What we can learn from a city council veteran
Keep promises, resist politicking, question things, listen. If you’re running in the provincial election June 7, if you’re considering running in the municipal election Oct. 22, you can learn a lot from retiring Ward 8 Coun. Bill Marra.
When Marra ran for reelection in 2014, he promised to call for an auditor general, again. When he won, he did call for an auditor general, within months.
“This was committed to during the election,” he told me then. “Now the rubber is going to hit the road. We need to fulfil our commitment.” He didn’t succeed, but Marra, once called vanilla, fought for it. He did what he said he’d do.
“Politics at play,” Marra concluded when Coun. Chris Holt’s motion requiring councillors to report what they learn at conferences was defeated. It was such a reasonable request, such an appropriate request. Who would argue against it? City employees who travel to conferences are required to report on the merits of their trips. The public was howling about “taxpayer-funded vacations.” But the motion was defeated by the usual 6-4 vote.
Was it because Holt and the rest of the Out-of-FavourFour voted for it?
At a time when councillors who don’t toe the line seem to be punished, Marra warned, “the minute you make things personal, you really render yourself less effective as an elected official. You get blinded by the politics.”
Marra was the councillor who began questioning city leases from MFP Financial Services in 2000. Those questions, and Marra’s willingness to listen to and protect three city hall whistleblowers, uncovered the biggest financial scandal in Windsor’s history. Leases for a landfill, buses, fire trucks and fitness equipment that the city and county thought would cost $91 million ended up costing $314 million. Meanwhile, senior city officials who approved the leases were enjoying junkets paid by MFP. Marra questioned senior city officials for months, and for months, he was rebuffed. He finally convinced council to call for an audit.
Two senior city officials were fired, and the city and county launched a $305-million lawsuit against MFP. But day in and day out, it’s the way Marra listens to delegations that address council. They are the voters, the people who pay the bills. He treats them with respect. It stands out because not every councillor does.
After 21 years on council, he’s also open to new ideas from rookie councillors. He was the first veteran councillor to contact new Ward 7 Coun. Irek Kusmierczyk. He became Kusmiercyzk’s mentor.
He emphasizes “process” — studying the issue, consulting with residents, deliberating with council. All the information on the table, no backroom deals, the integrity of the debate.
“Seeing him in operation was the best education,” said Kusmierczyk.
Maybe Marra figured he had nothing to lose. He was the most senior councillor, in his sixth term. He had set aside his aspiration to be mayor. Whatever the reason, he called it the way he saw it the last four years. When Mayor Drew Dilkens claimed that council was only seeking information about contracting out city janitors’ jobs, Marra called a spade a spade. “It’s not just about getting more information,” he said at the time. “If this is approved, administration will be issuing a request for proposal.”
He was right. Council replaced its janitors with cheaper labour.
Marra took a beating from Dilkens this term. Marra was the senior councillor, acting mayor and a longtime Liberal when Dilkens needed someone to cover for him at a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Instead, Dilkens chose Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac, who had run for the Conservatives in the federal election.
Yet, asked about his relationship with the mayor this week, Marra said simply, sometimes you disagree. When council passed its budget this year, Marra praised Dilkens for his $1-million plan to fix up Peche Island and buy a boat to ferry people there, making the most of one of the city’s most unique assets.
It’s true, as Marra said in announcing he won’t run in the next election, that governments need turnover. Except maybe in his case. But here’s a final piece of advice for candidates: “You’ve got to run for the right reasons,” Marra told Windsor Star city hall reporter Brian Cross. “You’ve got to run because you have fire in your belly and you know you can play a meaningful role and create the kind of dialogue that’s exciting and rallies individuals ... to buy into a plan or vision.”
Marra won 77 per cent of the vote in his ward in the last election, the biggest margin of any councillor. Rest assured, many voters will judge their politicians on these lessons learned.