[CanadianNational]

^ That is what I find most ominous here too - that "loyalty to the mayor" is the criterion for employment. Not council, not even other councillors, the executive team, the TTC, or, apparently, even the facts or experience.
This does not bode well.

 

[Electrify]

I would like to see the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, an organization of which Ford is a member of, come out against how he has handled the transportation portfolio. His plan is clearly wasting taxpayers dollars unnecessarily, and his demand to fire competent employees simply because they chose to operate with facts rather than a "mandate," passing on the firing costs to the taxpayer is highly irresponsible.

Them coming out against Ford and the "right wing" position on this issue might be enough to put some balance and reason back into this discussion.

 

[DSC]

Is the mgr of the TTC supposed to support the mayor, the TTC or council?

The Code of Ethics for Councillors (Section XII) is quite clear:

Under the direction of the City Manager, staff serve the Council as a whole, and the combined interests of all members as evidenced through the decisions of Council. Members shall be respectful of the role of staff to provide advice based on political neutrality and objectivity and without undue influence from any individual member or faction of the Council. Accordingly, no member shall maliciously or falsely injure the professional or ethical reputation, or the prospects or practice of staff, and all members shall show respect for the professional capacities of staff.

 

[Palma]

Is the mgr of the TTC supposed to support the mayor, the TTC or council?

Certainly not the mayor - he is one vote

 

[jje1000]

An interesting note- a professional engineer like Webster might have been guilty of breaching the Professional Engineers of Ontario Code of Ethics if he had agreed with the mayor, contrary to his convictions.

http://www.peo.on.ca/Ethics/code_of_ethics.html

2. A practitioner shall,
i. regard the practitioner's duty to public welfare as paramount;
ii. endeavour at all times to enhance the public regard for the practitioner's profession by extending the public knowledge thereof and discouraging untrue, unfair or exaggerated statements with respect to professional engineering;
iii. not express publicly, or while the practitioner is serving as a witness before a court, commission or other tribunal, opinions on professional engineering matters that are not founded on adequate knowledge and honest conviction;
iv. endeavor to keep the practitioner's licence, temporary licence, limited licence or certificate of authorization, as the case may be, permanently displayed in the practitioner's place of business.

 

[W. K. Lis]

From CODE OF CONDUCT FOR MEMBERS OF COUNCIL CITY OF TORONTO, at this PDF:

XII. CONDUCT RESPECTING STAFF

Under the direction of the City Manager, staff serve the Council as a whole, and the combined interests of all members as evidenced through the decisions of Council. Members shall be respectful of the role of staff to provide advice based on political neutrality and objectivity and without undue influence from any individual member or faction of the Council. Accordingly, no member shall maliciously or falsely injure the professional or ethical reputation, or the prospects or practice of staff, and all members shall show respect for the professional capacities of staff.

 

[Silence&Motion]

The fact that Mayor Ford has Frank Di Georgio and Norm Kelly taking point on the transit file goes to show you how far he's whittled down his list of lieutenants. Neither one of them is known for being particularly high profile members of council (in fact, you might go so far as to call them "filler"). But just look at what's happened to his more talented supporters: transit chair Stintz has abandoned him (obviously) and signs point to vice-chair Milczyn following suit. The mixed signals we've seen from Minnan-Wong tells me that he's trying to follow the party line without drawing much attention to himself; probably because he realizes just how politically destructive this path is. Gordon Chong, while not a councilor, might have been the one sticking up for the Ford message, but he's chosen to undermined that message time and time again with talk of road tolls, etc.

 

[Platform 27]

To be nitpicky, the TTC and the City proper are administratively separate. Webster is TTC staff, and as such he is responsible to the nine commissioners. The City Manager, in contrast, is responsible to the 45 council members.

 

[DSC]

To be nitpicky, the TTC and the City proper are administratively separate. Webster is TTC staff, and as such he is responsible to the nine commissioners. The City Manager, in contrast, is responsible to the 45 council members.

