Trail school road show highlights board’s waste

Re: On the move (May 6th)

It was interesting to read about the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board spending a million dollars to move the rickety Mohawk Trail school to their new head office on the Mountain.
It’s surprising the board has no logistics plan to move this relic, before they spent money on getting it ready to move. The fastest, most direct route is along Mohawk Road, which will require all overhead wires to be removed. The board, in its infinite wisdom will try to use back streets, to avoid moving wires. Since taxpayers own Horizon Utilities, how much is the board paying our utility to move the wires along the route? Is there anyone in the board who can think outside the box to find a way to move this old one-room school with the least amount of disruption?
In the end, what will be gained for this million-dollar expenditure? This money could be used for school maintenance, which the board doesn’t do regularly, as evidenced by the sad state of repairs of our schools.
It has become patently obvious that our school system is broken and many elementary schools are closing to the detriment of their neighborhoods.
Once this big move is done, it will be interesting to see what the final bill is, as I suspect it will be more than the $1 million they budgeted.

Mark-Alan Whittle
Hamilton Mountain

Where are paying supporters of west harbour site?

I’ve spent hundreds and hundreds of hours reading reports and anything else available to the public regarding where to build a stadium and velodrome for the Pan Am games.

I have been in constant contact with Pan Am games CEO Ian Troop, nice fellow. Open, honest and transparent, he wants what's good for the games, above all else.

I certainly understand what he means by legacy, a paying user, or group of users, like football teams or soccer teams, as the case may be.

Anyhow, having made visits to both areas to see for myself, it wasn't that hard to figure out which location will serve this community well for generations to come, one with a park, instead of a stadium.

What I really find sad, and I’m sure Ian Troop would concur, is we are losing sight of the heart and spirit of the games, why we are participating in this world class event in the first place.

I’m impressed that Mr. Troop has allowed council to carry on as they have, everyone chipping in their partisan two cents worth, instead of dealing with the fundamental principles of the Pan Am Games.

Who will be footing the bill after the games have left? Having paying tenants lined up before you build something is always a good idea.

Why has nobody (paying users) stepped forth to support Mayor Fred’s insistence on the west harbour site for a 15,000-seat stadium and Velodrome?

The Tiger-Cats, and Bob Young, have done their homework and much, much more, in preparation for the Pan Am games on the east Mountain, a pastoral setting unlike any other I’ve seen.

We have to have a Pan Am stadium on the east Mountain that pulls its own weight — only Bob Young has offered to assume this responsibility, taxpayers will not be on the hook for one thin dime.

The recent discussions about a greenfield parking lot across the street from the lobe of land proposed for the stadium structure, fails to note that two-lane on-and off-ramps spill right into the side of this property at a T-intersection. If you were to drive straight through, you would be in the east Mountain stadium parking lot. Crosswalks are already there because this section of road is four lanes wide at this point. Other arterial roads lead away from this area in every conceivable direction.

In case nobody has noticed, the Highway 20 area and Highway 6 is bustling with ongoing development of every single type — residential, commercial, the works.

This part of the Mountain is booming at an incredible pace; to call it suburbia is ridiculous.

I keep hearing how the best interests of the public will be served, I hope that includes the hopes and dreams of the 250,000 Hamilton residents who live on Hamilton Mountain and the surrounding communities who want to get behind the spirit of the games as well, not treated as second-class citizens by those living in the lower city because we support the east Mountain location.

People drive cars in huge numbers in this city. Look in any driveway on any street you pick, an average two cars or more. People also like convenience, that's why all shopping centres have huge parking lots. They are a fact of life and a reality.

I have also been doing research on parking lots and how to make them more environmentally acceptable and how to lower their carbon footprint.

I was surprised at some of the innovative ways, one I saw had a canopy of solar cells used to offset the power requirements of the stadium when in use and feeding back into the grid when the stadium was not in use, or another lot paved with non-permeable surfaces with drainage that is used to flush the toilets in the stadium.

