Monthly Archives: May 2012

Posted by on 31 May

Provincial government says “no pressure” on HWDSB to rush HQ decision

The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board is moving forward with it’s plans to move out of the downtown core. This despite an offer from the City of Hamilton to assist them to relocate into the old Cannon Knitting Mill.

The HWDSB Trustees surprised everyone by abruptly pulling the pull on the downtown task force twenty days early. Just after midnight Wednesday, they voted to withdrawal from the task force which was mandated to find a location for the Board’s administrative functions downtown. The decision only came hours after city councillors Jason Farr and Brian McHattie presented a city offer for relocation to the Cannon Knitting Mill.

Both Farr and McHattie left the HWDSB building shortly after 7 p.m. Tuesday evening with smiles on their faces. There was no indication the Trustees would reject the offer and leave the process. Trustees moved in-camera shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday night and at about 12:40 a.m. Wednesday, voted to disband the task force and confirm their plans to move to Crestwood.

The HWDSB statements about leaving the process early indicate they felt pressure from the provincial Ministry of Education.

“NO pressure”: McMeekin

Local cabinet minister Ted McMeekin says, in an email interview, he spoke with the minister of education Laurel Broten yesterday afternoon and again this morning. McMeekin says there was ”NO pressure exerted on HWDSB” to rush their decision and that the education minister confirmed that ministry staff did not pressure HWDSB staff.

Knitting Mills lower cost: City

“Our preliminary costing showed that the capital costs were lower than the Crestwood site,” says McHattie in reference to the Knitting Mills site.

The costing was still underway and the final package was due to be presented by June 18th. The only missing component in the offer – 480 parking spots the Board demanded.

What’s next?

Officially, the Board’s made it decision and talks have ended. Legally, city council has not removed its offer from the table. It’s unclear what direction the city is taking. Some clarity should appear Wednesday when city council meetings in committee at 9:30 a.m.

The school board does not appear to be bluffing and it seems they are moving forward with their original “I want to pack my bags and go to our new building” mentality.

The province appears to be staying out of this fray.

As for the Knitting Mill – it’s finally on the media’s radar. Watch for something to happen now that it’s in the limelight.

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Special meeting of City Council to discuss new website
Posted by
30 May

Special meeting of City Council to discuss new website

Hamilton City Hall by Tom Flemming via Flickr

Hamilton’s city council will hold a special meeting sitting as a committee on June 28, 2012 to discuss a new web strategy that will include a complete redesign of the city’s embarrassing web presence.

Open Hamilton is thinking extensively about the problem and there have been meetings with city staff to suggest policy changes to prevent a similarly embarrassing website from being created in the future.

The two topics for the meeting are officially “Service Delivery Review Ranking and Criteria” and “Web Strategy Redevelopment”. In simple terms, council is looking at changing the way the city does business in the digital age.

The public is allowed to present their vision for what the digital city should look like by registering to be a delegation to the meeting: www.hamilton.ca/YourElectedOfficials/RequestToSpeakToACommitteeOfCouncilRedirect.htm

 

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Possible CP strike will impact Hamilton trains
Posted by
21 May

Possible CP strike will impact Hamilton trains

UPDATE: CP and the union reached an agreement to continue passenger commuter service during the labour disruption.

Hamilton GO train users will need to take the bus if Canadian Pacific Railway workers hit the picket lines.

The union representing 4,800 CP employees conductors, engineers, yard workers and rail traffic controllers served its 72-hour strike notice over the weekend, putting the workers in a legal strike position at 00:01 Wednesday morning.

Hamilton trains will not originate downtown. Instead they’ll originate at Aldershot station because tracks from Burlington Junction to Hamilton GO Centre are owned by CP.

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Posted by on 20 May

City Hall again releasing Council agendas on Fridays

City Council agendas are again being released to the public on Fridays. This follows two months during which the release was delayed three days until the Monday prior to the meeting.

Using the City definition, this is a rollback in transparency.

The withholding of public agendas was one of the weirder decisions at City Hall this spring during a period in which Council promised a new era of transparency after the Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin slammed them for improper in-camera meetings.

It seemed the definition of “transparency” used by Council was the same as their infamous “accountability and transparency” sub-committee.

The delay started Easter Weekend when City staff decided to withhold the agenda over the long weekend and only make it public the day prior to the Council meeting. I noted this here.

The response from City Hall? From that point forward, all releases would occur after weekends, not before as had been practice for as long as anyone could remember. I protested this blatantly anti-transparent move. I emailed Council on a regular basis and made a point of noting this blatantly conflicted with their promises of transparency.

It appears the message was received.

So, with Council agendas being released on-time again, I’ll turn my attention back to getting the “accountability and transparency” sub-committee to be both transparent and accountable. Wish me luck…. I’ll need it.

