By Pepper Parr
March 5, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
One would hope that a health club benefit is one of the perks that James Ridge negotiated when he met with the Human Resources people to negotiate his contract – he is going to need to ensure that his stamina is in top form.
James Ridge – what kind of an administrative structure will he create?
A number of files have been put on hold until he gets himself a chair to put behind the desk he will use. It will be interesting to see if Ridge goes the route that Jeff Fielding took when he moved from the 8th floor where he was a walk across the hall from the Mayor to the 6th floor where he was right in with his team.
That’s a pretty small team at this point. Scott Stewart turns out to be the only man on deck.
Fielding, a city manager who excited staff and taught them how to rise up to almost any challenge. But he didn’t stay long enough to make a real mark – there are however going to be some stains.
While Council members have had several interviews with Ridge, these were job interviews and the dynamic of that kind of a relationship is different. Ridge will have wanted to impress them and at the same time get the measure of the council he is going to serve.
Council members will have wanted to individually get the measure of the man and determine how their individual agendas might be advanced.
Given the style and ideological split on this Council Ridge will have figured out what he has to work with and for.
There are a number of significant files that are on hold until he arrives – officially that is set as March 23, 2015.
A Workshop that was planned on the “Alignment and Collaboration on Employment Lands” has been moved back to late May or June.
Getting tough, tough about compliance with the Site Plan bylaw will occupy the new city managers for a time – bigger decision to be made is what role does an air park play in the city’s longer term economic development plans. No one at city hall believes they can work with the air park owner.
There are some tough decisions to be made on the Air Park. The city is believed to be ready to use the authority the courts have given them to enforce the Site Plan bylaw. There are property owners along Appleby Line that are watching this with great interest. The pain on this one is going to be shared.
Emotions are running very high in at least one household.
Burlington has land that is designated for employment use – many in the real estate field believe that some of that land is much more suited to residential use – which is music to the ears of the developers that own the land.
Burlington has some very important decisions to make. The Fielding approach was to make all kinds of side deals – at least one of those is going to come back and bite this council in the backside.
Burlington is struggling to find just the right balance between residential and commercial and then figure out how we manage the very large seniors’ population we are going to have.
The politicians talk about how well they are going to take care of that seniors’ population – those people vote.
Frank McKeown, former Chief of Staff to Mayor Rick Goldring now runs the Economic Development Corporation. His objectives don’t fit all that well with a growing seniors population that will require more in the way of services. Making Burlington a high-tech haven and a seniors heaven is going to be a challenge.
Frank McKeown now runs the Economic Development Corporation – he isn’t comfortable with the idea of Burlington being seen as a seniors heaven; that doesn’t jive very well with a vision of a city that has loads of high-tech talent and is one of the most pleasant and safest places to live – expensive perhaps but the high tech field pays very well.
James Ridge and his wife are going to take four days to drive from Vancouver to Burlington with heir four pets in the car. One can imagine the conversations that will take place – between the husband and wife – we don’t believe the pets talk.
Staff know next to nothing about the man who is going to lead the administrative side of the city. Ridge will want to determine as quickly as he can what he has in the way of bench strength and figure out what he wants in the way of a senior level administrative structure. Right now many of the eggs are in Stewart’s basket.
During the early Goldring first term there were three General Managers. That got whittled down to two with the working relationship with one of those two less than sterling.
Roman Martiuk was the City Manager at the time; he wasn’t able to form the kind of working relationship Goldring wanted and after just over two years Martiuk moved on – ok he was pushed out.
Goldring himself had a very difficult first two years getting the hang of the job for which he wasn’t all that well prepared. His wisest move was bringing Frank McKeown in as Chief of Staff but that didn’t last.
Fielding’s octane level was far too high for this council. Time will show just how rough shod he ran over this council.
Besides the Air Park matter and the decisions to be made on what we do with the employment land we have there is a document that sets out what taxes could look like twenty years out. It is not a pretty picture.
Welcome to Burlington James Ridge!
