Rhino's Ramblings - Malfunction At The Junction X 2

By Robert Thomas Opinion/Commentary

For those of you who have some years on you and your Mom let you watch it Saturday mornings were a blast with the hardcore antics of Stampede Wrestling.

Filmed in Calgary the one hour Saturday morning fare featured the likes of Stu Hart, Brett Hart, Mr Hito, The Dynamite Kid, JR Foley and of course the tag team midgets - all of this of course announced and to a great extent policed by the host, broadcaster Ed Whalen.

One of the greatest things the legendary Whalen was known for were his trademark catchphrases that permeated the broadcast and in many ways made a great portion of the show.

As he called the match there would be a turnaround in a match where the momentum would suddenly change and one wrestler would in an instance come out to dominate the match.

At this point of the match Whelan would often announce “malfunction at the junction” and that is what we saw on Monday night.

The nice and smoothly oiled machine look Mayor Fraser Tolmie wants to portray as “his Council” now that the troublesome Councillor Brian Swanson is no longer on board had not one but two major malfunctions right out front for the viewing audience to enjoy.

The first and most troublesome was a breakdown in the communication between the City and a major stable employer Potters Canada.

To give you a bit of a background Potters Canada had a 10 year deal with the City for reduced commercial landfill rates as the by-product (course glass dust) from the manufacture of glass beads for highway marking paint was used until 2018 to build roads at the landfill.

This past August, knowing that the deal was set to expire at the end of 2020, Potters Canada contacted the City’s Clerks office about renegotiating the deal.

It should have been simple but somehow and some way that initial email got lost. The issue sat there and the small but efficient Potter’s Canada continued doing what they do best make marking paint reflective glass spheres from recycled glass. They are just too busy doing what they do to spend time navigating through the mazes and catacombs of ye olde City Hall.

Then from what Councillor Heather Eby said at Council this past Monday evening Council went ahead in increasing the landfill rates under the impression Potters Canada had been informed and agreed to them. Something Potters Canada had not.

As Ed Whalen would say at this time in his characteristic voice “Oh, oh malfunction at the junction!”

There you had Council not only apologizing to Potters Canada for what happened to them but at the same time doing what maybe could have been negotiated in private, granting Potters a reduced rate that is phased in to the full commercial dumping fee over a period of years.

In my opinion it left Mayor Fraser Tolmie in the unenviable task of deflecting the heat away from Administration and City Hall about the apparent breakdown in communications at City Hall. Something a new computerized and upgraded City Hall would not miss.

Council was all smiles despite the communications breakdowns (artist’s impression) - MJ Independent photo illustration

But the internal communications woes continued just not at the same extent.

This time it was the issue of change orders for the dressing room upgrades at the Kinsmen Sportsplex being the center of confusion.

A change order is where the scope of a contracted job goes beyond what was initially agreed to on the initial contract. Sometimes they can be aesthetic afterthoughts (such as the center boulevard on the 100 block of High Street West during Phase Five of the Cast Iron Water Main Replacement project) or unforeseen necessities for the job to continue.

As City Manager Jim Puffalt told Council when you do renovations you often find additional work that needs to be done as well as the initial job. It is perfectly understandable for homeowners who set out to do a small home repair only to see once the drywall is removed there are multiple problems that need fixing.

Here is what happened on the second breakdown in communications at City Hall and this one dealt with a department and the approval of additional work or a change order without the budget or funds in place.

It is definite no, no to approve major work without the proper authority or the funding available.

And yes you can cue Ed Whalen again as the second “Oh, oh malfunction at the junction” is issued in a short one hour Council meeting.

Both dealing with communication with outside businesses - one a customer of the landfill and another a contractor.

Such was the case of additional but required work at the Sportsplex. Somewhere, somehow unfunded change orders totaling $12,795.54 without budgetary approval were approved. Something I truly believe must violate some policy somewhere.

So there you had a department head having the unenviable task of telling Council there was a breakdown in procedures - or was it communication - when it came to approving change orders without funds being available.

Fortunately the problem is rectified according to the report.

Now I know there are going to be people that say this all means essential work could wait for weeks for Council to approve it. Work that needs to be done immediately is not going to be done because of a bureaucracy tied to policies and procedures.

Well that is not true as the system has a built in safety valve called the City Manager.

In emergency situations the City Manager has the authority to approve work up to a set level without Council approval. The reasons why the work was approved can be sorted out later at Council.

So for those of you who watched Council on cable or at the City site what you had were basically two communications breakdowns, during this Council’s tenure, made public. Communication lapses which point to, despite improving, the problems to some extent continue at City Hall.

So as the great Ed Whalen would say “In the meantime and in-between time that is it another edition of” Rhino’s Ramblings.

EDITOR’S PERSONAL NOTE - On a different issue I would like to thank all of the many well wishers after my recent hospital visit. I would like to thank the people who dropped off all sorts of food on my doorstep.

What the surgeon discovered was that my heart was at one time under a viral attack from an unknown virus. And no it was not COVID - 19. That severely weakened the bottom end leading to valve and all sorts of problems. Through time and medication I should improve.

Thank you for your kind words.