Calgary Minute: Retirement Bonuses, Blame Games, and Attendance Tracking

Calgary Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Calgary politics

This Week In Calgary:

• On Tuesday there will be a Priorities and Finance Committee meeting. The Committee will be reviewing the Summer Student Program, attendance tracking for the Mayor and Councillors (see below), and Supplementary Property Assessment and Tax Bylaws.
  
  
• On Wednesday there will be a meeting of the Standing Policy Committee on Community and Protective Services. The main item on the agenda is the Integrated Traffic Safety Feasibility report which is aimed at reducing major injury and fatality collisions.
  
  
• The Calgary Municipal Land Corp (CMLC) is seeking input and ideas from Calgarians for the user experience, programming, and amenities at the new arena / event centre that is being planned. You can participate in the survey here.

Last Week In Calgary:

• At Monday's Council meeting Councillor Farkas brought forward a motion to remove transition allowances (aka retirement bonuses) for Councillors who leave (or are forced out) of office. Mayor Nenshi ruled the proposal out of order, preventing Council from even debating the idea. Councillor Farkas disputed the ruling, calling for a vote of Council to over-ride the Mayor's decision. Council voted 9-5 to uphold the Mayor's decision and not even have the debate (never mind actually remove the retirement bonuses).
  
  
• Mayor Nenshi blasted the provincial government over $60 million in cuts to "roads and transit." Of course, he left out the part where it was actually Council that chose to cut spending on roads and transit, instead of cutting other more wasteful programs like the public art budget, golden pensions and golden handshakes.
  
  
• Councillor Farkas also proposed a motion to track Councillor's attendance at meetings so that Calgarians can know if their Councillor is actually showing up for work or, at the very least, the reason for their absence. You might think that tracking who is at a meeting would be the norm, but of course, nothing is normal at City Hall. Common Sense Calgary has been pushing for this reform for years, so hopefully, it will get more support than it did last time this was proposed in 2018!

-----

Donate:

Common Sense Calgary doesn't accept any government funding and never will. We think you should be free to choose, for yourself, which organizations to support. If you're in a position to contribute financially, you can make a donation here.

-----

Share:

If you're not in a position to donate, we understand, but if you appreciate our work, you can help by spreading our message. Please email this post to your friends, share it on Facebook or Twitter, and help make sure every Calgarian knows what's really going on at City Hall.