2010 grade: A-
2009 grade: B
Last year I gave Jennifer Watts an A-. It was the first time any councillor had entered A-land, and I’ve been feeling kind of weird about it ever since. So I was happy to bring her down a tad this year. Call it a social demotion.
Watts remains an excellent councillor—she has a firm grasp of the issues and, like her or not, she’s profoundly principled and has great courage. Last year, rookie councillor Watts came out of the gate with a series of initiatives that she successfully marshalled through the process. It’s no surprise her pace has slowed somewhat; that’s partly because Watts is now more involved with the bureaucracy, which leaves little room for innovation, but she’s also failing to click with other councillors.
My Twitter joke about Watts goes like this: “Watts: [says sensible stuff]. Rest of council: [checks email, balances chequebook, scratches armpit].” Which is to say, something’s got to break in this equation.
How to improve: Win over councillors by buying the next round of drinks at council’s cocktail break.
This article appears in May 12-18, 2011.
Tm your bias is showing like never before.
Just admit you don’t base any of these evaluations on reality, but rather on the thick, thick, Bubbles-like, rose coloured glasses that cloud your vision whenever she speaks.
Not a single negative comment.
Like I said last year, “get a room”.
I think the key to getting an A- must be quite simple, just vote ‘no’ against everything that evenly slightly inidcates ‘change’. That is what I find her whole job boils down to…vote against anything that moves away from the status quo. I think her entire approach symbolizes what is wrong with Halifax and its struggle to progress. A city cannot progress when people are beating the drum against everything that could help it prosper because people are so afraid of change.
A Dipper.
She’ll be there until Epstein leaves the Legislature and then she’ll migrate a few blocks to a less onerous position.
One of the worst councillors at the table. A shame, because she is obviously bright and reads what is provided to her. But it appears that most of what she reads is the NDP and Ecology Action Center dogma dictionary. So we get her bringing forward useless things like a ban on bottled water, putting bike lanes everywhere, and building 8-storey wooden-frame buildings, while voting against everything that might either make life for the majority of ratepayers better or add to the property tax base downtown.