Re my last post: here’s the council invocation, for the record.

INVOCATION

God, Our Creator,
Bless us as we gather today for this meeting.
You know our most intimate thoughts;
Guide our minds and hearts
so that we will work
for the good of our community,
and help all of Your people.

Give us today the strengths
and wisdom to carry out our duties
in the most caring and respectful ways.

Teach us to be generous in our outlook,
courageous in the face of difficulty, 
and wise in our decisions.

Amen

In response to a twitter conversation yesterday with Brandon Sommerhalder, Tim Bousquet and Dana Phillip, I emailed Councillor Jerry Blumenthal:

Mr. Blumenthal,

I’m curious about the opening invocation used at regional council meetings. You’ve been around for a while and likely know the context around it, but to me it seems at best outmoded, and at worst non-inclusive.

I’m not anti-prayer, but I dislike its use at council in this official way.

Has this been questioned before?  Is there any sense in pursuing this, and, if so, would you be willing to make a resolution calling for the cessation of this practice?

Thanks as always,

-Rob

And got this response from his assistant Susan During:

Good morning, Mr. Hutten:

Councillor Blumenthal is away until Monday, Mar. 26th, in the meantime, I will forward your query regarding the opening invocation to HRM’s Municipal Clerk’s Office for review and response.

The Councillor will review your email in it’s entirety, upon his return.

Thank you.

Susan During

Councillor Constituency Coordinator

490-4013

Jerry Blumenthal

Councillor District 11

P.O. Box 1749

Halifax, NS  B3J 3A5

Ph: 237-0720

Fax: 490-3924

So! It should be interesting to see what comes of this.

-Rob

Earlier this morning @nspc tweeted that “only @JamieBaillie” was standing up for commuters in the Halifax Transit strike. @HalifaxLabour took them to task on that and asked a very relevant question:

Rather than answer the question - or even engage the discussion in any meaningful way - the NSPC mouthpiece retorted with a telling bit of old-fashioned partisan rhetoric.

Yesterday Tim Bousquet of The Coast posted a must-read exposé of some recent back-room machinations of HRM’s CAO Richard Butts.

Essentially, Butts has very recently put into place policies which would remove elected councilors from some critical decision-making involving council’s own agenda.

Here’s what HRM’s own website says of the CAO’s role:  

“The CAO is accountable to the Mayor and Council [emphasis mine] and is responsible for providing leadership in the development of, and implementation and administration of all policies and programs established and approved by Regional Council in accordance with all applicable by-laws and regulations.”

[Emailed to Councillor Blumenthal just now… -Rob]

Mr. Blumenthal,

I’d like to encourage you to use your voice at council to encourage the city to resolve the contract negotiations with the Metro Transit drivers as soon as possible.

It seems the city is trying to break the drivers’ union by pushing for allowances for part-time employees, presumably in the name of saving money.  Meanwhile, our city’s CAO is pulling in (as of next month) a salary 71% higher than his predecessor’s. Do you think this is fair?

Sincerely,

-Rob Hutten

No political rant today - yet, at least.  A tip of the hat to my pal Deb for this interesting quote from this book by Susan Cain:

Open-plan offices have been found to reduce productivity and impair memory. They’re associated with high staff turnover. They make people sick, hostile, unmotivated, and insecure. Open-plan workers are more likely to suffer from high blood pressure and elevated stress levels and to get the flu; they argue more with their colleagues; they worry about coworkers eavesdropping on their phone calls and spying on their computer screens. They have fewer personal and confidential conversations with colleagues. They’re often subject to loud and uncontrollable noise, which raises heart rates; releases cortisol, the body’s fight-or-flight “stress” hormone; and makes people socially distant, quick to anger, aggressive, and slow to help others.

I’ve been working in an open environment for about four years now - no cube walls, just rows of desks. I’ve seen some of the benefits to this set-up, but for the most part my experience is in line with what Cain describes above.

Headphones help.

Jerry Blumenthal called me this afternoon to respond to my open letter.  He defends his position and his vote, but did not want to be quoted. I’ll respect that, being in an oddly amenable mood tonight.

For the record: I don’t think there’s anything improper going on between Blumenthal and Joe Metledge. Blumenthal knows the family, but did point out that he voted against them twice in prior proposals.

Mr. Blumenthal,

I was surprised and angered by the results of last night’s council vote to hand St. Pat’s over to Jono.

Could you please explain Council’s rationale behind knowingly going against the policy for disposing of surplus school properties? Your vote puts you on record as formally approving breaking this policy, and this is worthy of concern.

Also, could you please clarify your relationship with Andrew Metledge? I wouldn’t normally pry, but you brought it up during the debate.

And one more: does Council anticipate the full stated $2M/yr property tax payment on the property for the 5? 10? years while it presumably sits as an empty lot until Jono starts development?  

And finally: thank you - even though I disagree with you here, I recognize your hard work.

Cheers,

-Rob Hutten