Fallout continues over psychologist session
Mayor Naheed Nenshi is trying to downplay this week’s facilitator-psychologist episode as a “remarkably non-dramatic issue,” but some council colleagues are still bitter about how the mayor handled it and handled their concerns.
Speaking to reporters in Vancouver after speaking at its Cities Summit, Nenshi said Wednesday he organized a session for council to assess its working relationships. He heeded recommendations to let someone else lead the gathering so he could participate alongside the 14 other aldermen.
It just so happened that Calgary’s human resources department tapped a clinical psychologist — used widely for corporate groups, including city hall — to lead the team-building session.
“So over the course of the day, this went from someone to write on the whiteboard to a mediator to a psychologist to a psychiatrist.
“Last I heard, we had 15 couches set up at city council and we were all discussing our inner feelings,” he told reporters in Vancouver.
“It was a remarkably non-dramatic issue, and I don’t make any apologies for trying to get the organization to try to work better.”
Six council veterans vocally opposed Nenshi’s initiative, some saying later that better leadership from him was the key to improving council togetherness.
Ald. Andre Chabot said the session “was kind of sprung on us without any forewarning” and that the mayor shot down his offers to rethink the format.
“Typically a retreat is decided upon by a board, and you set the objectives . . . together as a board,” the third-term alderman said.
“None of us are ministers under the mayor or employees of the mayor.”
Many also chafed at Nenshi’s description of council as “dysfunctional” after sometimes rival Ald. Gord Lowe threatened to skip the session.
They will revisit this issue next Tuesday at a committee chaired by the mayor.