Yesterday, on CFRA’s municipal panel with Rob Snow, his guests were Councillors Allan Hubley, Tim Tierney and Rick Chiarelli. One of the topics was their office budgets which are now made public monthly and in some detail.
Councillor office budgets are $234,000 per year for councillors to spend on staffing, office and community related expenses. AS CFRA notes, they highlighted that Councillor Doug Thompson had the lowest expenditures to date at $59,000 and Councillor Mark Taylor the highest at $142,000. The issue discussed was are some councillors on …

Lately, City Hall has been listing to the nanny state side.  After opening up to the ideas of bar patios, they are now looking at more smoking restrictions and potentially more late night restrictions in the Byward market on restaurants and bars.
But I think there is a little bit of hope.  Councillor Tim Tierney actually asked how much the new smoking restriction would cost the city in terms of enforcement, staffing and signage.  Good question!  That’s the first question every councillor should ask.
I’ve long been a proponent of every motion …

I had to write one more post on the green bins and bi-weekly garbage pickup debate because when you think council couldn’t make a bad situation worse they come up with a five month delay?  The reasons are hilarious, ridiculous and sad; all at the same time.
Here are three reasons given to the Ottawa Citizen:

gives extra time to town- and garden-home owners and property managers to figure out how they will handle the changes, as many of them are concerned …

Lucia Harper (The Other Harper), is also looking forward to this federal election.  She believes that social media will rise in usage as a way to reach out the potential voters.  She notes that other prominent local politicians, Jim Watson, Yasir Naqvi, Lisa MacLeod and Tim Tierney, use social media profusely.
You can read more at Federal Elections Socially Speaking.

I called Councillor Tim Tierney last week out of the blue to see how he was doing in his new job and lo and behold, I found him at a hockey rink.  No he was not on a freebee in a luxury box watching a Sens game.  He was at his son’s hockey game.
It seems that even though his work load has jumped a magnitude or two, he is continuing to coach with his son, Liam’s, hockey team and attend the practices and games.  Good on you!
Besides the obvious that …

There have been two interesting articles published this week so far that shed light on how City Hall works and the challenge that lay ahead for the new councillors and Mayor Jim Watson.  Change will not be easy.
First, on Monday, the Ottawa Business Journal published an article by former mayor, Larry O’Brien, O’Brien: the difference between business and politics.  In this article, O’Brien discusses the politics of preservation superseding the interests of the voters.  One example cited is the 2009 budget deliberations where the mayor’s desire to review the budget …

If one looks at the makeup of this new council, it is very favourable one for new mayor, Jim Watson, to stickhandle his agenda.  Any new mayor would like that.
For Mayor Watson to get his priorities through this council, he would need thirteen votes.  Given nine of the ten new councillors will be eager to work with the big cheese, in the beginning anyway, he can count on their votes.  Then, he has the two votes of his two deputy mayors plus his own.  So that is twelve votes.  That …

Just listening to CFRA…on it are Tim Tierney, Keith Egli, Allan Hubley and Scott Moffatt.  Lead by Tierney, they all vowed to end omnibus motions.
So if these four can hold their ground, long term councillors who try to trade off tax relief for pet projects will have to go the long route to get things approved.  Expect line-by-line budget examination for the 2011 process.

This debate had the incumbent defending his record against two challengers: Tim Tierney and O’Neil Brooke.
The incumbent’s open statement was the standard incumbent spiel: continue to fight to keep taxes low and continue to provide the needed services for a better community.  I am waiting for an incumbent to say something new.
Brooke picked up on this and said that councillors think the public are trained liked Pavlov’s dogs.  He went so far to question if our election process is working as it …

PRESS RELEASE
Councillor grandstanding to divert attention from failure under his watch
Bellemare dropped the ball on Cyrville bridge and Cyrville Road resulting in lost opportunity for local residents.
Beacon Hill-Cyrville: In recent days Councillor Michel Bellemare has been attempting to divert attention away from the fact that under his watch in 2008, he voted to remove Cyrville Road from the City’s Transportation Master Plan resulting in a lost opportunity for businesses and residents of Beacon Hill-Cyrville ward.
“He clearly dropped the ball, and is now he’s trying to pick it …