Carline transit comment a sign of Vancouver's weakening regional position

By Mike Klassen. Posted at CityCaucus.com on September 7, 2010 | Comments (26)

The Fraser Valley, not Vancouver, will be on the fast track if Metro decides

Last week Metro Vancouver chief administrative officer Johnny "Cash" Carline weighed into the growing debate on where the regional transit authority Translink should devote limited capital dollars after Evergreen Line to expand its network. According to a Vancouver Sun report from last week –

The recommendation, included in Metro's new 2040 Shape our Future draft regional growth strategy, suggests TransLink give priority to connecting Surrey city centre to other growth neighbourhoods following completion of the long-awaited Evergreen Line, which will link Port Moody, Coquitlam and Burnaby.

Only after Surrey gets improved transit should TransLink consider extending rapid transit along the Broadway corridor, the draft strategy says.

We've discussed several times before Vancouver's waning influence within the region. Vancouver has virtually no support within the Metro Vancouver board of directors except on minor issues. On the waste incineration question, for example, Vancouver has taken a "go it alone" approach to their policy. It's unthinkable that if this were a couple decades back and Vancouver Mayor Gordon Campbell was still GVRD Chair that the top bureaucrats would turn its back on the region's biggest city.

However, under Mayor Gregor Robertson's comparatively unfocused and weak leadership, Metro Vancouver has no problem giving the Coov the big kiss off. Couple this with Robertson's inept handling of the Bombardier Streetcar line, and you've got a political double-whammy.

Mayor Gregor claims that his goal is to make Vancouver the greenest city this side of Mars. He will accomplish that how? It appears by getting us onto bikes, and not rapid transit.

Now, it should be pointed out that Metro Vancouver will not have ultimate decision-making authority on the matter of where rapid transit goes. That call goes to Translink, with the Ministry of Transportation having the most influence in the end. There's also the Council of Mayors, which as part of Translink's governance structure must approve annual budgets and has a dominant role to play in approving any supplemental funding.

Not getting some kind of improved transit out to UBC and onto the Broadway corridor (low densities will make putting Skytrain unlikely past Arbutus, but a rapid bus network will supplement the route from there) will be problematic for the City and the university in the long term. An amazing twenty-five percent of Vancouver's economy is held within the Broadway corridor. For the sake of jobs and stable growth for the City, it's imperative that we drive ahead with plans for rapid transit.

Continue reading Carline transit comment a sign of Vancouver's weakening regional position.

Tagged: bombardier streetcar, greenest city, gregor robertson, ubc transit coorridor

Permalink | Filed under: Editorial

Vision's "enemies list" nothing new to politics

By Mike Klassen. Posted at CityCaucus.com on September 3, 2010 | Comments (49)

US President Richard Nixon caused a sensation with his own enemies list

Politics like so many things has a habit of repeating itself. And so it goes with the Vision Vancouver media hit list, which were are assured by fellow blogger Alex G. Tsakumis will be provided more evidence for on his site today. The most famous example of an "enemies list" in political history is the one produced by US President Richard M. Nixon with the help of key aides.

According to Wikipedia Nixon's enemies list included newsman Daniel Schorr as well as actor Paul Newman and a host of other celebrities, political figures and institutions:

The full list includes many notable people and publications, including Jane Fonda, Bill Cosby, Gregory Peck, Ted Kennedy, Shirley Chisholm, Joe Namath, Bella Abzug, Barbra Streisand, Carol Channing, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

As #1 on Vision's hit list I'm quite happy to be in the company of many of the esteemed journos in the list of 15. Apparently Paul Newman was damn proud to be on Nixon's list. Writer Hunter S. Thompson, who wrote scathingly about Nixon, was deeply disappointed about not being on Nixon's hit list.

Now I know why I've been reading comments from everyone from Charlie Smith, Bob Mackin and Jeff Lee, as well as my colleague Daniel at their disappointment of not being higher on Vision's hit list. I guess I get to breath the rarified air of being on top – for now. As for Nixon's list, I'd be happy to be compared to anyone of the folks on that list, with the possible exception of Carol Channing – she was a little odd.