I could go on, but you get the idea. I look forward to reading the assessment report we have all been waiting for. The sooner the better, the public has a right to know, especially a decision of this magnitude.

Mark-Alan Whittle, Hamilton Mountain

Draft A Mayor: Cal Di Falco support growing fast

Every day I check this site Cal’s numbers keep increasing. Go Cal.

Draft A Mayor

Little grass left to absorb all this rain: MAW

After reading all the stories and headlines regarding the repeated sewer backups and flooding happening in different parts of the city, I’m left wondering how on Earth this could be classed as a “natural disaster” as opposed to an engineering problem with the sewer system the flooded homes are hooked up to. If you enter the co-ordinates into Google Earth, an image of the area from 2005 shows that hundreds of homes have been built in this area and hooked up to the existing sewer trunk line buried under the road.

I then went to the city’s mapping system, available online, that shows where all the sewer system connections are and how they are grafted into the main trunk line for the area.

I’m no expert, but even “Joe Plumber” could figure this one out: a capacity problem caused by massive over-development leaving almost no grass to absorb any excess rain, with all of it (runoff) running into the sewer system in the street.

Mark-Alan Whittle, Hamilton Mountain
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Ontario taxpayers bailed out Hamilton again

The Hamilton Spectator
(Apr 9, 2009)

Re: 'McGuinty is council's fairy godmother' (Column, April 3)

After reading about the latest $16.5 million bailout for the City of Hamilton from the Dalton McGuinty Liberal government, I would like to thank the rest of the hard-working taxpayers of Ontario for bailing out our city for the fifth year in a row.

Unfortunately for the people who live here, it has allowed our local council to avoid the hard decisions necessary to right our sinking ship and balance our books without getting millions of dollars from the rest of you.

As old habits are hard to break, I look forward to next year's bailout so we can keep our property taxes the lowest they have been since amalgamation.

-- Mark-Alan Whittle

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Search ramps up for new city manager

The creaky mechanism for finding a new city manager to replace Glen Peace is finally clicking along.

The city has hired a headhunting firm, job ads are appearing in the national papers and a target date of Oct. 1 has been set for having Hamilton's next top bureaucrat sitting at his or her desk.

Councillor Russ Powers, chair of the steering committee tasked with interviewing candidates and recommending a final choice, says members aren't looking for an agent of change in the mode of a Doug Lychak.

They want a staff leader who will continue to implement agreed upon strategic objectives such as growing the economy. "We don't want somebody coming in reinventing the wheel," Powers said.

Peace announced his resignation in March. He left the job at the end of June. And finance director Joe Rinaldo has been appointed interim city manager until the position is filled.

If the legwork to find a new broom seems slow (actually it's roughly in line with previous hirings), blame it on the tedious RFP process they first had to go through just to choose a headhunter.

The committee ended up selecting the national firm of Ray & Berndtson and earmarked $60,000 for the search-and-find mission.

Applicants are welcome from both the private and public sectors, as well as from existing staffers.

No internal candidate has submitted a resume yet, but Scott Stewart, general manager of public works, has said he intends to.

Other senior staffers widely expected to throw their hats into the ring are Chris Murray, director of the city's housing division and former pointman on the Red Hill Valley project, and Jo-Anne Priel, general manager of community services.

It's generally believed Rinaldo will resist the temptation to take the plunge and that Tim McCabe, the newish general manager of economic development and planning, is circling the bait, but might not bite.

There's also speculation that Dave Logan, the former head of labour relations for the city who left in '06 to work for the provincial government, may be eyeing the post.

The newspaper ads certainly make it sound like an attractive position, even without reference to a salary and benefit package of about $200,000 a year.

"With its diverse economy, lakeside location and extraordinary community spirit, Hamilton is a lively and livable city that's located in the heart of Canada's most populous province," says the career ad.

No argument there. That's absolutely true. This is a great city to live and work in.

The ad makes note of our internationally renowned educational institutions and hospitals, our manufacturing, health care and agriculture-based industries, and the happy fact that Site Selection, a real estate and economic development magazine, rated Hamilton as the fifth best location in Canada for investing and growing a business.

