Who wants to be mayor?
Is Tom Martin running for something?
I first met Martin in 2006 when I profiled him for The Coast. What intrigued me then was his passion for solving unsolved—seemingly un-solve-able—crimes. William Shrubsall, Kimberly McAndrew…
That passion earned him 2001 Police Officer of the Year honours, but cost him his health. Even after two heart attacks and on long-term disability, however, Martin pored over case files, searching for that clue, that new way of thinking about a detail that could solve a crime.
Three years later, I wrote about him again. By then, he’d retired, so he could speak openly about why he believes Halifax has one of Canada’s highest unsolved murder rates.
The officers at the top, he argues, don’t have the major-crime investigative experience to provide boots-on-the-ground leadership.
Martin came under fire for his comments, but he didn’t back down. My impression is he had the support of most of the cops on the street.
Fast forward to this month.
New crime stats. Thirteen more murders this year. No charges yet in eight. There are currently 57 unsolved murders on the books in Halifax, plus 13 missing persons, several of those almost certainly homicides.
In similar-sized London, ON, there is one unsolved murder.
What does Martin think?
Policing, he tells me, “is also community problem… The mayor and council should play significant roles.” Council, he suggests, could create citizen advisory committees that would focus on crime in their own neighbourhoods. “Who is the witness of a major crime likely to speak to? Someone they know and respect in the community? Or to the police?” The mayor, he says, needs to lead.
So… is he running for something?
Martin acknowledges he’s been asked to run for mayor, and is “seriously considering it.” Despite his policing background, he says, “with confidence,” he would not be a one-issue candidate.
Though he’s never been an elected politician—a plus?—Martin was Sheila Fougere’s campaign manager in the last mayoralty election. So he’s not a political neophyte.
With Peter Kelly committed to running, Mike Savage preparing to announce and Howard Epstein a possibility, this could be the most interesting mayoralty race in years.
Let the race begin.
Copyright 2011 Stephen Kimber
City Council by Facebook? Why not
Government by Facebook post? We could do worse. We do. Read any report of any Halifax council meeting.
And then consider this.
On Thursday afternoon, Bedford Councilor Tim Outhit posted on his Facebook wall: “$20 million to widen Bayers Road, or $25 million to launch an initial commuter rail service?”
He invited his Facebook friends to weigh in. By Saturday morning, he’d had 67 responses.
Most—perhaps no surprise—favoured rail. Far more interesting—and perhaps surprising—was the quality of the discussion.
Outhit’s question followed a February staff report he’d asked for on the scheme’s feasibility. Staff estimated a five-stop service between Windsor Junction and the VIA station through existing rail corridors would cost $31 million to launch plus $6.5-million annually.
Starting the service initially at Bedford, of course, would make it cheaper—and therefore comparable to the controversial scheme to widen Bayers Road to accommodate more gas-guzzling, on-the-road-to-no-place-to-park, one-rider automobiles.
During the Facebook exchanges, official reports and blog posts were referenced and linked, significant questions asked and answered.
John Wesley Chisholm posted a link on the history of a Truro-Halifax commuter rail system that operated until the Halifax Explosion. “This is not a dream or fantasy,” he wrote. “This is Halifax as it was planned and intended to work… We could make it happen.”
“Start with Bedford to Halifax,” allowed Waye Mason, but then add more stops “and a huge park-and-ride terminal at Duke... Let’s get low-floor rail that can operate as streetcars, like Austin, Texas, but can go on freight rails, and then drive a rail down Hollis, all the way to and through [the] dockyard.”
Even those, like Mike Flemming, who argued “we do not have the population base to make [commuter rail] service economically viable,” pushed for a more “efficient transit system that brings commuters from the outskirts to transit hubs.”
“Let’s invest in the future of transportation instead of extending the agony of the current inefficient and doomed mode of transportation that is the single-commuter car (or SUV),” summed up Tom Servaes, adding wistfully: “I’d love to zip along the Basin reading my email on the way into the city.”
Would that city council sessions sounded so sensible.
Copyright 2011 Stephen Kimber
Stadium? Another $2 million… Oops…
The news it was news to HRM Councilor Steve Streatch is hardly comforting.
