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Let me welcome you to 2011.

After the election and budget deliber-ations of November and December, our city council has emerged into a new year with all the possibilities in the world before them.

So what now? Well, here’s what to expect:

If you weren’t sick enough of hearing about the airport tunnel during the leadup to the election, I hope you’ve enjoyed your two month respite, because Mayor Nenshi is about to make it something you’re going to hear about every day moving forward.

Figures ranging from $100 million to more than a billion dollars were batted around during September and October, but the time for inflammatory politics is past. The first step for the airport tunnel is to find out how much it actually will cost, then if it can be built. Once that is settled, expect council to begin the debate on the need for such a tunnel in earnest.

Expect to hear a lot about secondary suites — an issue that has put a bug under about a third of our council members including, and perhaps most so, the mayor. The debate about a city-wide policy to give homeowners a less onerous — and less random — process will be a big one with lots of Calgarians getting the chance to have their say.

The future of the southeast LRT is something I expect you’ll be hearing more about soon enough, too. If the money is to be had — and some argue with the bounce back of the economy it more than likely will be — the southeast LRT could rocket to the top of the agenda once the airport tunnel is dealt with.

You can also expect the topic of campaign finance reform to return to council again, this time with a mayor and a couple of councillors who count this as a “pet peeve” actually committed to finding a way to make the change permanent and enforceable.

Don’t be surprised if you see Nenshi enter into a battle over the city’s procurement processes either. With Louise Crossing becoming an issue during the election and the mayor’s humorous public musings about the cost of everything from an internet router for his office, to business cards, to his quest to get a less expensive vehicle, this aspect of our civic government could very well end up under the microscope sooner rather than later.

Of course with all these issues to choose from, you can be forgiven for wondering why fluoridation — a topic that I’m confident councillors heard about rarely when door-knocking during the election — has become the first issue to make it on the 2011 agenda

It’s a good conversation to have, but is it really the most pressing one? The other items listed here should be dealt with next. If they aren’t, then you have my permission to lose faith in our new council’s ability to set priorities.

It looks like it’s going to be a busy few months. Hold on for the ride.

Original: http://www.metronews.ca/calgary/local/article/743399–welcome-to-2011

Tags: Calgary, Metro Column, Politics
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It’s one of those annual rites of passage in Calgary. Early in every new year each Calgary property owner opens their property assessment and promptly proclaims “my house isn’t worth that much!”

Those who feel the value listed is more than their property is worth scream it from the roof tops and often appeal to the City of Calgary using as many dirty words as possible.

Others who find their property undervalued either snicker to themselves and hope no one notices, or dread the day they sell, fearing they’ll only get a pittance of what they think they should.

Either way, no one is ever happy after opening that envelope and everyone remarks what a terrible job the City of Calgary did in putting a dollar figure to their cherished home.

The problem is — and this is hard to wrap your head around — it doesn’t matter how much the city says your home is worth. That dollar value isn’t important; it’s just a multiplier needed to figure out what share of the tax burden you should pay in relation to everyone else in Calgary.

As a result everyone gets mad at entirely the wrong thing.

What is more important is how that listed value compares to your neighbours’ value.
Don’t get me wrong, the city brings the pain on themselves.

The percentage of Calgary’s property value you own does not need to be viewed as a dollar amount, but they choose to show it to you like that; thus leading to all the misdirected confusion and anger. Marc Doll, a local realtor says, “You wouldn’t believe how much time I have to spend teaching people that the city valuations are not market value.”

So this year, forgo the anger at the “value” of your home and instead visit calgary.ca/assessment and view what others are paying. You can even search your neighbours properties to see if you’re paying your fair share compared to them.

Then ask yourself — “Is there a better way to do this?” A topic for another day.

Original: http://www.metronews.ca/calgary/local/article/737048–assessment-not-what-you-think

Tags: Calgary, Metro Column, Politics
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Last week I began my list of newsmakers and the top city hall political mistakes of 2010. As the year comes to a close, we reflect back on the year that was by finishing the countdown. (Visit metronews.ca to see part one.) [Or here.]

No. 2 on the list also doesn’t belong to a politician. To call Tracy McTaggart an “embattled auditor” does not do justice to what the former city financial double-checker had to endure throughout 2010. Not only did the City of Calgary have big questions needing investigating by her department — such as the Louise Station land deal, missing funds, projects going over budget and the Calatrava bridge, along with other sole-sourced projects — but her department kept getting further and further behind in the projects they were assigned last year. Eventually an external review found she didn’t even meet the bare minimum of auditing standards, and she was fired.

But the reason McTaggart is the not-so-proud owner of the second-biggest city hall mistake of 2010 is the one little sentence she uttered to the audit committee on May 20, when she said she could “pretty much guarantee there is some procurement fraud going on.” The problem was she had no proof — a big no-no in the land of auditing — and so began rolling the ball down a path leading to her dismissal and tarring.

And No. 1 on the list of 2010 city hall mistakes: Barb Higgins’ Thursday, Oct. 14. As good as the week the police chief criticized Naheed Nenshi was for him, this one day was as bad for Higgins. It started with the now-infamous Mike McCourt Citytv interview, during which Higgins responded poorly to overly harsh questions from the cantankerous interviewer, and then, after walking off camera, she gave a verbal lashing to volunteers who asked her questions about her arts policy on air. Her bad day continued with another two poor interviews courtesy of some tough questions at X92.9 and a caller to AM770 inquiring as to why she would not do a televised debate with Nenshi and Ric McIver. The headlines just two days before the election were suddenly about Higgins not being tough enough to be mayor and having a short fuse. This gave many Calgarians enough reason to vote another way. One day undid weeks of hard work and led to a thirdplace finish.

