Thursday, September 02, 2010

Ideological clash at city hall

The Vision Vancouver administration at City Hall is implementing its agenda so aggressively that staff morale has plummeted and many fear the civil service is in danger of becoming politicized, according to the association representing more than 700 non-union employees. That fear is so acute there is now a loss of respect and trust throughout the organization, and staff are fearful of reprisals for speaking out, the Vancouver Association of Civic Managerial and Professional Staff said in a memo to city manager Penny Ballem. The memo, written in June and copied to all members of the city's corporate management team, accompanied a confidential survey of 70 per cent of the city's nonunion staff, who also identified worries about micro-management, inefficient and expensive processes, administrative interference and loss of corporate knowledge because of the large number of senior managers who have left. The association said the situation is so serious that "staff in all parts of the organization felt negatively affected by the new style of management."

The memo was leaked to Vancouver political blogging site Citycaucus. com. Ballem said the memo is helpful to understand how non-union staff are feeling as the city's administration modernizes. But she rejected the suggestion that the traditionally non-partisan civil service is becoming politicized by Vision Vancouver's green agenda and she doesn't accept that a fear of reprisals exists. Instead, she suggested staff are "confused and lack clarity" about the jobs they have to do under an administration that is carrying out a new council's aggressive agenda. "This is what I think has changed. This is a council that is requiring more transparency about what we're doing. They are asking for more accountability. This organization was very, very devolved in terms of its decision-making," she said. "We know we have a lot of changes to make. We're not centralizing decision-making on some things, but there are some things we are."

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An internal memo shared with CityCaucus.com reveals deep unhappiness among exempt staff

1 comment:

Kalwest said...

So what did the "Left Wing Liberal Pinko's" union think would happen when they supported "Vision" in the last election.

Another replay of NDP Bolsheviks of the 90's.