Political winds change. Last year, Halifax council dealt with a profound philosophical challenge called “tax reform,” which, if implemented, would have fundamentally shifted the property tax system—it was, quite literally, the most radical proposed change in municipal governance in all of North America for the last century and a half. In the end, council did the right thing by declining to go down that route, but the council report card was heavily weighted by that single issue.
This year, there’s no one issue that’s anywhere near as important. Even the hotly contested convention centre pales in comparison. To be sure, as the world smacks straight up against peak oil, chasing airline travellers is an incredibly short-sighted and stupid economic development strategy, but the self-serving Haligonian managerial class is no more stupid in that regard than self-serving mucky-mucks elsewhere; the lemmings are smugly satisfied, the cliff unseen.
Still, while the convention centre was and remains an important issue, it’s just one of the many challenges council had to deal with since last year’s report card, including: huge cost overruns and bureaucratic bumbling on the Washmill underpass and Bridge Terminal projects; a multi-million dollar concert loan scandal that reached into the mayor’s office; the debate about whether council should be made smaller; a change in the top management position at city hall; tweaking the configuration of bus lines to rural areas; bike lanes and taxi regulations and many more lesser issues.
Council has been lucky this year on the financial front. The local real estate market continues to boom at a rate far exceeding the growth in people’s incomes, which is the very definition of a bubble, but for the time being property tax receipts are up. The bloated tax coffers allowed council to easily deal with the cost overruns and even add costly new facilities like the Common skating oval without increasing the tax rate. After the real estate bubble pops there will be a day of reckoning in city hall, but for now it’s Easy Street.
In some ways this past year has been a return to past normality for council, but council is doing a subpar job—this is the worst report card in the five years we’ve been doing them. That’s something to remember during the next election, in October of next year.
As usual, the grading in this report card is completely subjective. Readers will have their own opinions and are free to call me out in the comments. So, without further ado, here are this year’s grades.
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This article appears in May 12-18, 2011.
What a pile of utter crap.
These ratings used to be entertaining and actually a little informative.
Now they have turned into a pre-teen girls Slam book.
“OMG Jennifer looked at me again, she is sooooo awesome!”
Some of the ratings include explanations with concrete examples, while others are based on words like “tiresome”
You praise one councillor for pushing for a bus-terminal and critize another for the same thing.
The Washmill disaster is largely ignored because the opinions of some of your “crushes” don’t fit with a true honest evaluation.
I don’t really care what ratings you give to any of these people, but when there isn’t any consistency to them it is a joke.
I haven’t seen the print version, but hopefully it has a huge “INTENDED AS HUMOUR” above it.
I believe his report would be considered “subjective”, his opinion. If you are so rattled by them, perhaps you could threaten to take legal action against the Coast for publishing them, chances are good they would remove them. If you think “INTENDED AS HUMOUR” be placed above the article in print, perhaps the same should be placed over the door at city hall.
Not rattled, rather I’m disappointed that Tim (whom I consider to be the only journo paying attention to City Hall) would not be consistent in his ratings.
May I suggest a new rating beyond the ‘F” ?
How about ‘FU’ – Friggin Useless and ‘ UFU’ – Utterly Friggin Useless.
For Kelly – ‘TTG’ – ‘Time To Go’
and for the vast majority ‘ TYPAG’ – Take Your Pension And Go.
Joeblow
What pension?
The two NDP drones always get good ratings from Tim. Apparently being a tool of the Heritage Trust/Save the View wingnuts counts as a plus in his book. If they have the “Approved by Ecology Action Center” stamp on their hides, even better. They vote against every development downtown. But they are always first in line to siphon off tax dollars for useless enviro-crazy projects that nobody wants.
I would give an “A” to any councillor who realizes that HRM is in business to provide services related to property, not to pass bylaws against any and every irritant found within the boundaries of HRM, nor to singlehandedly Save the Earth like a lower-case Al Gore. While Tim pays lip service to those in favor of shrinking the massively bloated HRM bureaucracy, he gives his highest scores to those who support proposals that would cause it to get even bigger. Bizarre.
Matthew – Kelly and the councillors are in the same HRM pension plan as the employees. Contributions are 10.86% of earnings for employees and the same amount from us the taxpayers
And the rule of 80 – years of service plus age. Best average 3
More details here : http://www.halifax.ca/pensions/
I’ll let you read all the boring details
Thanks Joe.
I didn’t know that.
Maybe Mr. Mousquet should put his money where his mouth is and run for council. Since he knows how everyone should do their job, if he was on council then he could just lead the way.
I enjoy the ratings. I understand that it’s subjective, but it’s also a really good recap of opinions on major projects in council. Sometimes it’s hard to digest just where everyone stands – so this helps. If I fall on a different side of an issue that Tim, I can take that into consideration when I’m reading. Jeez people, didn’t you ever learn to think for yourselves? Relax.
Thanks Tim.