Category: Ethics and behaviour

The Hidden Agenda in the Strategic Plan

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

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My final comment for the next while on the town’s committee-based wishlist (the so-called community-based strategic plan, of which it is neither) has to do with biased and partisan comments made in the document’s introduction. This material was presented to council in the recent versions (approved by a 7-1 vote, as expected, with one councillor absent) but not included in all earlier draft versions. I believe it represents the influence of the former VOTE (Voters Opposed To Everything) special interest group and their later followers in the deputy mayor’s special interest group, known locally (and humorously) as Better If I’m Elected, Collingwood. What sort of ……… click below for more ↓

17 Pages of Blather

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

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Zero point zero zero zero three eight. That’s the percentage of the population of Collingwood who made the effort to comment on council’s much-touted, revised, 17-page code of conduct before it was approved, Monday night. That’s 0.00038%, based on an estimated 21,000 residents. In other words: eight people. Only eight people out of 21,000 cared enough about council’s efforts to pump the bureaucracy to comment on the proposed code. Eight people. I hope they were all residents. One, I’m told, was a member of council, so if you take that person out of the equation because that’s what he or she ……… click below for more ↓

Fortuna: Why Plans Fail

Books & Reviews / Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies / Psychology & Sociology / Social Order & Disorder / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

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Niccolo Machiavelli used two words in his book, The Prince, to describe the factors that influenced events. In English these are virtue or character (virtu), fortune or chance (fortuna). Only virtue is internal – our nature – and although it manifests as voluntary action, it can only be somewhat, but not entirely controlled.* The other – chance or fortune – can make the best-laid plans of mice and men go aft agley, as Robert Browning wrote, regardless of our efforts to the contrary. In Chapter 25 of The Prince (What Fortune Can Effect In Human Affairs And How To Withstand Her), ……… click below for more ↓

Team Assessment

Books & Reviews / Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

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Following my last piece on the relevance of Patrick Lencioni’s book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, to Collingwood Council, I felt I should explore some of Lencioni’s ideas, as well as look at how a team’s performance is assessed. Teams (or groups) can be assessed several ways: the best way is internally (by their own members). The second is by a professional outsider who has the competence to do so after observing their behaviour in meetings. The third is by outsiders whose role is merely to watch them (as we watch council online or on TV). The three methods ……… click below for more ↓

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Municipal Politics / What I'm Reading Now4 Comments

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You can’t help but think, when you read that title, of five block-thinking, dysfunctional members of Collingwood Council. But, relevant as that description may appear in our political sphere, it is actually the title of a book by Patrick Lencioni, about how teams fail to coalesce and work together. I found it at a local bookstore this week and read it in a single night. Unlike many of the self-help books on management and leadership I’ve read over the years, this one actually made sense and explained itself well. As I read it, I realized quickly that Lencioni’s model of team ……… click below for more ↓

The Horns of a Dilemma

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviourOne Comment

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Poor Borg. One almost feels pity for their confusion. The members of Collingwood Council’s block-thinking collective were faced with a difficult dilemma on Monday: should they stick to their pettifogging ideology or break from it and support one of their own? Dogma versus friendship and loyalty. Monday night, another report from the Integrity Commissioner bashed the behaviour of one of the politburo. The purpose of the IC is to examine public complaints about whether members of council acted in an ethical, moral or even appropriate manner. This time the target was Councillor Tim Fryer. Read the report here (page 157). More principled people ……… click below for more ↓

Tourism and Collingwood

Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

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Tourism is the world’s fifth fastest-growing industry and growing at five percent per year. A recent story on CBC Radio this week suggests growth has been even higher for Canada, thanks to our lower Loonie: at least six percent. According to the Tourism Association of Canada, in 2013, Canada’s tourism industry: Represented more of Canada’s GDP than agriculture, forestry and fisheries combined Generated $88.5 billion in economic activity Was responsible for more than $17.2 billion in export revenue despite a growing travel deficit Generated $9.6 billion in federal government revenue Fostered 628 000 jobs across the country, spread across all 308 ridings Tourism ……… click below for more ↓

Strat Plan Wrap Up: Addintional Comments

Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

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Yes, the web page really does call for “Addintional Comments.” Well, I suppose consultants aren’t hired for their spelling or grammar. Otherwise there wouldn’t be all that bizarre capitalization or the missing punctuation. But you’re here to read my summation of the Collingwood’s fledgling strategic plan, not my editorial critique. Which is pretty simple: woo-hoo. I reiterate that a strategic plan can be either practical and pragmatic, or woo-hoo. This one is woo-hoo. By which I mean it is airy fairy collection of generalities, seasoned with ignorance, ideology and irrelevancies and very little actual direction. Well, most woo-hoo plans are. They aren’t ……… click below for more ↓

