Premier Dalton McGuinty is encouraging council to give the mayor more power, report today’s dailies. Even some of Mayor David Miller’s strongest detractors, such as Denzil Minnan-Wong and Karen Stintz, have come out in support of the idea, which is curious, since making Miller stronger will mean less power for them and all other councillors not on the Executive Committee.
The idea is that giving the mayor more power will make it easier for him (or, in the future, her) to “get the city on track and keep it there,” says McGuinty via the Toronto Star. Moving forward on recent recommendations made by a fiscal review panel, which could help get the city on solid financial footing, requires “the authority to exercise leadership,” say those in support of pumping up Miller’s power. The way some people are talking, it’s as though council hasn’t accomplished anything significant up until now.
But does the mayor really need more power than he already has to exercise leadership? Take the act of pulling together an independent fiscal-review panel to analyze the city’s books and come forward with recommendations. Miller’s decision to do this (though he may have been pushed into it by other councillors) shows leadership that could ultimately mobilize council to take action on important issues. Councillors to the right and left of the political spectrum have come forward with positive reviews of the report. The panel’s recommendations have received much media attention, and the public will be watching closely to see how city hall will spring into action. Stronger powers or no stronger powers, I would argue that the mayor now has the momentum to bring these ideas before council and work with his colleagues to see many of them realized.
The difference between the panel’s recommendations and other grand plans that have come before council is that they are not exactly coming out of the mayor’s office (yes, the mayor hand-picked panel members, but he was careful to pick “experts” that politicians from all political stripes could identify with). The result is that self-identified opposition leaders, like Minnan-Wong, can’t play the same "if-it-comes-from-the-mayor-we’re-against-it” game. If he is against these recommendations, he’s against the ideas, not necessarily the mayor.
Another way of exercising leadership, and thereby get things done, is by finding ways to work with the people you don’t always agree with. Miller has done a bit of this — the panel of people he brought together to develop his recent Agenda for Prosperity included one of his most outspoken critics, Councillor Stintz. In light of the growing divisiveness on council, more cooperative efforts like this should take place. Stintz is fond of saying that the mayor’s office has shut her out (note: I have yet to confirm this, though other left-leaning councillors have said she doesn’t make an effort to reach out to any of them). Her way of dealing with the situation seems to be: if you can’t join 'em, beat 'em. It appears she saves herself for the floor of council, where she regularly cross-examines Miller in attempts to trip him up.
The way council is structured now is all about working together, building support, making compromises or attempting to achieve consensus. Councillors like Stintz and Minnan-Wong undermine this, but so has Miller’s decision to use all the power he currently has to do things the way he wants them done instead of engaging others. In a quote in Saturday’s Toronto Star, Miller described council as consisting of 44 different political parties, which shows complete disregard for the way council works, or the way it is supposed to work. When researching my story on the effectiveness of council’s right wing, Miller’s allies defended the cooperative way of doing things. “The [current] structure is designed to work best if you work in a consensus building model,” Budget Chief Shelly Carroll told me. “It’s designed so that if you come in and you work here full time and you work with your colleagues, you can get a lot done…. I think that’s why [councillors’ offices are arranged] in a circle. If you start walking, you end up back at your own office with a whole bunch more information and some consensus.”
Carroll, Gord Perks and Adam Vaughan led me to believe that if council isn’t getting things done now, it’s because people aren’t working with their colleagues, they’re not out they’re building support, they’re not knocking on office doors. A stronger mayor system will make working in this way even less fruitful. The result: the current divisiveness that now exists in city hall will grow — which is part of what’s making it difficult to get things done in the first place.