Raise the Hammer

don't you get it?

He is shmo shmorry and he'll shnever let it happen again!

City Hall of Mirrors!

It was an apology for a "misunderstanding", when an apology for a misdeed was called for. He wasn't "misunderstood", he lied about his actions and he tried to place blame for his decisions on a public servant. It was deplorable behaviour for a Mayor (or anyone).

An apology that chalks it all up to "misunderstanding" suggests Bratina is blameless, or worse, puts the onus on those who "misunderstood" him. Worse than no apology at all in my opinion. This wasn't a communications problem; it was an integrity problem.

Bratina has an integrity problem. Now, so does Council.

Council let Bratina off the disciplinary hook once after the all-day GO v. LRT debacle. He learned nothing. Neither has Council.

So further to your excellent comments...

What does it fall on residents to do now?

>> It was an apology for a "misunderstanding", when an apology for a misdeed was called for.

Yes, just that. Very well stated!

He learned nothing.

Oh he learned something alright. He learned he can get away with whatever he wants as long as he sweet talks his way out of it.

Which would be great if he could even sweet talk his way out of it. It's amateur hour. No methodical process whatsoever. Just one bumbling misstep after another.

The Mayor has no integrity. There was no grey area that would leave an opening for either of his statements (Friday's or today's) to be interpreted as genuine. The fact that it took him a week to even get to this insulting admission of half-guilt is deplorable. He's now trying to hide behind 'employment law' and his poor wording, an even weaker position.

He lied. Council has allowed him to weasel out of it. End of story. I realize pursuing this further would plunge us into a rocky future, but I don't get any sense that Bratina appreciates the damage he's done and I don't think Council's future is bright enough to warrant that much protection.

Bet: By mid-January we'll all be furious with him for some other 'not well-worded' comment in the media. I'm only giving him that long because he's unlikely to get in trouble during the Christmas break. Here's hoping.

". I realize pursuing this further would plunge us into a rocky future"

Council's inaction on this because it has dragged on long enough is exactly what his Bobness wants and again he will get away with yet another misleading statement that this time was an outright lie.

My money is on the annual New Years Levee...unless Peggy is screening at the door with a brief 37 question admission quiz. Or perhaps they should force all entrants to read an entire edition of the Bay Observer before being allowed in. That'll whittle the crowd down.

Comment edited by jason on 2011-12-13 11:18:57

I also asked the mayor if he would have done anything differently if he had the chance. He said he wouldn't have talked to media. #HamOnt

http://twitter.com/#!/EmmaatTheSpec/status/146626020567564288

That's it, Bob. Blame the media. Again.

Perfect. Another regret. This is going fractal!

insult spam from banned user deleted

My distinction as the only person called a liar in front of City Council remains!

Bratina did no wrong, just a misunderstanding.

Conrad,

http://bit.ly/tcTuW0

whoooosh

Some thing wrong,when Joey Coleman can be called a liar (which he is not) in front of Council,yet our Mayor,pulls this recent deception without a word so far from Council! Continued silence by Council will lower the bar down for all of them to the lowest denominator among the sixteen! Everyone can make a mistake but by definition "a mistake is unintentional",Council needs to make a judgement! Intentional or unintentional? One should lead to censure,the other should lead to acceptance of opology!

@MikeBelmore

Perfect. Simply and utterly perfect.

All i want to know is how can we VOTE a mayor out of office after just 1 year in office ... or should the pls in Hamilton Occupie the City Hall untill Bob leaves office

All i want to know is how can we VOTE a mayor out of office after just 1 year in office

We can't. We don't have this provision in Ontario. And I'm not even sure that we should.

or should the pls in Hamilton Occupie the City Hall untill Bob leaves office

Um... No.

I fear that at some point, we're all collectively going to have to 'put up or shut up' when it comes to 'What do we do now?!?'

So much clamouring for censure, for a slap on the wrist...for a resignation?

Does it make any sense to anyone that there might be merit in gaining a better understanding of what really and truly brought us here instead of focusing on something that, other then possibly indicating a bigger problem within the person's makeup, is a colossal waste of time, and actually contributes in tangible ways to our 'legacy malaise'?

A limit on the mayor's power I think may be called for as an appropriate punishment. HR determining that she is "Under-compensated for her work" because the mayor said so isn't a worthwhile reason.

If maybe she was under-compensated in comparison to other people in a similar position in similar municipalities, yes. If maybe she was under-compensated and we weren't in a major recession, yes. If maybe she was became the deal-maker for landing a major public works project or higher government funding, yes.

However as far as I can tell, she's getting $30,000 because she's directly serving as Bratina's own personal attack dog. Now, I will admit my characterization of the issue may be unfair. I don't have all the facts here, but if someone has some information to the contrary, now would be the time to bring it forward, and you'd think Bratina and Chapman would want to clear the air on this raise.

Your problebly wright . but at 90 k she is doing alot better the ALOT of pls in Hamilton .. i do 50 k a year and im doing well but to put another 30 k please give me a break i hope Bob is thinking of the 20percent in poverty when he gave her that raise

Is someone asking the Integrity office to investigate?