Strat Plan Part 6: Culture and the Arts

Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

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The fifth and final objective in Collingwood’s developing strategic plan (the woo-hoo plan) is culture and the arts. For something so important to the community, with such a huge potential, it encompasses a mere two goals. Disappointingly, neither of them relate to its huge economic potential, which everyone else seems to understand except this committee and its council. “The rapidly evolving global economy demands a dynamic and creative workforce. The arts and its related businesses are responsible for billions of dollars in cultural exports for this country. It is imperative that we continue to support the arts and arts education both ……… click below for more ↓

Strat Plan Part 5: Healthy Lifestyle

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I suppose we can all agree that a healthy lifestyle is better than an unhealthy one. And to a certain degree, a municipality can help residents choose a healthier one or at least give them opportunities to pursue it. But you have to ask just how seriously committed a municipality is to a healthy lifestyle when it sells pop, candy and junk food in the vending machines its own recreational facilities. How committed to a healthy lifestyle is a council many of whose members take the town hall elevator up a single storey rather than make the effort to walk ……… click below for more ↓

Strat Plan Part 3: The Waterfront

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The waterfront. It defines us geographically, historically and culturally. What could be more important to Collingwood than its waterfront that covers the entire northern border of this sleepy, lakeside town? Well, pretty much anything else it seems, if you you’re on Collingwood Council. Pick the most irrelevant, pointless, self-aggrandizing effort – like rewriting the Code of Conduct or flying around the country to party at taxpayers’ expense – and this council will eagerly pounce on it as a priority rather than deal with waterfront issues. Council is determined to hold up growth and development on this all-important area until sometime ……… click below for more ↓

Strat Plan Part 2: The Shuffle Game

Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

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In the second part of my critique of Collingwood’s woo-hoo strategic plan, I will look at the shuffle game. This is where consultants give contestants – I mean participants – a limited series of options and ask them to shuffle these around in order of their perceived priority. Then the results are collated and the one whose list looks most like the final version wins. There are five separate lists given to contestants. Think of them as strategic plan bingo cards: Accountable Local Government Public Access to a Revitalized Waterfront Economic Vitality Healthy Lifestyle Culture and the Arts Participants get ……… click below for more ↓

Fiddling While Rome Burns

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies4 Comments

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You know that legend about Nero fiddling while around him Rome was burning? It’s a popular metaphor for political cluelessness, for inaction, procrastination, for politicians oblivious to the important business of the city while they play games. For municipal leaders who focus on the petty, the trivial, the irrelevant and the self-serving, while major issues are ignored. Pretty much sums up Collingwood Council’s record to date. Fiddling with irrelevancies. To be fair, they’ve only been in office eight months and probably haven’t got around to focusing on important things. Still, you have to scratch your head and wonder why council wastes its collective energy on ……… click below for more ↓

Another Secretive, Self-Serving Committee

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesLeave a comment

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This week, Collingwood Council passed a motion to appoint the Block Five to a new standing committee. The standing committee system, you will recall, is a system of secretive committees that operates predominantly out of the public eye, with limited council attendance, and often without even media presence. Committees conduct town business beyond the pale of accountability. Here’s what they passed (in a 6-3 vote*): THAT Council approve the Striking Committee recommendation and appoint the following members to the Environmental Services Standing Committee: Deputy Mayor Brian Saunderson, Councillor Tim Fryer, Councillor Cam Ecclestone, Councillor Kathy Jeffery, and Councillor Deb Doherty. Saunderson and Fryer are, ……… click below for more ↓

Nailing Collingwood’s Door Shut to Business

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

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Councillor Deb Doherty seems eager to cement this council’s already ugly but deserved reputation for being hostile to business. This week she made a motion to re-open the always-contentious sign bylaw, apparently in order to impose draconian restrictions on business signs THAT Council direct Staff to review Sign By-law 2012-110 with respect to sign height and any other revisions or amendments as deemed appropriate by the Chief Building Official; AND FURTHER THAT the report be presented through the Development and Operations Standing Committee not later than August 31, 2015. Sign bylaws are necessary, but always contentious to debate. Municipalities want to limit clutter. Business owners ……… click below for more ↓

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