Wikipedia states that the official purpose, as described by the White House Counsel's Office, was to "screw" Nixon's political enemies, by means of tax audits from the Internal Revenue Service, and by manipulating "grant availability, federal contracts, litigation, prosecution, etc." Certainly there can be no doubt that the Vision hierarchs would like to – at the very least – "screw" those who are not playing their game.

Some media have been flagged already in Vancouver as being "Vision-friendly". There are entire news broadcasts today in our city that would never think of producing one pixel of bad coverage for Gregor Robertson. There are other broadcasters, journalists and commentators who are far more coy about their support for Vision. Just thank your lucky stars that there are at least 15 folks (and several editors, and staff behind them) willing to stand up in some way to Vision's bullying tactics.

For the past two days Gregor Robertson's chief of staff has been calling news editors to castigate them for the hit list story coverage. There have been threats of lawsuits from the City of Vancouver to media outlets. The pressure must be unbelievable for news room editors and media brass to stand up to these threats. These guys are heroes, folks. Make no bones about it.

Continue reading Vision's "enemies list" nothing new to politics.

Tagged: gregor robertson, kevin quinlan, mike magee, penny ballem, richard nixon, vision media hit list

Permalink | Filed under: Editorial

In response to the recent smear about me

By Mike Klassen. Posted at MichaelKlassen.com on September 2, 2010

Sadly smear campaigns seen on the national stage are going local

Speaking to my friend Sam Sullivan last year he told me of one regret he had from his term in elected office. He said that he had worked more swiftly and aggressively to correct the record when media got the story wrong. One specific example was the story the webzine TheTyee.ca had published about him, which he eventually had a response published for after he left office.

Yesterday the Vision Vancouver linked website VancouverObserver.com published a wide-ranging smear against myself and Vancouver Sun reporter Jeff Lee. The writer is a former Vision Vancouver campaign manager and close connection to Gregor Robertson's chief of staff Mike Magee. I was not contacted for the story, and I will try to respond to the accusations in the following post.

1. On the connection with the Vancouver Sun. Since Jeff Lee is the first dedicated City Hall reporter working for the Vancouver Sun in nearly three years, it might come as a shock to the current government that they are getting some more scrutiny from the mainstream media. The fact is CityCaucus.com's political analysis and inside sources in political, business and public service circles are second to none. We're getting stories other media would otherwise not get, and we're providing deeper understanding of the political machinations than the MSM have traditionally provided. It should be no surprise, therefore, that media such as Lee are seeing bloggers as a new source of information. It's up to them to use their own lens on the credibility of the facts and the opinion before re-telling those stories in their publications or broadcasts.
   
   Just like the team surrounding the Mayor and his caucus, we have tried to gain a respectful relationship with the media. Sometimes they listen to us, sometimes they don't.
2. On my relationship with Colin Hansen. I was introduced to MLA Colin Hansen in 2003 and immediately found that he was one of the most sincere, hard-working and ethical people I've ever known. Everyone who has had a relationship with Hansen I know of holds him in very high regard. It was an honour for me to support him in past election campaigns.
3. On the scrutiny we give to Hollyhock and to Vision Vancouver insiders and financial backers. This is a core tenet of political transparency – knowing who has access to politicians. I'm proud of the work I've done on this topic, and wish more MSM probing would be done.
4. On LinkedIn profiles, websites, etc. I'm a consultant who works long days to afford to pay my bills. After ten years as a consultant I don't spend a lot of time doing personal marketing, other than business cards, networking, etc. 99% of my work comes through referral, and my Thinkcap.com website had not been updated in nearly four years. Several clients and/or projects had either moved on or had been updated since I put them on my portfolio. The type of work I do has also evolved into more strategic communications with a strong foundation in social media planning. Therefore I took down my old website earlier in the year (I believe it was in February) and replaced it with my Thinking Cap logo and new slogan "Issues Demystifed".
   
