPDATE: Since this entry was posted, the admins at Draft a Mayor have revised their poll results. As the numbers have changed significantly, I’ve updated the image in this post. For a current tally, please visit the Draft a Mayor site.
 
Unfortunately, some posters have made personal comments targeted towards several people involved in the poll. That isn’t the sprit of this blog, nor was it the intention of this post. We also want to make it clear that the Spec and Hall Marks aren’t affiliated with Draft a Mayor or with any of the candidates.
 
Due to the personalized tone of this debate, this post will no longer be accepting comments.

Teresa for Mayor?

 

Teresa Cascioli  is the latest name to hit the mayoral rumour mill.
The former Lakeport CEO is considering running against Eisenberger in October's municipal election.

Cascioli is a hometown gal with the type of profile and personality that could give our incumbent mayor a run for his money. One of my colleagues compared her to feisty Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion (albeit a much younger Hazel McCallion).

She's also got the finances to launch a campaign -- Labatts gave her a cool $43 million when they bought Lakeport in 1997. She's also been very generous to her hometown through her charity. 

However, if she does decide to run, there are two big hurdles she'll have to deal with. First, she lives in Burlington. Any council candidate must live in Hamilton. Second, she's been involved in a high-profile lawsuit that could could cloud her campaign.

So, Hallmarks readers, what do you think? Would you like to see Cascioli run?

Just another day at city hall...

There's been a lot of eye-rolling at committee of the whole this morning. Councillors were asked to name their top priorities for spending $5 million on strategic capital projects. Sounds simple, right?

Wrong. Councillors were told to pick their preferred projects - things like waterfront development, brownfield development, and the arts incubator project that we've written about this week.  Staff went around the council table and each councillor had a few minutes to list their top 3 choices.

Then, because of a time crunch, council was told to limit themselves to their top 2 choices. That worked for a few minutes. Halfway through the process, some council members started listing 4 projects.

Then, staff had to go back to the council members who only got 2 choices in an attempt to even things out. There was some frustration about the fairness and accuracy of the system.

"This would never past the test in terms of a dignified, democratic process," said Councillor Margaret McCarthy.

P.S. - The most creative suggestion about potential projects came from Councillor Bob Bratina, who asked for pigeon spikes under the city's railway passes.

“Our crews go in there everyday and cleanup pigeon poo,” he said.

Chill out

This entry is courtesy of my colleague, Eric McGuinness. He attended the city hall renovations committee yesterday and came out with this little gem.


Councillor Terry Whitehead has a chilling worry about the renovated City Hall.

He’s upset that city staff won’t let him bring a mini-fridge back to his office.

Whitehead learned this week that the power system in the renovated City Hall isn’t designed to handle a bunch of personal fridges. Staff said they're prone to leaking on carpets, which could cause health and safety issues.

"I’m not necessarily buying into the power argument,” said Whitehead. “It’s difficult to have a community fridge and account for your stock.”

He said he often has meetings in his office, so it’s important to have bottled water and other drinks.

Staff said there must be one policy for all 435 employees moving back to the building. The only exception will be fridges needed for medical reasons.

“I want to have amenities in my office,” Whitehead insisted. He said he’d made a point of buying an energy-efficient fridge and now wonders what do to with it.

 

Anyone in the market for an energy-efficient mini-fridge? 'Cause I know where you can get one.

*UPDATE: Councillor Whitehead asked me to mention that the fridge is city-owned. He said he's now concerned about the fate of the fridge since it was actually paid for by taxpayers.

Motorcycle gang headquarters bylaw

Really interesting debate at committee this morning. Staff have come forward with a bylaw that would prohibit excessive security measures in Hamilton homes. Under the proposed bylaw, regular alarm systems and basement window bars would be ok: steel plates or bars, bulletproof shutters, bricking up doors/windows and electric fences would be no-goes.

The bylaw is intended to stop "bad guys" from keeping police and emergency crews out of their homes. Councillor Terry Whitehead called it the "motorcycle gang headquarters bylaw."

The city councillors at committee this morning weren't too jazzed about this proposed bylaw. Councillor Brad Clark said it would violate Hamiltonians' constitutional right to defend themselves. Whitehead said it came down too hard on residents who have legitimate security concerns and compared it to hitting a fly with a sledgehammer.

Councillors Lloyd Ferguson and Bob Bratina were in favour of the proposed bylaw.

