council

Wednesday March 30, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 30, 2022

Bob Bratina announces plans to run for Hamilton mayor, says he offers ‘veteran knowledge’

Bob Bratina says he suspects there will be new faces around the council table come October and is making the pitch it would help to have a familiar one too — his.

The veteran politician said he plans to run for mayor when nominations open in May, promising a positive, forward-looking campaign.

“There needs to be a little bit of stability in terms of veteran knowledge of how a city council works,” he told CBC Hamilton Tuesday morning, the day after announcing his intentions to run during an interview on CHML.

“I think it’s hard to disagree with the fact that you can’t just completely throw everybody out and start all over again. There are ramifications to that.”

Bratina, a former broadcaster, previously served as Hamilton’s mayor from 2010 to 2014.

He was elected as MP for Hamilton East-Stoney Creek for the Liberals in 2015 and again in 2019, but broke with the party over its support of Hamilton’s light-rail transit (LRT) project.

Bratina has been a vocal critic of LRT since his time on council. In May last year, he announced he wouldn’t run federally again, and teased then about the possibility of throwing his hat back in the ring for mayor.

LRT Gallery

On Tuesday Bratina said he thinks people are “tired” of hearing about LRT, noting it’s “on a course of its own” and in the hands of councillors.

“If I were to become mayor, with the council, I would have one of 16 votes.”

Bratina joins Keanin Loomis, who stepped down from his role as the CEO of Hamilton’s Chamber of Commerce in January to run for the top job on city council.

Fred Eisenberger, Hamilton’s current mayor, said Tuesday that he hasn’t made a final decision on whether to run again, but “I would not bet against it.”

He added the window for nominations runs from May to August and he will make a decision during that time.

On Tuesday Bratina declined to speak about it in depth, saying “the past is for memoirs” and adding that he believes that council at that time functioned well.

January 12, 2012

He did say most of the “antagonists of the past” have moved on, describing the municipal officials of those days as “an old boys group who were around since roughly the beginning of the century.”

Now, Bratina said, he’s focused on the future.

He’s 77, but said he views any suggestion that could preclude him from running as “ageism,” noting with a laugh that he’s healthy and even considered running Around the Bay this year.

“The main thing I have … is the passion for it,” he said. “If the electorate decides it’s time for me to go, that’s fine. It’s up to them. But it’s not up to pundits to say what I should or shouldn’t do.”

Municipal elections will be held on Oct. 24. All potential candidates have until Aug. 19 to file nomination papers. (CBC) 

 

Saturday May 30, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 30, 2020

SoBi decision a symptom of a deeper problem

If the SoBi bike share debate that has polarized Hamilton city council, and many citizens as well, was just about money, it would be a one-sided affair.

May 23, 2020

Uber violates its contract and pulls out. Annual operating cost is about $700,000. City Hall is staring down a pandemic-driven deficit of about $60 million. It’s clear city council won’t support that. A compromise plan worth about $400,000 would have bought some time while the city looks for a new partner. Council delivers a tied vote, which technically amounts to a defeat for the compromise motion. 

City council has killed the bikeshare program, at least for this season. Instead, it will pay $140,000 to store the 900 bikes. If that holds true, the gross savings for this season will be about $260,000.

This relatively trivial savings — the total annual operating costs amount to 0.02 of the city’s annual budget — is at least defensible, if this was all about money. That is, if this goes hand in hand with an ironclad decision to kill all discretionary spending until the municipal deficit is dealt with. But is it that?

Is council saying, for example, that under these circumstances not one red cent will go to supporting the 2026 Commonwealth Games bid? If so, they might want to make that public declaration so the organizing committee knows where it stands. The compromise proposal would have been financed from area rating budgets from downtown wards, so would not have impacted the general levy. Does this decision mean other projects that have area rating fund commitments — say the new Ancaster Arts Centre, for example — can expect their area rating funding to be withdrawn?

The answer to these and other related questions, is no, not necessarily. That’s because this decision isn’t just about money. It’s also about the suburban/rural-urban divide that has rendered this city council, on all too many occasions, dysfunctional and incompetent. 

July 25, 2007

Among city councillors from suburban and rural wards, projects that directly benefit urban wards and citizens don’t get the same support as those that benefit suburban and rural ridings. And, to be fair, the reverse is probably also true. It’s a form of parochialism all too familiar to Hamilton political observers. And it doesn’t serve the city overall well. 

In truth, especially at times like these, these people shouldn’t be called city councillors at all. They should be called ward councillors, because their own wards are really all they care about.