Again, no argument. As long as the economy stays on the rails, this city is ready to boom.

It's only when the ad starts talking glowingly about the new city manager working closely with the mayor and city council that the rose starts to wilt.

But, really, what do we expect from a job ad? It's not supposed to poison the well, is it?

It can't talk about our well intentioned but inconsistent and struggling mayor and his divided and frequently muddled council.

It can't talk about the infighting and backstabbing and the intense media scrutiny that makes city hall a combination bear pit and toxic fishbowl.

No, let prospective candidates do their own due diligence.

But let's at least give them a cryptic clue about what to expect by sharing what, in my books, will always be this city's unofficial slogan, courtesy of political gadfly and unsuccessful council candidate Mark-Alan Whittle.

Hamilton: Get used to it.

Andrew Dreschel's commentary appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

adreschel@thespec.com

905-526-3495

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Eisenberger's night of the long knives

The strange thing about Mayor Fred Eisenberger is he usually doesn't seem to be bothered by political defeats or reverses.

It's almost as if he just shrugs mentally and then carries on to the next issue.

That wasn't the case last week.

Sitting in the mayor's chair during the final Lister debate, he looked like a beaten man who was hanging on by sheer will.

Earlier that day, Eisenberger had called a news conference to admit he may have broken city council's code of conduct in an off-the-record conversation with me, a tape recording of which had apparently been swiped from his office and given to a news outlet.

Taking it on the chin, Eisenberger called for a police probe of the missing tape and a city investigation of his own behaviour.

At his news conference, Eisenberger noted his conversation with me had not been published and that he had never leaked or released a confidential document.

But he was surely aware that, as the driving force behind hiring an integrity commissioner, his pedestal had lurched sickeningly.

Now, hours later, he was watching the Lister project and the $7-million provincial grant slip through his fingers despite his best efforts to seal a deal.

If ever he needed a win, this was the time.

Then came what may have been the cruellest cut of all.

At one point, Eisenberger stepped out of the room and into what must have been a stomach-dropping hallway conversation.

Councillor Sam Merulla buttonholed him to say that it was Councillor Brad Clark who had sold him down the river by circulating a digital file and transcript of the missing tape to Hamilton Community News, formerly known as Brabant.

http://canwest.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/canwest-chchnews-pub01-live/current/launch.html?maven_playerId=chchmain&maven_referralObject=1803820

Eisenberger knew, of course, that the files had been passed on to the paper.

That's what precipitated his confessional news conference earlier that day.

But until that moment, he had no idea that the person responsible was in the same room debating Lister with him.

You have to wonder what went through Eisenberger's distracted mind when he returned to the meeting and looked at the man who had plunged a political knife into his back.

His shoulders seemed to sag. He seemed to visibly shrink in the mayor's chair.

Clark would later admit that, yes, he was responsible for distributing the files.

Clark said he did it in the name of public interest, arguing that because the mayor had wagged his finger at city hall leakers, the public deserves to know he was also guilty.

Context is everything, of course, both when it comes to disclosing confidential information and claiming the moral high ground.

Clark's whistleblowing argument would hold more water if he had given the files to the city's lawyer rather than trying to orchestrate a media outing of the mayor.

But for reasons of his own, that's not the way Clark wanted the story to unfold.

To make matters worse for Eisenberger, the same man who rocked his reputation for integrity also arguably marshalled the most persuasive arguments of the night against the Lister deal.

In one horrible day, Eisenberger lost the Lister vote and became the subject of a code of conduct investigation.

He's not likely to shrug off either any time soon. On the other hand, he has been a politician long enough to know how rough and dirty things can get in this town.

In fact, it was Eisenberger who once memorably observed that in Hamilton, politics are played with live bullets.

After last week, he may want to suggest printing that warning on the cover of the candidates' handbook they give out to people thinking of running for city council.

Andrew Dreschel's commentary appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
adreschel@thespec.com 905-526-3495
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