"It's a good philosophical debate, but we need action," Bratina said.

What do you think?

Election fever

I know I'm not the only one out there who's starting to think about October's election. Though there are still months to go before we cast our ballots, it won't be long until "silly season" is upon us.

In today's paper, we've put together a package of stories that look at municipal elections, both past and present.

For a look at how the election will shape next few months- both behind the scenes and around the council table - check out this story.

To read about Eisenberger's campaign promises from the 2006 election and how they've played out, click here and here.

So, Hall Marks readers, let's talk election. How do you think Eisenberger has done on his 2006 campaign promises? Which ones do you think will pop up in his campaign this year? How do you think the election will factor into council decisions over the next few months? 

Where's our dunce cap?

The grades are in - and Mom and Dad won't be pleased.

The Conference Board of Canada's released their City Magnets report yesterday. The countrywide study measured 50 cities on their attractiveness to skilled workers and a mobile population. Hamilton got a rather disappointing C. Read more details here.

On 41 indicators in economy, environment, society, housing, innovation, education and health, Hamilton got one A, 13 Bs, 15 Cs and 12 Ds.

The report named six A performers— Calgary, Waterloo, Ottawa, Vancouver, St. John’s and Richmond Hill, Ont.

14 cities got Bs, including Edmonton, Victoria, Markham, Vaughan, Kingston, Oakville, and Guelph.

Among our fellow C performers are Montreal, Winnipeg, Sherbrooke, Gatineau, Kitchener, Barrie, Saskatoon, Moncton, Brampton, Kelowna, Thunder Bay, Peterborough, St. Catharines, and Sudbury. This is the biggest group at 21 cities.

At the bottom of the back, 9 cities got Ds, including Oshawa, Brantford, Windsor, Cambridge, Longueuil, Saguenay, Trois-Rivières, and Laval, and Saint John, New Brunswick.

This report makes me think of a question asked at an economic development community meeting in October about whether Hamilton winning or losing.  When I spoke to former Mayor Larry Di Ianni last week, he told me there's a sense out there that Hamilton is losing. Do you agree? What do you think about our C grade?

Drama vs. Substance

A couple of comments on my last post got me thinking about why so many of us watch City Hall so closely. It started when I wrote that I love the drama of city council meetings.

That prompted Mary Louise to write that she would like to focus on the issues at city council:

Emma, I'm glad you enjoy the 'drama' of municipal politics. Many of your readers however, are simply interested in the substance of the issues. You would do us a great service if you could spend a little time exploring some of the myths about free parking.

Then, Brian argued that the drama is one of the reasons why council is so interesting:

Sadly there is little substance and more drama, psychodrama, among the councillors than reasoned debate on important civic matters. Personal and ward agendas, ongoing rivalries, vote trading, 'me first' focus - those are the drivers behind this council. So bring on the drama because that is where most of the decision-making happens.

I think both Brian and Mary Louise make really interesting points. Municipal politics affect our lives so closely - arguably more so than upper levels of government. Issues like where we park, how much we pay for it, and whether there's such a thing as "free parking" can have more impact on our lives than decisions made in Toronto or Ottawa.

However, the players in municipal politics make it fascinating to watch. Unlike other levels of government, there's no party line to push. Council meetings often have an every-man-for-himself kind of atmosphere where, as Brian says, personalities are as much a part of decisions as policy. It makes for some very exciting and engaging debates.

So, Hall Marks readers, it's time for you to chime in. Why do you watch municipal politics? Do you think the personalities get in the way of decision-making, or do you relish studying the dynamics of council relationships?  Do you like the drama or the substance?

And we're back

Unlike some of our elected officials, our city council members are back to work today. I'm currently sitting in the first meeting of 2010 with 13 out of our 15 councillors (Robert Pastua and Dave Mitchell are absent).

I never thought I would hear these words coming out of my mouth - but I'm kind of glad to back. There's nowhere else a city hall reporter wants to be than in the thick of the action. Plus, the drama and interplay of city meetings can be more addictive than a soap opera. I'm happy to be getting my fix.

On deck today is an update on the Pan Am Games, which will be covered by my colleague John Kernaghan. I'll be paying attention to a discussion about parking rates and meter locations.

I hope to write about this for tomorrow's paper - but in the meantime, what do you think about upping parking prices and putting more meters around the city? Would you pay $1 per hour to park?