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the most frustrating aspect of this interlude for me, the most consternating, the most depressing isn't what Mayor Bratina did. (And I won't get into the world class conflation of issue that the discussion manifested.)

It's the fact that so much energy has been spent on it by residents.

As if anger and vitriol and sarcasm and dismissiveness is going to change anything...

...and that this response...to show that we're enraged, and that we care, dammit!...is somehow elevating the discourse in the city.

There's no question that there's been a consistently disappointing air surrounding City Hall, and specifically our mayor. But in the overall scheme of things, if the best we can use our collective intelligence and ingenuity and resiliency for is to lambaste and catcall and otherwise pillory...then I don't despair for Hamilton because of its leadership, but because of its citizenry.

I'm sorry, but we're going to have to do better than this.

Comment edited by mystoneycreek on 2011-12-13 13:27:57

Who's hosting the next town hall?

@mystoneycreek

You know I'm a fan of yours, but I have to take issue with your constant criticism of criticism. I fear you're coming across as having seen the future and the path toward it, but won't come out and share your insights with the rest of us. Sorry, but it really does feel that way to me. Not even for a second do I question your intentions. You have proven to me and to many others that you care enough to be fully engaged. But, I'm not getting the "all of you are wasting your time thinking and writing about this when you should be......."

For me, we must do both. Lying is lying. Obfuscation is obfuscation. Bob did both. Blatantly and repeatedly. As B.F.Skinner proved, the behaviour that is rewarded is the behaviour that will be repeated. This pigeon needs to be trained, or re-trained, by Council and by citizens. I'm all for talking about bigger issues, but I think we have to deal with what's in front of us at the same time.

I agree H+H, we need to discuss these things to show others what s and what is not acceptable. Also, it's like saying (arguing) that if we don't build something (velodrome, stadium, LRT, for examples) that money would go to other infrastructure, which we all know doesn't happen.

mystoneycreek,

Is it better to wake people up and get the uninvolved involved at however an elemental level (rage, frustration, indignation, disbelief) or is it better to have the same players always involved but at a more noble level as you are very earnestly driving with your town hall initiative. I am in no way suggesting it is a one or the other proposition, I am saying that the lower forms of expression I am seeing more and more regarding Bratina serves to introduce people to the playing field of publicly expressed opinions. I personally found RTH only through the sputtering, stammering rage I felt over the West Harbour. The elemental anger that I expressed here and elsewhere awakened a beast that was dormant. I now have a higher level of civic consciousness, connectivity and engagement then I would have ever had before the WH backroom deals.

All I am saying is that there is a value in "anger and vitriol and sarcasm and dismissiveness" as it can serve as an initiation. I agree it's not quality discourse, it's up to those who have been engaged for a while to lead and direct towards more productive expressions of discontent.

Alright, fine lets assume we accept your apology Bratina. Why is she getting a $30,000 raise when we are in a recession and city money is extremely tight!

Why is she getting a $30,000 raise when we are in a recession and city money is extremely tight!

Because at $~120k, she'll finally make about the same as her boss. Didn't you get the memo? Hamilton has an elected AND unelected mayor now.

Comment edited by Borrelli on 2011-12-13 15:31:13

Graham MacKay can slice through any BS served up and get to the real heart of the matter. Have a look at his most recent Bob and Peggy cartoon

Comment edited by mrjanitor on 2011-12-13 17:15:54

re sneeringanddamage above: Amazing how many RTH readers must have just moved to Hamilton and never read papers anywhere else--can't be any other explanation unless they all born yesterday. I don't get. Some of McKay's stuff has been appalling, over last decade--and maybe the same RTH readers never saw Dreschel at his frequent worst. An RTH-er in last few days called him a gossip-monger with a telephone. You got that right.

As a chess player, I find it odd the king hasn't chosen to protect himself by throwing his rook in the path ("castling"). Perhaps the king is too busy protecting himself to see he's about to lose his rook.

I would have preferred that he hire a part time employee to assist PC for that money. At least hat would give someone else some work. Or maybe not.

Collins takes the mayor's talking points on rapid transit ("we're not hearing any clamour from the public on that file")...

"it's up to the community to decide whethr this issue warrants Intgrty Commish involvemnt"

http://twitter.com/#!/Collins_Ward5/status/146747801739591681

... because of course Council isn't in a position to define or evaluate abstracts like "integrity".

"If somebody wants to stand up and be the champion of integrity, please go ahead. I'm going to be the champion of posturing."

“I was surprised that the matter had begun circulating to the media. So it was obviously leaked by somebody.”

However, Bratina acknowledges that news of Chapman’s raise was first distributed by his office.

http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/638553--mayor-apologizes-for-misunderstanding-on-pay-hike

Everything you need to know about this story, in a nutshell.

450,000 in surplus and they can`t even give a silly extra 5,000 for the Velodrome ???????????