'I can't say tell me what you know when you've just said there is nothing to report,' says Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek to city brass, who provide no information on why the water pipe broke
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Calgary city hall big shots do what they do best. They screw up.
There is supposed to be some kind of a report going to city council.
Folks are really interested in this one.
It is supposed to be telling us something, anything about what the hell happened back in June with the busted water pipe, with the hot spots needing fixing, with what seemed like a never-ending story in the summer of our discontent.
But the city hall brass have nothing. It’s not like they did some of their homework but didn’t finish it.
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It’s not like they answered a few questions but they didn’t fill in all the blanks.
They had nothing. They said we all have to hang tight until December.
It is obvious those running the show in the city hall cocoon learned nothing from the dark days back in June when a city hall higher-up had nothing to say when asked about the ruptured water pipe and the last time it had been inspected and what the inspection showed.
Back then, what was most remarkable was the guy acted as if he wasn’t expecting the obvious question.
Around the same time, Mayor Jyoti Gondek apologized for not communicating better.
So, on Tuesday, the city hall deep-thinkers tell city council not to worry they’ll have something to say … in December.
Councillors ask city hall brass questions but don’t confront them about the missing report of the water pipe investigation.
They ask questions but not the one question they should have been asking.
Why don’t you have the report we expected today?
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Finally, it’s Gondek’s chance to speak and she unloads on the city hall bosses.
“What do you know that we don’t know?” asks the mayor, who is clearly one unhappy camper.
“This feels a lot like early June when we weren’t getting communication out to the public quickly enough.
“We learned then that you can’t wait for all the information to be in hand. My question is: What do you know?
“I have a hard time believing you don’t know anything. What do you know right now?”
Now loyal readers know this about me.
I have shredded the mayor more times than I can count and I’m good at counting.
I have no problem raking politicians and others in authority over the coals, no matter the colour of their political stripe.
But readers also know I give credit where credit is due.
This time, Gondek is right. If anything she could have been even tougher.
The only wake-up call the high-and-mighties at city hall’s Cowtown Kremlin understand is one where you give them a real hard shake.
Now how did the city hall bosses respond?
One of the bosses, Michael Thompson, admitted he didn’t have a great response.
He tells council they need more time to get the details.
In the very next breath, the man says they need to come to council and Calgarians with more details earlier.
“We need to be providing more information as we’re getting it.”
But that is exactly what they did not do!
He apologizes and then apologizes again.
“I can’t say tell me what you know when you’ve just said you have nothing to report.”
The mayor and council aren’t even told why there is a delay.
“There’s got to be something you know you could be bringing us,” says Gondek.
Thompson from the city brass says he appreciates “the blunt feedback.”
Gondek ends by saying she hopes the consultant the city is working with on the internal water pipe probe is listening.
“We will take it back,” says Thompson.
Love to be the fly on that wall.
Now Terry Wong and Sonya Sharp are the councillors representing those hardest hit by the water main break.
They do not rise to the occasion.
Wong talks a lot but says little.
Sharp, a likely candidate to enter the mayor’s race, gives a weak performance.
Sharp talks about individuals having post-traumatic stress in Bowness and points out how the report we were supposed to see now will come after council chinwags over the budget next month.
Was Sharp, a long-time city hall employee, just unwilling to take the gloves off when it came to those ruling the roost downtown?
Hopefully, for her sake, the answer is not Yes.
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