That's true but they are Commissioners BECAUSE they are Councillors.

I could not find the Commissioners' Code of Conflict or Conduct on the TTC website but did find this at
http://www3.ttc.ca/About_the_TTC/Au...11/April_19/Reports/TTC_Audit_Committee_1.pdf

Fiduciary Duties
It is critical that Members of the TTC Audit Committee understand the important distinction between their roles as Commissioners and as Members of Council. See Appendix B.
Key fiduciary duties require Commissioners, and therefore, members of the TTC Audit Committee to:
Act honestly and in good faith with a view to the best interests of the Commission in exercising their powers and discharging their duties.
Establish and operate a transportation system to serve all of the inhabitants of the City of Toronto.
Balance their roles as custodians of the City of Toronto’s tax dollars and representatives of Council policies, with that of their fiduciary and other duties as Commissioners.
Exercise the skills and diligence that could reasonably be expected from each Commissioner having regard to his or her knowledge and experience, and this duty includes the obligations and responsibilities with respect to integrity, conflict of interest, confidentiality and other matters.
Conflict of Interest
TTC Audit Committee Members are bound by the same Code of Conduct for Commissioners, as outlined in Appendix B, and expected to comply with the Code of Conduct for Members of Council, City of Toronto.

 

[jn_12]

If Webster is so irreplaceable, then he should be making at least 3 times what he currently makes – something more similar to the CEO’s of hospitals.

If Webster has 35+ years at the TTC and is 60+ years old is means he could theoretically retire at any moment. The fact that the TTC does not have any succession plan for a replacement is another indication that the Commission is not run that well. I would expect in most organizations they would have about a half dozen people who should have the experience and qualifications to be able to step in and take over.

And by the way, even at the end of his contract as CGM at TTC, I believe Webster would still be entitled to a severance pay, so I think the $500k is a highly exaggerated number.

1. Since when does compensation equate to how valuable someone is, particularly in the public sector?

2. Simply because someone can be replaced doesn't mean that their potential replacement is as good as they are.

3. Many people have already discussed how $500k might actually be a low estimate for his severance.

 

[Northern Magus]

3. Many people have already discussed how $500k might actually be a low estimate for his severance.

Anyone keeping track of all of Ford's wasteful spending?

Looks to me like he's hell-bent on out-doing all his predecessors combined.

 

[Admiral Beez]

I knew Ford wasn't a true fiscal conservative the moment he gave the police their 11 pct increase.

 

[nfitz]

I knew Ford wasn't a true fiscal conservative the moment he gave the police their 11 pct increase.

What about the point he made the TTC union an essential service, meaning that he could never impose cuts on them, and they'd always be able to go to arbitration - which will never order a cut in wages or benefits.

 

[jje1000]

A note from Steve Munro:

The point here is that Gary is providing advice, not attempting to overturn a decision of Council. If Gary were truly against an LRT network, then his position would have been untenable back when Transit City was announced. Moreover, Gary is telling the truth, or at least a defensible truth from his professional point of view. The Fords say whatever they think will get votes.

Webster, in reality, has to follow the will of council regardless of his advice. Had Ford won the vote, he would have likely gone along with Ford.

 

[EnviroTO]

Webster, in reality, has to follow the will of council regardless of his advice. Had Ford won the vote, he would have likely gone along with Ford.

It is Webster's job to (a) provide expert advise that is unbiased and based on truth, and to (b) provide the service council requests. Normally governments get around reports that are unfavourable to the goals of the people in power by asking for studies that purposely don't ask questions they don't really want the answer for. For example ask the manager to study a proposed project to the "do nothing" option but not to other possible projects, or ask where the best location to build technology X as an extension to existing lines which forces the study not to look at new lines or other possible technologies. The commissioners and council sets the goals of the studies and so really if a study comes back with unfavourable results it was because someone asked for a study where that outcome was possible. If Webster produced a report on the business case for a subway on Sheppard it was because he was asked to.