Bowman learns some promises aren't worth keeping
Winnipeg's mayor is entitled to appoint whoever he likes to EPC - and that's not going to change
When a new mayor floats into office on a raft of idealistic promises, it's inevitable somebody will be disappointed down the line.
Glen Murray came to power in 1998 with a promise of greater openness. He wound up walking on major reports, most notably the MTS Centre development, mainly to avoid the advance scrutiny that comes with genuine openness.
Sam Katz was elected in 2004 and soon set out to make Winnipeg's budgets reflect actual spending. After initial success, he slid back into obfuscation by promising to balance budgets with the help of vague "efficiencies" that translated into middle-management cuts and vacancy management.
Brian Bowman also flew the "openness and transparency" flag when he was swept into office in a landslide in 2014. Within weeks, he discovered he did not have the power to elect members of executive policy committee as he had pledged.
Some observers promptly complained the new mayor had already broken a campaign promise, but that wasn't quite the case. When a promise is so poorly considered it can not be fulfilled, you can't just blame the mayor for failing to fulfill it.
Mayoral candidates are surrounded by advisors who are supposed to protect their bosses from making naive, unrealistic or simply stupid promises. Blaming Bowman for failing to elect EPC in 2014 would be just as unfair as blaming him for Winnipeg's failure to complete six rapid-transit corridors by 2030, to mention another one of his far-fetched campaign pledges.
There is no rule, however, that prevents Bowman from allowing council to informally elect members of EPC before he appoints them to the committee in advance of city council's annual organizational meeting. Bowman's critics may thus assert he broke a promise when he chose to appoint a new EPC on Thursday without allowing all of council to have some sort of say in the matter.
But in this instance, a broken promise may be preferable to following through on a naive one. When the mayor said he wanted an elected EPC, the inexperienced politician and his rookie advisors clearly weren't aware how difficult it is to manage any cabinet, let alone one that isn't hand-picked by the mayor.
Even Sam Katz, who wielded an enormous amount of power during the first eight of his 10 years in office, struggled to contain the competing egos and interests of the people seated at the table in his office during the closed-door Wednesday "internal EPC" meetings where the real business of the city gets settled.
Heated exchanges between Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt and former St. Norbert councillor Justin Swandel were sometimes loud enough to penetrate the flimsy western wall of the mayor's office and echo into the foyer on the second floor of the council building, where senior city administrators sit on couches on Wednesdays as they wait their turn to brief the mayor and his inner circle.
Differences of opinion between members of EPC, however, pale in comparison to serious differences between an EPC councillor and the mayor. Katz once kicked Wyatt off EPC for making allegations of impropriety on the floor of council, removed former Charleswood councillor Paula Havixbeck for voting against the budget and watched former St. James councillor Scott Fielding resign from EPC in time to distance himself from the city hall establishment in advance of his eventual run as a Tory MLA.
On Thursday, it was Bowman's turn to punt a pair of meddlesome EPC members. South Winnipeg-St. Norbert Coun. Janice Lukes had to go after eviscerating the mayor's growth-fee plan on the floor of council and suggesting on at least two occasions that she didn't care whether or not she sat on EPC.
Bowman also got rid of North Kildonan Coun. Jeff Browaty, who voted against growth fees, opposes the mayor on reopening Portage and Main and doesn't like spending on active-transportation or rapid transit. But since Browaty didn't resort to polemics the way Lukes did, he was allowed to slide into another important role on council — he's the new chair of the Winnipeg Police Board.
Bowman, like Katz, tried to justify his EPC shuffle on the basis there are many members of council who have not yet had the chance to sit on the senior committee. Bowman could not bring himself to say he needed more like-minded or pliable elected officials in his inner circle.
New EPC member Scott Gillingham (St. James-Brooklands-Weston) also voted against growth fees, but does not present an open challenge to the legitimacy of the mayor's mandate. This is partly of Gillingham's ample diplomatic skills, but it's also because the rookie councillor had already demonstrated he was capable of making the leap to EPC.
The quiet competence displayed by Gillingham during his two-year stint as the police-board chair has made his performance among the most notable of the current council term.
The other new appointment to EPC was logical, albeit for a different reason. When Bowman became aware he had no choice but to remove Lukes, he and his advisors would have been well aware the optics would be bad if the South Winnipeg councillor was not replaced by one of the three other women on council.
Devi Sharma (Old Kildonan) was not an option because she serves as council's speaker. Jenny Gerbasi (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) also was not an option because of her obligations as a high-ranking official in the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. The progressive Bowman can already count on the left-of-centre Gerbasi's vote on most issues, anyway.
That left rookie Daniel McIntyre Coun. Cindy Gilroy as the only option to replace Lukes. It's also interesting, as Gilroy remains the most unknown commodity on council halfway through the current term. She rarely speaks at council and committee meetings.
On Thursday, Bowman said Gilroy is a strong voice for her inner-city ward. She will have time to ease into EPC, as she's been placed in charge of innovation, a council committee with a light agenda.
Bowman may attempt to characterize his appointment of Gilroy and Gillingham as a simple matter of committee-membership churn, but that would be disingenuous. He is entitled to appoint whoever he likes to EPC.
He's also entitled to view his campaign pledge to elect EPC as an ill-advised mistake. Time will tell whether he'll feel the same way about promising to limit property-tax hikes to the rate of inflation.
That promise will be put to the test on Nov. 22, when the 2017 budget is due.
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