Don’t believe that? Consider this. City council agreed not that long ago to declare a climate emergency in Hamilton, in recognition of the climate crisis and its growing local impact. That’s a good, strong and progressive message.

But the very same councillors just voted to kill the bikeshare program, which by any measure was successful. Those 900-odd bikes served 26,000 active members, who took 350,000 trips last year. Those are trips that don’t pollute like cars and diesel buses do. They are trips that improved physical and mental health of the users. They are a feature of a pedestrian-friendly, environmentally conscious city, the kind that is more likely to attract young families and professionals.

This is what eight members of council — Merulla, Collins, Jackson, Pauls, Johnson, Ferguson, Partridge and Whitehead — killed for the sake of gross savings of around $260,000.

All may not be lost. Perhaps a new viable partner can be found to revive public bikeshare infrastructure. But that won’t solve what’s wrong with Hamilton city council. For that, we will have to wait until the next election in 2022. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial)

Letter to the Editor, The Hamilton Spectator, June 10, 2020

I’m very impressed with the sensitive, sensible, and informative political cartoons created by The Spec’s Graeme MacKay. His cartoons are one of the reasons why I continue to subscribe to the print edition. MacKay’s cartoons of the death of SoBi (May 30) and CAF’s report on Ontario’s nursing homes (May 28) were heart wrenching. We are fortunate to have him.

Catherine Marks, Dundas

Tuesday December 17, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday December 17, 2019

A ‘betrayal’ of the City of Hamilton — Ontario pulls out of LRT

Doug Ford’s Tory government abruptly cancelled Hamilton’s LRT project Monday blaming billions of dollars in budget overruns — then teased $1 billion in transportation makeup cash, instead.

Hamilton LRT Gallery

Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney gave up on a public announcement of the bombshell news after a crowd of residents and council members — including Mayor Fred Eisenberger — crashed a downtown Hamilton press briefing.

A visibly upset Eisenberger then took over proceedings and told the crowd the Tory government had killed the long-planned project in a “betrayal of the City of Hamilton.”

The mayor pointed out Premier Doug Ford publicly committed to the project — with the memorable quote “he wants an LRT, he’s going to get an LRT” — just weeks after the pro-light rail mayor won a convincing municipal election victory in late 2018.

“That was a lie and they’ve been angling to cut this project ever since,” Eisenberger said.

In a phone call Monday, Mulroney said she understood she was delivering “difficult news,” but emphasized the province cannot forge ahead with a project it now believes will cost $5.5 billion over 30 years.

The minister also reiterated the province’s $1-billion commitment to transportation in the city remains — but details are so far scarce on what the money could be spent on and who makes the decision.

December 7, 2019

Mulroney acknowledged the “anger and frustration” of residents who only nine months ago heard former Tory transportation minister Jeff Yurek announce the $1-billion LRT was “good to go forward” after a funding freeze described as a delay to study project viability.

Hamilton Chamber of Commerce head Keanin Loomis said he gave the Tory government “so much credit” for publicly sticking with the Liberal-approved project back in March. “I don’t know now if they knew at that point that they were going to do a bait-and-switch, but regardless, it is devastating for the economy in Hamilton,” he said.

Developer and union vice-president Joe Mancinelli said the project meant “thousands of jobs” to local construction workers and spurred LIUNA to start building two different towers along the route. “These are decisions that were (based) on a commitment that was made by the provincial government,” he said.

Mulroney said the incoming PC government was indeed concerned about the LRT budget from the get-go in 2018, but opted to get an independent cost estimate “to see if we could (still) deliver the project.”

Provincial officials forwarded to journalists a summarized page of “expert third-party” cost estimates that suggest the “total costs of the LRT” — including construction, financing and 30 years of operations and maintenance — had ballooned to $5.5 billion. (Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Saturday December 7, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday December 7, 2019

With Sewergate, too many Hamilton councillors still don’t get it

“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”

That line, borrowed from the classic 1967 Paul Newman movie “Cool Hand Luke,” can actually be applied to the situation that continues to fester in Hamilton. Yes, we’re talking about Sewergate.

November 26, 2019

Another way to put it would be that we have a fundamental disconnect. And another: They just don’t get it.

We’re referring to the gulf that now exists between most members of Hamilton city council and the constituents who elected them. Those same constituents who are still talking and writing about Sewergate. In barbershops and salons, in coffee shops and bars. Chances are, if you go to a place where people congregate and talk, this is one of the things they’ll be talking about.

