The case against re-electing Paula Fletcher

Posted: July 9, 2010 by Andrew James 

On October 15, I announced that I would cease active campaigning for the office of city councillor here in Ward 30. Of course my name will be on the ballot for the October 25 election, but I recommend to my supporters and everyone to vote for Liz West.

Any time there’s an incumbent, an election is first and foremost a referendum on how the incumbent is doing. In judging Paula Fletcher, it’s fair to look at her record as a powerful member of the David Miller administration – she sat on the executive committee – as well as her record in the ward. Paula can therefore share the blame for the failures, incompetence, waste and dubious practices of the last seven years. She can share the blame for the resulting voter anger that in all likelihood will elect Rob Ford as mayor.

And then there’s her own voting record. Three recent examples:

1. For all the heat Sandra Bussin has taken over the Tuggs deal, Bussin didn’t vote on it (conflict of interest). Paula was the one who introduced the motion in council to accept the deal! Why isn’t Paula taking heat over that?

2. Paula introduced the motion to reimburse Adrian Heaps for his personal legal costs of settling a defamation suit brought against him as a candidate in the last election – not as a councillor. After the public outcry, Heaps refused to accept the money. Heaps took the PR hit, but it was Paula proposing to dole out our money to him.

3. With respect to the TTC yard, Paula supported the Leslie and Lakeshore location and Leslie route from the very beginning. She later backpedalled, appeared to push for other sites, voted in favour of both at council, but then again seemed to backpedal on the issue at the Ralph Thornton debate.

And let’s look at her biggest “success”. Paula claims credit for winning the fight against the Smart Centres proposal. But she had two chances to prevent Smart Centres from even buying into the property. And when it came to the OMB, her clumsy and heavy-handed attempts to block the development were ultimately pointless and potentially expensive for Toronto taxpayers.

First, if it weren’t for the City’s meddlesome Mega Studio deal, in which the City ignored all the industry advice and ALLOWED the developer to close the old studios in favour of the new studios, 629 Eastern would still be a busy film studio today and Ward 30 would never have had a SmartCentres battle.

Then, Paula was instrumental in blocking the owners of the studio space from obtaining a rezoning to proceed with a mixed-use condominium development. Smart Centres then bought an interest in the Eastern Avenue property to big box “power centre”-type retail development, and the expensive fun began.

The city challenged the big box proposal, as it should do where (as here) the neighbourhood was up in arms. That’s not the problem. The problem is that the city didn’t listen to their own planners’ advice and simply rely on provisions of Toronto’s 2002 Official Plan. Instead, led by Paula Fletcher, the city put up a dizzying series of roadblocks and impediments to the Smart Centres proposal, all of which were dismissed by the OMB decision. Most of the OMB’s 54-page decision was spent criticizing the city for its ad hoc and improper planning approach. Municipalities aren’t allowed to rejig the rules – pro or con – for specific developments. The planning principles set out in the Official Plan are supposed to apply to everybody.

In the end, the OMB refused the Smart Centres development on the basis of the 2002 Official Plan, which came into effect before Paula was even a councillor. (Mel Lastman was the mayor at the time – maybe he should be thanked for stopping the Walmart.) This decision was made on on March 4, 2009.

Despite losing, Smart Centres immediately claimed $1.4 million in legal costs for having to address the Paula’s and the city’s exhaustively inane arguments. Almost 20 months later, on the eve of the election, we still haven’t yet had a decision resolving the issue. Why not? According to a well-known planning law expert, if costs are claimed after an OMB hearing they are normally settled within weeks or months after the decision, not nearly two years later.

My guess is that the city is stalling on resolving the costs claim until after the election. It would be too embarrassing for Paula to admit that not only were all her shenanigans criticized by the OMB as useless, they resulted in costing Toronto taxpayers over a million dollars! And why would the developer go along with this unprecedented delay? They’re not talking, but could it be in exchange for an agreement that the city will pay all or most of the costs requested – AFTER THE ELECTION? The point is: we don’t know. Once again, the voters and taxpayers are not being told what is going on.

And after all that, we end up with a car dealerships instead of an active film studio or mixed-use development. If democratic accountability is to mean anything, Paula should be defeated for her incompetence in handling this issue alone.

The case for electing Liz West

So there are many, many reasons to turf Paula and bring in a fresh voice. The challenger most likely to defeat Paula is Liz West. 

I’ve seen that Liz has backbone, and a clear idea as to how she wants to truly represent her community. She has education and work experience in communications, which would be a great asset to bringing transparency back to council.  Any non-incumbent candidate (me included) lacks experience in being a councillor, and its impossible for voters to know in advance how that person will perform in office. There are many examples of bright, informed candidates proving to be complete disappointments. And there are positive surprises too. For example, Karen Stintz was considered a lightweight who was elected on a single issue in her Eglinton-Lawrence ward, but she grew in office to the point where the Star actually endorsed her re-election last week.

The keys to being an effective councillor is the ability to bring different groups together, to keep everybody informed, and to be responsive to the community.  Liz has shown me that she can do this. She has my full support, and I have faith that she will be a fine representive for Ward 30 at City Hall in the next council.