Stage-managed Grandstanding

None of the City Hall Insiders that I talked to could figure it out.

Why would Ward One's Councillor formerly known as Councillor Budget stand up at the end of a Council meeting and out of the blue tell everyone how generous he was and that he was not going to receive a CPI salary increase. That was a 2% increase on his Councillor salary I believe.

Of course, not accepting the thousands of dollars in the Boards salaries he receives as an extra would have been more meaningful but, hey, let's not carry the Christmas spirit too far.

Everyone assumed that it was part of it his mayoral campaign and it probably is. But there was more to it than that as we are finding out.

I wondered about Councillor Lewenza and his sudden desire for openness. There was more to it than that as well as we are finding out:

• "The public should know our tough decisions," Lewenza said. "I disagree with meeting in camera on these issues. The public needs to know services we might be eliminating and the tough choices that are being made."
  
  Lewenza will bring forward a recommendation at the next budget session on Monday that council take the critical discussion of employee layoffs out into the public venue and not remain in camera as they have done for the past two weeks.
  
  "I have to cut things this budget year, I couldn't agree to last year. We are now going to be cutting services I didn't have the appetite to cut the year before...
  
  Mayor Eddie Francis said Lewenza brought up his suggestion of bringing the debate from out behind closed doors on Tuesday.
  
  "He raised the issue with me. I think it's good idea, we just have to make sure we are not violating the municipal Act," Francis said. "As long we are not violating rules, I'm OK.
  
  "We might need a legal position on how to do it. It's not possible to do in all areas. I told (Lewenza) to bring it up on Monday see what what the response is of others and administration. I just encouraged him to do it."

I thought that this was the way that the pro-union Lewenza would put pressure on his Councillor colleagues to do the job cutting in public thereby forcing them not to do so. I was wrong.

Oh, and as for openness and transparency... Councillor Lewenza voted against the Motion of Councillor Dilkens so that did not last very long.

Now we see what the stage managed grandstanding was for. Just read the recent Henderson column and especially its last two lines:

• "These folks need, and deserve, a city hall as cost-efficient and business-minded as any corporation fighting for its survival.
  
  So spare us the collective hysteria over relatively modest municipal job cuts."

That's what it's all about. Finding two suckers, three if you include Councillor Halberstadt whose name was plastered all over the column, to take the hit for "Francis Days" and the big job cuts that are about to come at City Hall.

Councillor Lewenza is such a loyal Eddie-Councillor. He discussed his issue with the Mayor in advance and received permission from the Council Principal to do so. He doesn't have the nerve to raise issues the way Councillors Marra and Dilkens did without telling the Mayor. After all he did not want one of those stares and a scolding or to be kept after school with a detention. What will his union buddies say now? You see, it will not be so tough for him to have union workers fired too when WUC goes P3. After all,

• "I have to cut things this budget year, I couldn't agree to last year. We are now going to be cutting services I didn't have the appetite to cut the year before..."

As for Councillor Teacher's Pet... well he did the dirty work before for Eddie on the arena and earned a pat on the head from Gord. He just received another one.

• "We can't expect employees to make sacrifices if we don't."

You can imagine the loyalty of these two Councillors to the Mayor:

• "There aren't many issues Brister and Coun. Ken Lewenza agree on. But Brister endorses Lewenza's call for public budget sessions over staff cuts."

That's how stage-managed grandstanding is done. When something out of the ordinary happens at Council, expect something behind it. The end result always is that the Mayor finds someone else to take the hit if it goes wrong and the praise if it goes right.