The Mayor And His Minions.

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ThingVille

"He's so dense the light bends around him."

                                                                                                                      Malcom Tucker

Before he came up with the mildly amusing 'Veep', a satirical TeeVee show about a hapless US'ian Vice-President and her band of merry, and almost always utterly useless, political goons, Armando Iannucci was the creative force behind the brilliant, and much darker, 'The Thick Of It' that often featured the British Prime Minister's kinda/sorta fictional chief enforcer Malcom Tucker and his team of Caledonian Bollocking Boys.

Well...

Who'd a thunk that our very own Mayor of Central Lotusland would have is own team of B Boy Wannabes.

Kirk Lapointe, now writing for that most esteemed media mish-mash machine, Glacier News, has the story:

...Before Vancouver council could put the brakes on her work next week, Integrity Commissioner Lisa Southern outflanked them (last) Friday (August 2nd) in releasing two reports they likely wish would not have seen the light of day.

In broad outline, the reports portray efforts by senior city officials to extend their reach into decision-making of the city’s park board, and the rancorous relationship between the board’s top commissioners and the office of Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim...

{snip}

...In one report, Southern wrote that (Parks Board Chair Brennan) Bastyovanszky complained that (Mayor Ken) Sim, or those acting on his behalf, pressured him to step down as the board’s vice-chair, dictated to commissioners who should be hired as the board’s general manager, falsely claimed to councillors and commissioners that he was under investigation by the integrity commissioner, tried to pressure commissioners to choose someone other than him as its chair, and ultimately moved to dissolve the park board “because he was unable to control decisions of Park Board Commissioners.”

In dismissing the complaint, Southern noted there was no direct link to Sim with the actions of (his Chief of Staff Trevor) Ford and (his Senior Advisor David) Grewal, nor any evidence of retaliation.

In the other report, Southern noted Ford and Grewal complained that (Parks Board Commissioner Scott) Jensen recorded two phone conversations and permitted Bastyovanszky to listen to one of them. In the call, Ford and Grewal told Jensen he should support Sim’s choice as park board chair and that Bastyovanszky was under “active investigation” by the integrity commissioner that would disqualify him as a candidate for the role.

There was no investigation underway, although senior PNE officials had written the integrity commissioner with no more than what Southern called “hearsay and double hearsay” about an occurrence involving Bastyovanszky backstage at a concert, so the complaint wasn’t investigated...

So.

What's this really all about Alfie?

Well, it's not unreasonable, based on the evidence and the timelines involved, for a reasonable person to formulate the opinion that the good Mayor did his best to squash the workings of the Integrity Commissioner before all this evidence of the attempted bollocking of the Parks Board Chair by his most highly non-effective minions got out.

The trouble was, of course, that the Integrity Commissioner beat the minions at their own game, for real, as noted by Frances Bula writing in the Globe and (no longer Empire) Mail:

The City of Vancouver’s integrity commissioner has released two reports that detail a troubling work environment in the mayor’s office, just days before city councillors are expected to suspend the work of her office...

FABula's story in the Globe was published this past Monday, August 5th.

Since then there have been two further developments.

First, the Mayor backed down on the suspension, at least for the moment, apparently in response to the actions of Green Party councillor Pete Fry.

Second, yesterday the Chair of School Board, Victoria Jung, made like the Chair of Parks Board before her and quit the Mayor's ABC Party Party (as the late, great Ed Broadbent might have quipped, perhaps just a tad sarcastically, if he had gotten the chance):

Note that bold face type in Ms. Jung's statement - especially the bit about the public vs. the private interest.

So.

It looks like even the ABC insiders, at least those with a shred of integrity left, are still concerned about what that business about the 'potential' clearing of the tracks for privatization that will occur in the wake of the dissolution of the Parks Board is really all about.

Now. 

In my humble opinion, the best case scenario is something like, say, Stanley Park being brought to us by the squabbling heirs of the Logan Roy....errrr...Ted Rogers family fortune and/or the pool deck at the park's Second Beach, pictured above, becomes home to a 24/7 Tim Horton's franchise.

As for the worse case?

Well, there is that small matter of the potential landjacking of one hundred or so 'non-permanent' parks dotted around the city to consider.

OK?

______

Kinda/sorta fictional enforcer?...The M. Tucker character was based, at least in part, on Tony Blair's real life enforcer, the now allegedly super chill, calm and reasonable podcaster, Alistair Campbell. 


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