JORGENSON LOOKS BACK
Phil Tank sat down with city manager Jeff Jorgenson to talk about his first year on the job. Jorgenson, who has worked for the city for most of the last 22 years, took over on an interim basis in January before being handed the reins full-time in May.
It was a full year in a new role
Q What surprises you about your new role?
A I’ve had a chance to be involved in a number of different areas and a number of different departments in the city. So I did have quite a bit of exposure to the city.
I’d say one thing that surprised me is the number of people who are interested in meeting with the city manager, whether it’s the business community or developers or people who have an interest in the different files. They’re really interested in meeting with the city manager. So that was one thing that surprised me, is the number of people interested in speaking with us.
As far as the business of the city goes, like you say, I’ve worked around enough that I was fairly familiar with most areas. Still lots to learn.
Q Why is a restructuring of city hall necessary?
A There were a few basic things we were trying to achieve. We had a little bit of unbalance. The transportation and utilities department was very large relative to some of the other groups.
But really, I’d say the focus of this new organizational structure is to invest in the people within the city, to really focus on our internal processes and systems because we know if we have the healthiest internal systems and people, then we can do the very best for the citizens of Saskatoon.
Q It seemed like a year packed with issues. Was it too much for administration and council?
A: It has been a lot, there’s no question. Some of them are city-driven issues like the Chief Mistawasis Bridge and the P3 (project) openings. Those are all civic led-type projects. There was a lot of talk about the arena site and bringing that forward as a downtown solution.
So there’s been a lot of city things going on, (bus rapid transit) included. Then there are some things that, really, external forces have had an impact on us.
The taxi (companies), changes to the transportation network (ride-sharing) company approach that the province has taken has changed things for us because we had to develop a bylaw structure to enable it. And that took a lot of work and a lot of council meetings, for example, and committee meetings. So that was something that came that was beyond our control that we had to respond to.
Another good example was cannabis. The federal government changes their laws and we have to, as a community, respond to that from a business-licensing perspective. So some of those big tasks in 2018 were things the city was initiating and some of them we had no choice. We had to respond. I think, all things considered, we had a very productive year. We got a lot of files across the goal-line this year.
Q How do you deal with a high-profile departure like Brenda Wallace internally at city hall?
A What we really talk about is going forward. In all areas, but in particular the environment file, we talk about how we’re going to go forward. So that’s really what the conversations are about. And with so many of our files, I think, at the city we’ve done a fantastic job of having great divisions.
I’d say, over the last 10 years, that’s one of the legacies that a lot of us were part of that now a lot of us have inherited. These visionary plans for the city, the growth plan, the regional plan — it’s not just about growth, it’s about how we grow. So how we grow is so important to the quality of life that citizens are going to have in the future. And we’ve had a great quality of life in the city. We ask citizens that every year through the surveys.
At times, through those growth periods, you start to wobble a little bit. And some people say, ‘Are we really building the kind of city that we love?’ And there were some processes that needed to be changed in order to make sure that the legacy we leave in 10 and 30 and 50 years is a great city for our future generations.
So we’ve made all these shifts in our planning and got regional partners on board so that we’re doing this together and combining resources when needed and combining our strengths as much as possible. I think we’ve done a great job of that over the last 10 years. And now, really what we need to do is focus on the execution of that, the rolling it out . ... Everything we do today sets us up for tomorrow. That’s really what the focus is now when we talk about investing internally, it’s really all about that.
Q There are two council members leading the way on environment and sustainability. Is this decision-making model working or are changes to waste management just really difficult?
A I’ve been saying this for a year ... that the waste utility and the organics program is probably going to be the biggest issue this council faces, from my personal perspective. And I think maybe the reason for that is I was involved when we brought the blue-bin program in quite a number of years ago. And that went on much longer for a bunch of different reasons. But that one went on much longer and was very politically charged in the community for a bunch of reasons.
One of the reasons is that it affects everybody. How you manage waste in your house has such a direct effect on people. So any time you’re mucking around with solid waste, it creates a lot of interest. And there’s lots of different opinions on it. That’s the thing. It’s not surprising that this is such a contentious issue to me. I’m looking forward to seeing where we land on it.