An opportunity and a challenge
When a breakup of this nature occurs, many factors typically share in the blame.
For one thing, the councilCorbould relationship was never really a great fit.
Corbould was hired by the previous council in early 2021. Nine months into the gig, he had to adjust to a new mayor and a largely rookie council with a different ideological makeup.
It's also worth noting that in Corbould's previous careers in the military and as a deputy minister for the province, there was more of a chain of command in which governance tended to flow in one direction. At city hall, Corbould had to answer to 13 bosses, all with their own agendas and a propensity for putting city administration in the middle of their disagreements.
Numerous sources in and around city hall hinted that Corbould's office had also grown especially frustrated with what they saw as inconsistent and unreasonable demands.
OP-12 was a prime example of that tension, in which much of council balked at the ideas Corbould and his team raised to save money. (Corbould's biggest mistake, perhaps, was to agree to the motion in the first place.)
The recent labour strife with Civic Service Union 52 was undoubtedly another sore point, since Corbould apparently felt pressure to take a tough stand with the union, but later felt undermined by council when a strike seemed imminent.
Moreover, insiders suggest Corbould believed he and his team were excessively targeted with unfair accusations, discourtesy and micromanagement. Some of this occurred in public, but there were apparently more incidents in private that got quite heated. I was also told of concerns that some councillors too often broke protocol by approaching Corbould to request certain help in their wards.
Council had its grievances, too, mostly at what they perceived as city administration acting outside their direction. For example, with the encampment teardowns in late December and early January, some on council felt the city's actions went beyond the spirit of the policy they had set.
Similar hard feelings accompanied the proposed public-spaces bylaw that administration brought forward — seemingly out of nowhere — in February. It was clear from the outset that the proposal was not well aligned with council's approach to vulnerable communities, and therefore it was not a surprise to see it sent back for a major rewrite.
Many council members were also reportedly grumpy about repeated instances in which they felt they were denied information necessary to make good decisions. Some blame the problem on poor management or miscommunication, while others suspect more deliberate game-playing, but either way it became a real trust issue.
One insider suggested council might have made different spending choices if they had known earlier the city couldn't afford to replace its aging bus fleet.
In regard to the recent labour strife, even though council publicly backed Corbould until the end, many felt the city manager and his team made some strategic mistakes along the way, including the unsuccessful decision to force CSU 52 members to vote directly on the city's offer.
That was probably the final match that burned the relationship. But as I noted, the problem overarching most of this has been the city's financial misery that has frustrated council's ambitions.
It's hard to make progress when you can't afford it, and somebody inevitably takes the blame.
At the end of the day, the how and why of Corbould's departure doesn't much matter anymore. The more relevant question is how council moves forward from here — and already I am hearing two competing narratives.
One side suggests that Corbould's exit means an obstacle is now out of the way, and council is free to put in place its own management team better aligned with its priorities. The idea is to get a new city manager hired quickly, in hopes of getting some big things accomplished before election campaigning takes over.
The other narrative, which feels a bit more compelling to me at the moment, foresees a much rougher path ahead.
This pessimistic side notes that Corbould's exit leaves the city very thin on experienced senior managers, especially after the entire top executive team left their jobs over the past year.
That doesn't offer an aura of confidence to attract good candidates, and potentially creates some desperation on council's part. But regardless of who eventually gets hired, skeptics say, that manager is likely to find themselves trapped by the same financial and political dysfunction, and will also soon have the added fun of election season acrimony.
Whatever the mayor and council decide to do, the accountability for that direction is now squarely on them. There are no more excuses.
That's an opportunity, but until the group shows it can learn from this failure and lead in more productive ways, doubts will persist about this council's ability to put its house in order.