Aside from the odd new councillor’s, the only campaign that can really claim to have gone off as planned was that of Naheed Nenshi. Mayor Nenshi is the undisputed newsmaker of 2010 for Calgary City Hall. His “politics in full sentences” was the right campaign at the right time for Calgary. They took advantage of the opportunities presented to them and they rode a wave of momentum to victory. His election made national and international headlines and, unlike past years, hundreds showed up to see him sworn in. However, more impressive has to be how Nenshi is governing since taking over. In stark contrast to our expectations of politicians, Nenshi is proving to be an Everyman so far, and is actually accomplishing what he said he would do during the campaign.

2010 was perhaps the most exciting year in Calgary city hall political history, with lots of newsmakers and lots of mistakes. As I toast the new year this weekend, my wish will be for 2011 to be a little less dramatic. Cheers to that!

Tags: AM770, Barb Higgins, Calgary, Citytv, Metro Column, Mike McCourt, Naheed Nenshi, Politics, Ric McIver, Tracy McTaggart, X92.9
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With the arrival of the Christmas and holiday break we’re given a chance to reflect on the past year to see how we got to where we are.

As 2010 comes to a close, today and next Friday I present some of the great things we witnessed this year at City Hall. I’ll also countdown my choices for biggest political mistakes in the past twelve months.

Mayor Dave Bronconnier started the craziness that would be 2010 when, on February 23 he announced he would not be seeking a fourth term as mayor. After a pretty stable nine year reign, things were about to change. Some thought for better, some feared for worse.

Bronconnier is a top city newsmaker for his nine years of service as mayor, and for starting the ball rolling on what would be one of the most unpredictable years in Calgary city hall history.

Once Bronconnier made his announcement, Ric McIver, the nine year alderman who became so good at opposing Bronconnier he earned the nickname Dr. No, immediately became the front runner in the race to replace him.

Even before Bronconnier’s declaration McIver was rumoured to have decided to take a chance at the mayor’s seat. He spent almost all of 2010 saying “I have no announcement to make today” when asked if he was going to run. It would take him until April 22 to make it official.

McIver’s journey is big news this year because the mayor’s chair was his to lose. And lose it he did. His campaign was solid and steady, never wavering. Until it was too late.

His coronation was a forgone conclusion as late as three months before the election, but his team’s stubbornness to react to what all Calgarians were noticing — the rise of Naheed Nenshi in the polls — was his eventual undoing. This ranks at number four on my list of city hall mistakes for 2010.

The third biggest city hall political mistake for 2010 has to be the event that bolstered the Nenshi campaign and vaulted him into contention. On September 23 police Chief Rick Hanson responded to questions from Nenshi directed at leading candidate Ric McIver hitting him for not asking tougher questions when approving the 2011 Calgary Police budget. Hanson tread where few civil servants dare by calling the math behind Nenshi’s questions “irresponsible.”

Calgarians and the media immediately took notice of what had been a Nenshi release getting little traction until then, saying “ya, why didn’t McIver ask tougher questions?” Suddenly Nenshi and the spars with McIver and Hanson were the headlines for an entire week at a critical time during the campaign. Nenshi could now legitimately claim he was part of a three way race.

Pick up the Boxing Day paper or check out metronews.ca/calgary for part 2 of DJ Kelly’s political newsmakers and mistakes of 2010.

Original: http://www.metronews.ca/calgary/local/article/728213–2010-was-a-puzzle-of-political-folly

Tags: Calgary, Metro Column, Politics
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The following column was published in both Metro Calgary and Metro Edmonton.

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The calendar hasn’t even flipped to 2011 yet but the provincial parties are already busy lining up their election plans for an anticipated spring 2012 vote. And the tried-and-true methods for engineering election wins will again be unfurled.

Sure those strategies have worked for many years, but 2012 is going to be an election unlike any Alberta has seen before. Not only do we have a real choice for the first time in 20 years, but how you campaign has changed a lot in the last 40 years. Heck, it’s changed in the last two years.

The much-ballyhooed, game-changing Barack Obama electoral campaign of 2008 could not be replicated in 2012.

It’s about the right campaign at the right time. It’s something the Progressive Conservatives should be very concerned about.

Over the past 40 years they’ve gotten very, very good at campaigning. So good, in fact, it might be impossible to convince them that the strategies they’ve used in the past will be nowhere near enough to win the next election in familiar landslide fashion. It can even be argued that if the Wildrose Alliance figures out the new realities of 2012 first, the PCs probably won’t even win.

So what will be different come the drop of the writ this time? With each passing month, the electorate becomes more informed and more connected.

Whether it be Facebook and Twitter, or a TV that lets you surf the Internet —or even just a younger generation coming of age weaned on Wikipedia-style accessibility to information — this is a different public than the parties pandered to last time around. Whoever uses these new tools to allow voters to share information the best will have an upper hand.

These tools also point towards an election being fought on a local level, similar to the way it was done a century ago. With bloggers playing an increasingly important role in provincial political punditry and citizens with the ability to share who they’re voting for and why, the story doesn’t always need to be about the leader.

It can, and often will, be about the local candidate. Expect to see summer barbecues, community events and neighbourhood councils be the real battleground in 2012 as candidates get a lot more direct comparative time.

This should theoretically be a boon for the PCs, who have a relatively weak leader, and bad news for the Wildrose Alliance, who in Danielle Smith have a strong one.

But the Wildrose should not be blinded by tradition and may be much better poised to take advantage of these new realities.

The premier’s chair awaits the party who does just that.

Edmonton original: http://www.metronews.ca/edmonton/local/article/722440–campaigns-all-about-timing

Calgary original: http://www.metronews.ca/calgary/local/article/722440–campaigns-all-about-timing

Tags: Metro Column, Politics
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