Thread by @CameronKroetsch

It’s been 60 days since I was officially sworn in as Ward 2 City Councillor. I’m marking the occasion by sharing an update with Hamiltonians based on some of my observations, findings, and conclusions in the first 2 months on the job. #HamOnt

If it feels like the status quo so far in this term of Council, that's by design. There are decades of motions and traditions from previous terms of Council that are still driving this ship forward. It's going to take a lot of will power from Council to turn it around.

And that's a huge challenge for a mostly new Council, one that I think has been stalled because of what I can only describe as a painfully slow transition from one Council to the next. In short, I don't think the City was prepared to transition 10 new members of Council.

When I arrived, I was shocked by the complete lack of policies and procedures used to guide the transition. There was a basic setup for every office and then people were left to their own devices to figure out the rest.

Councillors should have received information in writing - a transition guide, summaries and descriptions of persistent or longstanding issues, and a Ward-level synopsis that allowed them to dig into the details, department by department.

When I showed up to the Ward 2 office, I was instead greeted by bags of shredded paper lining the hallway. There wasn’t a single transitional email, electronic file, or piece of paper left behind. Former Councillors are permitted to destroy everything they wish to eliminate.

It's not just frustrating for the Ward 2 Team, but for residents. Many assume that I’ve been informed about an issue they’ve reported, and may still be dealing with, because they thought I would have been briefed as part of the official transition. Not so.

It's also very difficult for me to get access to documentation around some of the most pressing issues. I have tried, in vain, to get a copy of the HUPEG contract but have been told that the previous Council passed a policy that locked down contracts and other documents.

I'm permitted to go to a room, have someone take out a copy, and look at it - no notes, pens, or laptops are permitted. Sure, I have an excellent memory, but I can't absorb around 100 pages of legalese on the spot. I need a copy so I can formulate critical questions.

It’s also not great that, from day one, our entire schedule was set for us in the City’s Procedural By-law. Despite there being 10 new voices around the horseshoe, we’re forced to follow the previous Council’s calendar.

One of the consequences of this has been that since inauguration day 60 days ago the 4 major Standing Committees will have each met only once until this week - Planning; Public Works; Audit, Finance and Administration; Board of Health; and Emergency and Community Services.

There’s also only been one meeting of City Council in that time (outside of inauguration). Many residents assume we're making important decisions from day 1 when, in fact, Council is going through a series of inaugural meetings when it could be focused on urgent city matters.

Formal meetings are the only way for Council to "get things done". Our job is to set policy, respond to resident concerns by working with staff, and make major decisions. We do most of that work in public in Council chambers. If the committees don't meet, the work doesn’t happen.

Almost all of the other meetings have been focused on the budget - a budget that is entirely built on the priorities and projects of the previous Council. There’s no time, as Council has been told, to make major changes to the 2023 budget. In effect, it's locked in.

I’ve also discovered that I have access to a large amount of money that was unspent by my predecessor. Millions in area rating funds (some discretionary), cell tower funds, hydro corridor funds, minor maintenance budget amounts, and more.

I was surprised to learn, in discovering these pools of money, that despite having access to more than $500k to use to improve sidewalks, curb cuts, and other minor road repairs in Ward 2, my predecessor didn't spend any of it last year.

Councillors in other Wards topped up their sidewalk maintenance budgets, some spending up to $500k to ensure walkability, mobility, and safety were improved for pedestrians in other parts of the city.

Considering Ward 2 is where most residents with disabilities, including seniors, live in our city, I think it's unconscionable not to invest in this vital infrastructure. I’ll have more to say about this finding in another thread, once I have a plan for how to start catching up.

The combination of these kinds of observations and findings is that I’m concerned they essentially lead to preserving the status quo for 2023, since so much is already set in place by the systems and processes that predated Hamilton's historic 2022 election.

Multiply everything I described by 10 new members of Council and I hope you can see and understand my concerns. To be fair, a couple of my new colleagues had an easier time because their predecessors worked on a transition with them, but they were the exception, not the rule.

There’s some good news in all of this and I think it’s important to end on a high note. I have some really great new colleagues, we have a big beautiful blank slate to work from, and there's a lot of joy to be found in the work of reimagining our city, together.

We also now have a blueprint for how to do better when the next transition happens in 2026. I will be working with my colleagues over the next few years to ensure that it will be much smoother sailing for the next Council. Starting off on the right foot makes a huge difference.