‘We’re not there to make friends,’ says councillor
Everybody knows teamwork makes the dream work, but some city councillors are questioning whether a confidential meeting about how they can better get along is a good use of council’s time.
Council is scheduled to discuss the agenda item, titled “Working Together,” in private on Wednesday. It follows an in-camera session earlier this month about a “personnel” matter related to Coun. Jeromy Farkas, which was brought forward by Coun. Diane Colley-Urquhart.
“You don’t always have the team you want, but you need to respect the fact that Calgarians have sent us to city hall to work together,” said Farkas, who admits he frequently disagrees with his council colleagues, especially on the necessity of frequent closed-door meetings.
“I think that they’re quite overused by council. It’s frustrated me, as a member of council who’s been one of the personnel items, not being able to speak about what I’ve experienced. I think it’s a shield for, I would argue, borderline bullying behaviour.”
Farkas said he’s open to the idea of council sitting down to learn how they can better work together, but wondered why it was imperative.
“Some of the pushback that my proposals are receiving are just a result of establishment not being accustomed to being challenged,” said the first-term councillor.
“What this council needs to understand is that when they try to silence me, they’re actually trying to silence my constituents and that’s what disturbs me the most. Whether it’s bringing me behind closed doors, voting to eject me from the council chambers, I think a lot of this just serves as a distraction from a lot of the other really major, and much more important, issues that we’re facing as a city.”
Colley-Urquhart did not respond to a request for comment.
Coun. Ward Sutherland said he was “kind of baffled” that council would need to learn how to work more cohesively, but for the opposite reason. He said council gets along just fine.
“I’ve been on two councils and I would say this council gets along substantially better than the last council,” said Sutherland, adding he didn’t know what needed to be addressed.
“The blend of the personalities and everything go along very well.”
It’s not the first time council has taken a timeout of sorts to mend fences. In 2012, Mayor Naheed Nenshi tried to smooth out “dysfunction” with a closed-door psychology session.
“I would find it extraordinary if any member of council did not want to attend a meeting on how council can work together better,” Nenshi said at the time, after some councillors threatened to skip the meeting, adding if members were interested “in a dysfunctional group that is not working well together, it was absolutely their prerogative.”
But it’s time the mayor took a look in the mirror as to why these team-building exercises are constantly needed, according to Coun. Joe Magliocca.
“At the end of the day, you’ve got to ask the question, ‘is it me, or is it other people?’ I think he is the problem,” Magliocca said. “We’re not there to make friends. We’ve got to fight and we have to make sure that Calgary is better than it was yesterday and that’s our job. We’re not there to go out and sing Kumbaya around a fire pit.” Coun. Sean Chu agreed.
“I don’t think we should get along. I don’t think the citizens of Calgary want the council all singing a song from the same song sheet,” he said. “Apparently, some people think that’s the way it should be and I disagree. It’s very healthy and very important that we should have different views….”