BIT BY BIT, WATSON CONSOLIDATES POWER
If there’s one thing you should take away from city council’s freshly tabled — and scintillatingly named — governance report, it’s this: The position of deputy mayor is not a real thing.
And it’s important to remember that over the next four years, because the way Mayor Jim Watson is treating these ceremonial positions, it might be easy to forget that the deputy mayor has no actual power.
Among the 126 pages that comprise the main portion of the “council governance review report” is a recommendation by Watson that the city’s two deputy mayors automatically be appointed to council’s powerful finance and economic development committee. Most of the committee’s other members are chairs of standing committees, such as planning and transit — people who do real work. Deputy mayors? Not so much.
A deputy mayor steps in for the head honcho when he’s not around, most importantly to sign documents that need immediate approval, but also to cut the occasional ribbon. In pre-Watson days, the necessary but hardly influential role was rotated among willing councillors.
When Watson was sworn in four years ago, he proposed to change the deputy mayor role from a rotating one to a permanent position that not just one, but two councillors would hold over the entire term. Even Toronto, with its mammoth 45-member council, has just one deputy mayor.
Being deputy mayor to Watson isn’t a particularly exciting job. It entails going to events and ceremonies that Watson can’t — or isn’t inclined to — attend, while allowing him to accept ever more invitations from the public. No wonder many councillors didn’t want it last time around, but Watson convinced councillors Eli El-Chantiry and Steve Desroches to take it on.
Desroches embraced the role and soon added “Office of the Deputy Mayor” to his signature. (El-Chantiry was a bit more low key.) But there is no office of the deputy mayor, at least not in Ottawa. In some small Ontario municipalities residents elect a deputy mayor — South Huron, Kingsville, Township of Tiny (yes, a real place) — but not in Ottawa, or any other large city.
Deputy mayors in Ottawa have no mandate from the people — theirs are largely ceremonial positions filled at the discretion of the mayor. Because they are appointed by Watson (although officially they must be approved by a vote of council), they will in all likelihood be strong supporters.
And is acting as deputy mayor really the best use of councillors’ time?
Managing the ceremonial duties of the deputy mayors is so onerous that the governance report is recommending that an employee be assigned to them part-time, while the audit committee — which is being promoted to a full-fledged standing committee to undertake valuable studies — is getting no additional administrative support, as other standing committees do.
Would residents not be better served by these elected officials working more on ward files and poring over committee reports? The same can be said of the newly created sports commissioner job, another specious position with a big title and little meaning that Watson gets to appoint.
Little by little, Watson continues to consolidate his influence around the council table. Those deputy mayors are two more votes on the committee — and council — the mayor won’t have to worry about. Same thing goes for the sports commissioner.
For a more administrative example of Watson’s growing power at city hall, look no further than Page 116 of the governance report at the recommendation that the mayor be giving sole authority to conduct performance reviews, “authorize salary adjustments” and approve vacation and sick leave for the city manager and auditor general.
Now to be fair, council would still have the sole authority over hiring and firing either the city manager or the auditor, but granting this new power is a dangerous precedent. Watson might not abuse it, but future mayors could use the authority to make some official’s life very difficult.
The new council, which takes power Monday, can either approve or reject these recommendations at the special council meeting next Wednesday. It’ll be interesting to see how much influence the mayor has over it in its first two days in office.