Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 27, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B4 B 4 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2015 CITY winnipegfreepress. com COUNCILLORS on a civic committee want to know the terms of the legal agreements that closed Portage and Main to pedestrians before they consider efforts to reopen Winnipeg's iconic intersection. Coun. Brian Mayes, chairman of the downtown development committee, said Monday the deal with four property owners at the intersection expires in 2019, but he's concerned any one of them can unilaterally renew the deal and keep the intersection closed for another 40 years. Mayes said there is no point having staff consider options on how to allow pedestrians to cross if it's never going to happen. City staff were instructed in April to consider all options on how best to reopen the intersection and to approach the property owners whose agreements with city hall led to the underground development and closed the intersection to pedestrians. Mayes asked for an update at Monday's meeting, but staff told the committee there have been no additional studies and no discussions with the property owners. Staff said they aren't even sure about the terms of the legal agreements that closed the intersection. Coun. Jeff Browaty said he believes the initiative is a waste of time, while Coun. Jenny Gerbasi said she can't believe Winnipeg is the only major city in the world with its major intersection closed to pedestrians. " In an ideal world, Portage and Main would be open," Browaty said following the meeting, but added he doesn't believe it's viable given the amount of vehicular traffic through the intersection. " Any solution that is not going to negatively affect ( traffic) in any meaningful way is going to cost millions upon millions of dollars - in my mind, there are far greater priorities in our city," Browaty said. " I don't see that being a worthwhile exercise at this point in time." - Aldo Santin City eyes legal roadblocks to reopening intersection JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Portage and Main is closed to pedestrian traffic, but city hall has been eyeing changing that. S PEEDWAY International, whose facility was destroyed by a massive fire and explosion in St. Boniface in 2012, has been fined $ 4,800. As well, provincial court Judge John Guy, in agreeing to the joint Crown and defence recommendation, ordered $ 25,000 in restitution to the City of Winnipeg to offset firefighting costs. Speedway International and its owner, Royce Rostecki, were fined after pleading guilty to charges of not having an occupancy permit for the area where the blaze originated, not having fencing around the entire property, and not having a containment area around a rail car. Court was told none of the charges to which the company and Rostecki pleaded guilty was connected to the fire itself. " This was an act of God," defence counsel Gord Steeves said during sentencing on Monday. " This was a complete accident." Firefighters rushed to St. Boniface after an explosion, which included a huge fireball that could be seen for kilometres, erupted inside the company's building in October 2012. There were no injuries. Earlier, City of Winnipeg prosecutor Jessica Hall said the blaze cost the city $ 31,335 for firefighters to battle it. She said the charges carry a maximum fine of $ 1,000 each for an individual and $ 5,000 each for a company. Steeves told the court the fire started in an area where canola oil was filtered as part of a process to make biodiesel to run vehicles. Steeves said while the company had an occupancy permit when it first opened in 2008 to allow it to use methanol to make windshield- washing fluid, it failed to get one for a later expansion that enabled it to make biodiesel from a mix of canola oil and methanol. " The process is no more dangerous than what Mr. Rostecki was already permitted for," Steeves said, adding a rail car outside the building that was full of methanol didn't catch fire and survived the blaze. Steeves said the company was inspected 50 times before the fire and even the premier was taken on a tour of the expanded plant. He said the fire destroyed the facility, and the company is no longer in business. kevin. rollason@ freepress. mb. ca JOIN THE CONVERSATION If $ 4,800 is considered sufficient deterrent from breaking safety rules, do you feel safe in your neighbourhood? Go to winnipegfreepress. com and add your comments to the conversation Firm fined $ 4,800 for massive fire Must also pay $ 25,000 for firefighting costs By Kevin Rollason KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES ABOVE: Winnipeg fire investigators at the scene of the blaze that destroyed Speedway International in October 2012. TREVOR HAGAN / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES LEFT: Onlookers watch from a safe distance as the fire burns at the methanol fuel plant. I N the private sector, if a multibillion- dollar company tried to function for any extended period of time without a chief executive officer, you can bet investors and analysts would howl in disbelief, concerned the foundation of the organization was at risk of collapsing in a thunderous, dusty heap. Ah, but that's the private sector, where leadership is a key element in organizational success. In municipal government, however, we tend to see a different approach. In fact, a municipality seems to be able to operate almost indefinitely without any real corporate leadership. Exhibit one: the City of Winnipeg and the soap opera that is the office of the chief administrative officer. Winnipeg is going into its 16th month without a permanent CAO. There is a search on for a new CAO, but it is unclear when it will be completed. Former CAO Phil Sheegl resigned in October 2013 and was replaced on an interim basis by deputy CAO Deepak Joshi, who last week was suspended by Mayor Brian Bowman and the executive policy committee for unspecified reasons. All Bowman would say for now is he has " lost faith" in Joshi. Although the mayor and council provide political leadership, the CAO is the source of leadership for the civic service. He or she is responsible for the engagement of city employees at all levels and the creation and maintenance of a culture that is working to provide value for taxpayer money. Put the wrong person in the CAO's job, or suffer too much turnover, and you have the potential for sloppy, ineffective government. At the very least, you have a government in which everyone is working with a different set of goals and mandates. In other words, no common vision or purpose. Winnipeg has seen all of this and more. For the better part of a decade, there's been a revolving door in the CAO's office through which has passed a parade of intriguing characters. Annitta Stenning was generally well- respected as a professional public administrator when, in 2007, she resigned as CAO without offering an explanation. The speculation was Stenning could not work with former mayor Sam Katz, who was elected in 2004. After a national search, Stenning was replaced by career public administrator Glen Laubenstein. Although he had a stellar resum�, Laubenstein was seen by media and other observers as an uneven and unpredictable character. Before long, it was clear he and Katz had no functioning working relationship. He left in 2010, again without explanation, along with another wave of senior civic employees. ( It should be noted Laubenstein also left his next job, chief administrator for the RM of Wood Buffalo in Alberta, under similar circumstances. He collected more than $ 400,000 in severance for three years on the job.) Which brings us to Phil Sheegl, a real estate developer and lifelong friend of Katz, whose appointment as CAO raised eyebrows and concerns. Many skeptics believed his business sensibilities would compromise publicsector principles. In almost every regard, Sheegl did not disappoint. Sheegl resigned just days before a damning audit of city real estate transactions was made public. That audit revealed city hall on Sheegl's watch emphasized expediency over due diligence and personal relationships over fairness. With an RCMP investigation ongoing into some of the transactions outlined in the audits, we don't know the full extent of the mayhem created during the Sheegl era. Council demonstrated its complicity in the tawdry legacy of CAO dysfunction when it decided, against all rational thought, to delay the hiring of a permanent replacement for Sheegl. A new CAO should have been in place by last spring; councillors deferred that decision because it was an election year. Now, heading into the spring of 2015, the city is still without its leader. Joshi's mysterious suspension seems destined to end in his termination. That would mean three successive CAOs will have left the city under clouds of controversy. And no matter how you look at that sorry sequence, it's a bad deal for taxpayers. The City of Winnipeg has had too much turnover and too many dubious characters in key positions. That has led to much inconsistency and dysfunction. After years of mysterious disappearances, real estate scandals, operational audits and unexplained suspensions, a few years of stable, competent public administration would be a breath of fresh air. dan. lett@ freepress. mb. ca Let's stop the revolving door that is the CAO's office DAN LETT Phil Sheegl: Resigned in October 2013 B_ 04_ Jan- 27- 15_ FP_ 01. indd B4 1/ 26/ 15 10: 13: 50 PM ;