   The writer in the VO piece suggests that I took down my old website in response to my LinkedIn profile being read, and that it happened suddenly. I had no idea that this feature existed in LinkedIn (until yesterday), and as I said the website was changed months ago as it was frankly too out of date and didn't properly reflect my present work. I had no idea who the author of the VO post was until just a few weeks ago.
   
   I rarely take time to update profile bios, Facebook photos, LinkedIn or Plaxo info unless I've really got some time on my hands, which is rare. I think I update them once per year or so. I began writing for 24 Hours as a political commentator in October 2009.
5. On Jeff Lee's "empty city hall" story and our response on CityCaucus.com. I was only vaguely aware of the empty floors at Vancouver City Hall until I saw Jeff Lee's video posted on VancouverSun.com. I emailed Jeff about it and he said that the video had been posted too soon, and his story was still waiting to be published in the paper. Not long after the video was pulled. About 2 weeks later about 9:30pm on a Sunday evening I was on a phone call with someone when an email came in from my colleague Daniel with a link to Jeff's story. Realizing that this was a topic which would interest our readers, I quickly began writing an analysis of Lee's story so it would be online when the paper hit the streets in morning. I felt the real story was not the empty floors but the expansion of the Mayor's offices. I wrote the post that evening and published it just after 11pm.
   
   Apparently the fact that our post happened almost "simultaneously" in the eyes of Gregor's political staff suggests that we had coordinated with Lee. The fact is the whole post was written on Sunday night, thanks to the online version being available.
6. On my appointment to the Vancouver City Planning Commission. The VCPC is a great committee that I had wanted to be a part of for several years. It was an opportunity to collaborate with very smart people on the topic of city-making. I applied for a spot on this voluntary advisory body, and then proceeded to lobby for that position through my Mayor's office connections. Despite my relationships, I was not certain whether I would have the opportunity to serve on the VCPC. There had been a full "Three R" review of the advisory committees done in the months preceding.
   
   In the end I put my name forward as Vice-Chair and was selected by my peers on the committee for that role. It was a two-year appointment that had no compensation. I probably averaged about 30 hours per month in terms of my own volunteer time on the committee, and I'm supremely proud of the innovative work our committee did. See it at www.planningcommission.ca. By the way, I build this website as one of my volunteer roles. The web designer was hired directly by the committee.
7. On my work done for Mayor Sam Sullivan's office. I went back to my Quickbooks accounting software to review when I had worked and how much I billed. I began my first project – an email newsletter – in February 2006 three months after the election. I continued to work with the Mayor's office until November 2008. My total billables including GST added up to about $28,000. That works out to be about $10,000 per year, or about $800 per month on average. A small amount of this work included paying subcontractors.
   
   Myself or my company have not done any other work for the City of Vancouver.

I won't get into the various arguments the writer makes about the record of Sam Sullivan or the NPA. We do plenty of that on CityCaucus.com. I just wanted to make sure that when someone is making false accusations about me and my work, that I set the record straight.

If you have any further questions about me, I'm easy to reach by email or phone. See the info at CityCaucus.com/contact.

Tagged: favourite

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The Vision Hit List: we're number one (and three)!

By Mike Klassen. Posted at CityCaucus.com on September 1, 2010 | Comments (27)

We're number one...eeeeeyaaaaaaaaaah!

A quick update to our faithful readers, and a big thanks for some of the most amazing traffic we've seen since the Olympics and the great comments. The stories we've reported over recent days such as the Oglov contract for the Mayor's office, the iPad purchase plan, and the VACMPS memo revealing City Hall morale going down a mineshaft (which became the front page story in today's Vancouver Sun) were a little complex in terms of their details, but not surprisingly our CityCaucus.com readers understood the issues implicitly.

While Mayor Gregor avoids local media (again) to answer questions about his change of position on the West End STIR plan (asking Geoff Meggs to respond instead), I thought it might be fun to draw your attention to a fun story that's gone somewhat viral among Vancouver's media crowd.