If Halifax becomes one of the host cities for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup (limited edition/no major games), it turns out we won’t just be on the hook for a $60-million stadium to hold the games.
There’ll also be a $2-million “operational fee,” payable to the Canadian Soccer Association, plus a $250,000 in-kind contribution, plus—there’s always more pluses—another $900,000 if we play the genial hosts for FIFA’s 2014 tune-up event.
When a reporter asked him about all this last week, Streatch—who had just voted in favour of spending another $275,000 on next-phase feasibility studies to determine whether the stadium scheme makes sense—said he, uh, hadn’t known about those added costs.
“Really,” he said, “it’s unwelcome news.”
Really?
On Dec. 7, 2010, Council decided to pursue its bid for the 2015 FIFA event despite an Events Nova Scotia report recommending against it because “timelines do not allow for proper due diligence on venue feasibility, public input or funding partnerships.”
At the time, Grant MacDonald, the Trade Centre’s Director of Major Events, told councilors voting yes also “implies” a willingness to find an extra two-and-a-quarter-million bucks to support the tournament.
Though it may not have been written across the sky in flashing hot-pink neon, those extra costs were explicitly laid out yet again in a Feb. 8, 2011 staff report to council.
That Streatch wasn’t aware of this “unwelcome news” before really isn’t anyone’s fault but his own.
But the lack of honest consideration of all the cost implications of bidding for events like the FIFA tournament is symptomatic of a larger, rose-coloured-glasses, glass-almost-full, be-happy, don’t-think-twice-it’s-all-right syndrome that continues to affect—and infect—politics in this city.
The 2014 Commonwealth Games bid? Just say yes! Concerts on the Common? Don’t ask too many questions. A new convention centre? Who needs an independent cost-benefit analysis? A 10,000-seat stadium? Moncton has one. We want one too!
None of this is to suggest any of those schemes weren’t worthy dreams, or worth pursuing.
Who knows? Maybe building a new stadium makes sense. But the way we’re going about it—and other projects—doesn’t.
Copyright 2011 Stephen Kimber
It’s not the size of the council, it’s the quality of the councilors
The problem with the Utilities Review Board’s solution to the problem of municipal council is that its solution won’t solve the problem.
The URB decided the 23 current Halifax Regional Municipality councilors should morph into 16 after the 2012 election.
Why 16? The URB “attributes significant weight to the polling results, which express the public’s overwhelming desire to have a much smaller council.”
Huh? And this “overwhelming desire” was based on what thoughtful assessment of how many elected officials are actually required to run our sprawling urban-rural agglomeration of cities, towns, villages, farmland, rock and lake, sea and brush?
Our current knee-jerk, less-is-better fixation assumes our elected representatives don’t do much. Hence the overwhelming desire.
Having covered municipal council before amalgamation, cell phones and Frank complicated the job, my sense is that even the laziest councilor works harder than most of us. How’d you like to be called in the middle of the night because somebody else’s neighbours were having a party? Or a constituent got a ticket for parking outside their house in a snow storm? Or…
While 16 may indeed be the right number of councilors, anyone who thinks a smaller council will be less dysfunctional is… dysfunctional if not delusional.
Our “council problem” is not numbers, but quality.
How do we ensure that more, better candidates seek public office?
Perhaps it’s time for the city—or non-partisan group—to set up a wannabe-city-councilors’ school. Interested in serving your city? Come out and learn how your city works. Get briefed on issues and options.
Maybe it’s time our political parties became more involved in municipal politics—not necessarily to run slates of candidates but to encourage their own young best and brightest to test themselves municipally before running for the big(ger) show. Current local MLAs Howard Epstein and Andrew Younger, for example are both municipal council grads.
And it’s past time to begin encouraging candidates we think will be better than the incumbent—Mike Savage? Howard Epstein?—to consider running for mayor. And then ask them what they’d do if we elected them.
In the end the problem with our council is not size, or “them.” It’s us.
Copyright 2011 Stephen Kimber
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About
STEPHEN KIMBER, a Professor of Journalism at the University of King's College in Halifax, is an award-winning writer, editor and broadcaster. He is the author of one novel -- Reparations -- and seven non-fiction books.