 

This week’s

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Posted by on 20 May

CBC Music continues Hamilton playlist

It’s little surprise that CBC playlist for Hamilton music will continue.

CBC Hamilton’s is focusing upon the local cultural scene and they’ve been running daily stories about the local music scene.

CBC’s online music service, CBC Music, is facing a CRTC hearing and what online listeners are playing could be a major determinate for the CRTC’s eventual ruling. If CBC Music users are primarily playing music commonly found on commercial radio, the argument the service is unfair taxpayer-funded competition will enjoy greater merit. Whereas, if users are using the service to listen to music never found on commercial radio, the CRTC will be hard-pressed to rule again CBC.

It’s for these reasons that it should be no surprise the playlist beat goes on.

CBC move brings it into competition with TheSpec’s Jamilton

There’s an interesting twist in this decision, it puts CBC directly into competition with a commercial enterprise offering independent music at no charge  - Metroland’s (TheSpec parent company) Jamilton website.

A screencap of Jamilton.ca

Launched in 2006, Jamilton allows for local artists to upload their music, share information with their fans, includes editorial content and is the site of The Spectator’s yearly local bands competition.

The Jamilton website has seen better days (it appears to be broken at present as it’s trying to direct data to spec.com instead of thespec.com) and doesn’t appear be receiving frequent updates.

It’s a good time for Hamilton artists

Could this example be used to advance the case against CBC Music? I’m no lawyer or CRTC expert, I cannot say.

There’s an inherent good of having more competition to provide exposure to independent artists. It’s a good time to be a Hamilton artist, especially with a national platform to perform on.

– JC –

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TheSpec uses thinglink to create rich interactives
Posted by
18 May

TheSpec uses thinglink to create rich interactives

TheSpec.com War of 1812 map canvas

Thinglink is the “it thing” in journalism circles this month and TheSpec is putting it to good use today with a great interactive map of The War of 1812 in southwest Ontario. 

Full credit to their web team for a very creative use of the service and a nice interactive (that I’m linking to again because I think you should check it out) feature.

Anyone can use thinglink, the service is free, and there is plenty of potential for local blogs to use the service.

A map of James Artcrawl with a point for each event? How about Supercrawl?

An explanation of an “art masterpiece” hanging in a gallery? (Looking at you AGH)

The possibilities are endless, and thanks to TheSpec for introducing the platform to a wider audience in Hamilton.

 

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Posted by on 16 May

City of Hamilton’s new media policy

City councillors passed a new media policy today as GIC, bringing an end to a saga that began when the Mayor’s chief of staff declared she and the Mayor would only speak to “a journalist that has a boss that I can complain to.”

The new policy was widely condemned by almost all media outlets. City staff moved quickly to clarify that the Mayor’s office’s policy was not staff policy and a staff media policy review began.

I was consulted during the process and stated to staff that my priority was to see equatable access to public information for all.

The new policy achieves this, encourages city staff to engage online in communicating with citizens, and speaks to a need to provide access to city staff for all media outlets (both old and new) to clarify and explain city affairs.

Credit must be given to city staffers Debbie Spence and Mike Kirkopoulos for their work creating the updated policy and removing the review from the political firestorms that often engulf the relationship between media and City Hall.

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Posted by on 16 May

“Accountability and Transparency” cmte releases agenda less than 24hr before mtg

The so-called “Accountability and Transparency” committee is moving towards accountability and transparency – which is not to say they are actually being accountable or transparent.

I just received from City Clerks a copy of the agenda for their meeting tomorrow morning. On the agenda, a presentation from Toronto’s lobbyist registar and continuing discussions about the terms of a new contract for Earl Basse, Hamilton’s integrity commissioner.

This will be the third meeting of debate about Basse’s new contract. The sub-committee attempted at their first meeting about renewal to create a new bylaw gagging citizens who file complaints. During their meeting last week, the committee rewrote the minutes of their first meeting and backtracked from the gag bylaw.

Hamilton’s current lobbyist registry is voluntary. There is discussion about creating a mandatory registry and possibly giving it teeth.

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Stifling community voices at the HWDSB
Posted by
16 May

Stifling community voices at the HWDSB

Delta Secondary School

Where’s the community organization against school closures this time?

As public school trustees vote this month to close schools, the crowds attending the meetings can be counted by the dozen.

Regardless of one’s position on closures, this lack of community involvement is concerning. How did this happen?

The biggest reason is the decision of the school board to minimize community dissent.

A decade ago, school closures (now called “accommodation reviews” in Boardspeak) were contentious matters that brought overflow crowds to the earliest committee discussions.

As well-noted by Gord Bowes of the Mountain News , it seems the process was designed to prevent community mobilization. (They follow the Board consistently and have called things straight from the beginning.)

Part of preventing community opposition was stifling of school principals.

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