It must be nice to live in that world where one can brush off inquiries about the disposition of over $100,000 dollars as being a “tiny little thing”. Easy to do I guess when that money is somebody else’s. In this case, it was taxpayers’ money..Nobody was terribly shocked when Stephen Carter was fired after serving only a few months in city hall. Carter is a disagreeable little man who has never had a good history of holding down jobs once campaigns end. The rumours were already coming in fast and furious about Carter having conflicts with city councilors shortly after he started as Mayor Gondek’s chief of staff last fall. Once the formal complaints about Carter’s behavior were filed by at least two members of city council, his days in the role were numbered..It isn’t that shocking that Carter managed to grab a $104,000 severance package for a paltry 90 days of work for the city as well. He has been fired enough times to know to ensure he has a soft-landing clause in his contracts. Carter pocketed a cool $130,000 when Alison Redford fired him as her chief of staff back in 2013 after — again — just a few months work. He knows how to get the most out of a system when his tenures tend to be short..Still, some people were surprised at the revelation today that Carter got a severance package from the city of Calgary because an official in city hall claimed last February that Carter would not be getting any severance because he hadn’t cleared the probationary period in his job. Either the official who was quoted was mistaken, or misled people in the hopes that the subject would be forgotten. Thanks to a FOIP request by CTV though, we now know Carter was indeed paid out and paid out well..Must be nice to get a bonus of over $1,000 per day served for a job you didn’t even last 100 days in..Mayor Gondek however feels this isn’t a big deal. Gondek was quite prickly as she told CTV “I find it interesting that we continue to pick on tiny little things that don’t matter in the grand scheme of getting our city back on track.”.This isn’t a few dollars. This represents the annual property tax bill of at least several households. It’s not tiny little thing..Gondek also claims she can’t speak to this because it is a personnel issue. That could be true if we were talking about some random bureaucrat over which she has little control, but not in the case of her handpicked and very well paid chief of staff. Carter and his short time with the city of Calgary is entirely Mayor Gondek’s responsibility..Taxpayer’s deserve some answers no matter what Mayor Gondek thinks. What did Carter do that forced his early dismissal?.Why was he paid such a massive severance settlement for such a short period of time?.Perhaps most importantly, why did Mayor Gondek even hire Carter in the first place when he already had such a long and disreputable employment history? This reflects on Gondek’s judgement in general..Jyoti Gondek has already won the dubious honour of being the most unpopular, newly elected mayor in generations. Gondek hit the ground running with declaring a “climate emergency” nobody asked for, and getting mired in the cancelation of an arena deal that had taken years to put together. Meanwhile, her chief of staff was apparently wreaking havoc behind closed doors at city hall. The honeymoon period of support that most new mayors usually enjoy quickly evaporated as Gondek appeared out of control and out of depth in her job. The only decision in the early part of her tenure that appeared wise was her firing of Carter. Things did seem to settle down after that..Carter may be gone but Gondek still has three and a half years left in her term as mayor. She would be well placed to examine her attitude and adjust it appropriately..If the mayor can dismiss $104,000 tax dollars as a tiny little thing, one could imagine she could dismiss millions of tax dollars the same way. If she can’t respect the relatively small amount of dollars she had been entrusted with, how can we expect her to respect the larger sums of tax dollars she has authority over?.Carter’s story is old and we will likely see it repeat again elsewhere as he finds his way into yet another politician’s inner circle..Gondek’s story is looking pretty bad but it is still short. There is still time for her to rewrite it. She is going to need to embrace a hell of a change in attitude fast of that is going to happen..Cory Morgan is Opinion & Broadcast Editor for the Western Standard.cmorgan@westernstandardonline.com
It must be nice to live in that world where one can brush off inquiries about the disposition of over $100,000 dollars as being a “tiny little thing”. Easy to do I guess when that money is somebody else’s. In this case, it was taxpayers’ money..Nobody was terribly shocked when Stephen Carter was fired after serving only a few months in city hall. Carter is a disagreeable little man who has never had a good history of holding down jobs once campaigns end. The rumours were already coming in fast and furious about Carter having conflicts with city councilors shortly after he started as Mayor Gondek’s chief of staff last fall. Once the formal complaints about Carter’s behavior were filed by at least two members of city council, his days in the role were numbered..It isn’t that shocking that Carter managed to grab a $104,000 severance package for a paltry 90 days of work for the city as well. He has been fired enough times to know to ensure he has a soft-landing clause in his contracts. Carter pocketed a cool $130,000 when Alison Redford fired him as her chief of staff back in 2013 after — again — just a few months work. He knows how to get the most out of a system when his tenures tend to be short..Still, some people were surprised at the revelation today that Carter got a severance package from the city of Calgary because an official in city hall claimed last February that Carter would not be getting any severance because he hadn’t cleared the probationary period in his job. Either the official who was quoted was mistaken, or misled people in the hopes that the subject would be forgotten. Thanks to a FOIP request by CTV though, we now know Carter was indeed paid out and paid out well..Must be nice to get a bonus of over $1,000 per day served for a job you didn’t even last 100 days in..Mayor Gondek however feels this isn’t a big deal. Gondek was quite prickly as she told CTV “I find it interesting that we continue to pick on tiny little things that don’t matter in the grand scheme of getting our city back on track.”.This isn’t a few dollars. This represents the annual property tax bill of at least several households. It’s not tiny little thing..Gondek also claims she can’t speak to this because it is a personnel issue. That could be true if we were talking about some random bureaucrat over which she has little control, but not in the case of her handpicked and very well paid chief of staff. Carter and his short time with the city of Calgary is entirely Mayor Gondek’s responsibility..Taxpayer’s deserve some answers no matter what Mayor Gondek thinks. What did Carter do that forced his early dismissal?.Why was he paid such a massive severance settlement for such a short period of time?.Perhaps most importantly, why did Mayor Gondek even hire Carter in the first place when he already had such a long and disreputable employment history? This reflects on Gondek’s judgement in general..Jyoti Gondek has already won the dubious honour of being the most unpopular, newly elected mayor in generations. Gondek hit the ground running with declaring a “climate emergency” nobody asked for, and getting mired in the cancelation of an arena deal that had taken years to put together. Meanwhile, her chief of staff was apparently wreaking havoc behind closed doors at city hall. The honeymoon period of support that most new mayors usually enjoy quickly evaporated as Gondek appeared out of control and out of depth in her job. The only decision in the early part of her tenure that appeared wise was her firing of Carter. Things did seem to settle down after that..Carter may be gone but Gondek still has three and a half years left in her term as mayor. She would be well placed to examine her attitude and adjust it appropriately..If the mayor can dismiss $104,000 tax dollars as a tiny little thing, one could imagine she could dismiss millions of tax dollars the same way. If she can’t respect the relatively small amount of dollars she had been entrusted with, how can we expect her to respect the larger sums of tax dollars she has authority over?.Carter’s story is old and we will likely see it repeat again elsewhere as he finds his way into yet another politician’s inner circle..Gondek’s story is looking pretty bad but it is still short. There is still time for her to rewrite it. She is going to need to embrace a hell of a change in attitude fast of that is going to happen..Cory Morgan is Opinion & Broadcast Editor for the Western Standard.cmorgan@westernstandardonline.com