Fellow blogger Alex G. Tsakumis has a recent post that reveals a reputed "media hit list" developed by the Vision backroom gang of their Top 15 most reviled civic affairs reporters in Vancouver. Apparently a few of us have got into Gregor & Magee's bad books. It's with a measure of pride and humility that I can tell you that I am Number One!

It still chokes me up that because of all of you – our coveted readers – I have been awarded with the top spot on Vision's list.

Now, the Mayor's office are scrambling to deny the story, as evidenced from this tweet from Kevin Quinlan. Is the hit list for real? Well, despite my respect for Alex I wasn't so sure until late this afternoon when my editor at 24 Hours – who was one of many media to get a haranguing phone call from Mike Magee today – told me he is now convinced enough of the credibility of Vision's list that he will be running my column about it in tomorrow's paper.

Continue reading The Vision Hit List: we're number one (and three)!.

Tagged: alex tsakumis, gregor robertson, kevin quinlan, mike magee, vision media hit list

Permalink | Filed under: City Focus

Exclusive: Internal memo & survey reveals plummeting City staff morale

By Mike Klassen. Posted at CityCaucus.com on August 30, 2010 | Comments (50)

An internal memo shared with CityCaucus.com reveals deep unhappiness among exempt staff

CityCaucus.com received a copy of a memo and survey that indicates a growing dissatisfaction among over 700 non-union staff working for the City of Vancouver. The memo dated June 15, 2010 is to the City's corporate management team and is signed by President Bill Boons and Vice-President Christine Warren on behalf of the members of the Vancouver Association of Civic Managerial and Professional Staff (VACMPS).

The memo begins with a respectful tone describing a Citywide culture of respect, fairness and a workplace that "drew a clear and important line between administration and politics."

However, the second paragraph goes on to say, "It is truly unfortunate that the environment noted above has changed." It says that "staff in all parts of the organization felt negatively affected by the new style of management." As a results VACMPS was asked "to stand up and present a strong and unified voice to senior management regarding both their concerns and their desire to work toward improvements."

So low key is VACMPS that they barely appear in a Google search. A pair of memos going back to 2000, then the rest is coverage from CityCaucus.com last year. But recent grievances among exempt (non-union) staff forced VACMPS to reactivate its relationship with Vancouver's top brass: "Based on the wishes of our members and on our constitution, we believe that a more formal relationship with the employer is now necessary."

The documents presented to CityCaucus.com are in two parts. A three-page letter, with a 15-slide PowerPoint presentation featuring survey results taken from over 70% of exempt staff, or 502 employees. The letter at times has a tone of despair:

"It is also important that senior management is fully aware that the 700+ exempt staff are at risk of becoming disengaged."

The memo states that "after 21 meetings with 225 exempt staff, VACMPS can identify some strong and consistent themes".

These are:

• A loss of respect and trust throughout the organization;
• Managers have lost their ability to manage – decision-making has been centralized and many staff have resported being unable to provide good service;
• Inefficient and expensive processes have replaced methods which were cheaper and more efficient (emphasis ours);
• Staff retention is becoming an issue; we are beginning to lose corporate knowledge on a significant scale;
• The City seems to be moving away from its core values...many younger staff report that they are reconsidering their decision to build a career at the City (emphasis ours);
• Staff are fearful of reprisals which is leading to a "heads down/don't rock the boat" attitude. Creativity and excellence are not being stimulated.

The fifteen pages of survey results follow. At the top of the list of items cited by survey respondents is "Lack of trust, respect and acknowledgement of skills/abilities/decision-making", with 52.7% agreed. The next slides outline the additional major concerns by management.

Continue reading Exclusive: Internal memo & survey reveals plummeting City staff morale.

Tagged: corporate management team, early retirements, gregor robertson, management despair, penny ballem, politicizing city hall, vacamps, vision vancouver

Permalink | Filed under: City Focus