I was disappointed to read the front page of last Thursdays paper.
It reported that City Hall decided to conduct contract negotiations in the public media by conducting a survey of selected residents (randomly) asking which they preferred, councils offer, or the unions request?
This is a poor way to express your point in negotiations and should never be done. It only increases tensions in a already tense negotiations and pits neighbour against neighbour during the negotiation process.
Of course, the majority of residents would (given limited information), side with city hall's zero per cent increase in the first two years of a three year deal, out of fear that this council would raise their taxes to offset. In my opinion this is a low level tactic by City Hall to gain what they see as leverage in negotiations as well it's a very slippery slope to enter into.
I assume City Hall feels that this is being transparent, if so, is City Hall prepared to be totally transparent on all expense accounts of council and publish this in the local paper? Are they willing to survey residents on all City Hall decisions thus reducing the need for council itself? Is City Hall prepared to publish the spending of all city tax dollars and the returns on those tax dollars to the city, in the local paper? This would include a report on the cost to send a delegation to China and the actual dollar return to the city. Or, how many millions of dollars the Terasen Gas deal actually generated for the city coffers as touted years ago by City Hall? The list is endless, if you truly want to be transparent...
In my opinion the decision to negotiate in the local media was (to say the least) an ill-conceived decision, it causes more harm than good and only creates a toxic relationship between City Hall and city workers.
Rick Corrigal
City Resident