The number of published letters to the editor is now officially a record in modern memory. And those are just the ones suitable for print. Many others were not, for reasons of length, language or extreme viewpoints. And they keep coming, although they’ve slowed now to a handful each day. We will continue to print them where appropriate, but they’ll be mixed with letters on other subjects to reflect a fair balance of what readers are saying.

The point is, Hamilton citizens, in record numbers, show no interest in getting over this. They are, by and large, unsatisfied. They want to see some action. They want to see consequences. Like what? Spectator city columnist Andrew Dreschel will explore that question in a column coming Monday.

November 23, 2019

At any rate, that’s the citizen/taxpayer/constituent side of the equation. Far on the other side of that perception gulf are the members of council who apparently still don’t see what all the fuss is about. They are content to stick with their original defence: They had legal advice that said they would be putting taxpayers at more risk by disclosing the 24-billion litre sewage leak into Chedoke Creek and Cootes Paradise. Armed with that advice, they decided, repeatedly, that they should not inform the public about the spill. Not that it was much larger than originally reported. Not that the contamination took place over four and a half years.

Not that at one point E. coli levels in Chedoke Creek spiked to 900 times higher than safe levels for paddling. That’s 9,000 times higher than the threshold for safe swimming.

They say they intended to report to the public once the provincial investigation into the leak was complete. When would that have been? No one knows. The Spectator reported on the leak two weeks ago, but this council knew about it for nine months before that. How much longer would Sewergate have remained secret had The Spec not reported on it?

November 27, 2019

Here is what many city councillors just don’t get. They are sorry, they say, that the leak happened. Good for them. We’re all sorry. Probably the people involved with the original mistake are sorry. Everyone and their dog is sorry the accident happened, and was not detected for a ridiculous period of time.

But that’s not what most people are most angry about. It’s the failure to disclose that’s driving people nuts. Too many councillors don’t seem to get that secrecy has justifiably rattled peoples’ trust in city hall. Yes, because of the spill. But more so because if something like this happens again, how can citizens feel confident they will get appropriate disclosure?

Some councillors say Sewergate is a media-generated event. Fair enough. We’re not going to dignify that with a response. But we would recommend that at minimum, these councillors, who seem increasingly insulated from public opinion, take some time and find out how people are really feeling. They might want to start trying to bridge that perception gulf. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Wednesday November 27, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday November 27, 2019

City probes who leaked secret reports to The Spec

November 26, 2019

As if leaking sewage wasn’t enough, now Hamilton council is targeting information leaks.

According to sources, councillors have directed staff to launch an investigation into who gave The Hamilton Spectator confidential city reports on the massive discharge of untreated sewage into Chedoke Creek.

City spokesperson Jasmine Graham declined to comment.

“Conversations with respect to the Chedoke Creek issue were held in closed session. With that, unfortunately we’re not able to share what if anything was discussed.”

But reliable sources say directions given in camera to staff include conducting an internal probe plus the option of consulting Hamilton police.

The secret reports obtained by The Spec revealed that the provincial government is investigating the spill of 24-billion litres of sewage over more than four years, which could lead to charges and significant fines against the city.

November 29, 2019

The media previously reported on the July 2018 spill. But council, based on strategic legal advice, withheld the two reports detailing the full extent of the disaster from the public.

When The Spec informed city officials on Wednesday that it had obtained the January and September reports, councillors discussed the issue behind closed doors.

During those discussions, senior staff was told to try to find out who breached the rules which prohibit members of council and employees from disclosing confidential information without proper authorization.

Coun. Terry Whitehead wasn’t at the meeting but he strongly supports an investigation.

“Conversations with respect to the Chedoke Creek issue were held in closed session. With that, unfortunately we’re not able to share what if anything was discussed.”

But reliable sources say directions given in camera to staff include conducting an internal probe plus the option of consulting Hamilton police.

The secret reports obtained by The Spec revealed that the provincial government is investigating the spill of 24-billion litres of sewage over more than four years, which could lead to charges and significant fines against the city.

The media previously reported on the July 2018 spill. But council, based on strategic legal advice, withheld the two reports detailing the full extent of the disaster from the public.

When The Spec informed city officials on Wednesday that it had obtained the January and September reports, councillors discussed the issue behind closed doors.

During those discussions, senior staff was told to try to find out who breached the rules which prohibit members of council and employees from disclosing confidential information without proper authorization.

Coun. Terry Whitehead wasn’t at the meeting but he strongly supports an investigation. (Hamilton Spectator)