Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Incompetence at Edmonton City Hall.

It seems that the City Manager and the Transportation Department jumped the gun by not only ordering the new seasonal parking ban signs but by having city crews install them before City Council had made the decision to do so.

I wonder how many dollars that move will cost us?

Update: Councilor Bryan Anderson said it could be a waste of $600,000. If that number is accurate, transportation boss Bob Boutilier must be fired immediately and to use Boutilier's own words: "All I can say is, 'tough! I got no other way of saying it..." you cost the taxpayer $600,000, and you did so without the approval of the elected representatives of the citizens of Edmonton; you have to go. This is an embarrassment.


City Council has yet to make a final decision on the matter but according to news reports (and Councilor Don Iveson), as of right now the seasonal ban is on hold and all of those expensive installed signs are to be ignored.

4 comments:

platty said...

Yeah, that would be the same
Bob Boutilier behind the Quesnell bridge fiasco. This guy has already been around waaayyy too long! Time to get Bob a transport out of town.

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Jeff said...

Good to see you shine a light on Edmonton city hall. In the bigger picture, lovers of big government outnumber conservatives on city councils across the country.

AlbertaLyle said...

Perhaps they can recycle the signs by using them to fill potholes.

We will be watching with great anticipation, for the plaintive wailing about budget deficiencies in transportation later this year - probably during snow removal season.

Ardvark said...

Big government sounds about right.

Make new regulations while other ones are on the books and not used being used. In this case the Snow Route regs have been around since the 70's but they have not been used in years, including last winter when we had cause to use them during snowmeggedon.

I am curious as to how all of this went down. Boutilier doesn't have the authority to dictate traffic rules, the City Manager has that authority under bylaw 5590 to do so, but why would he go ahead on something this major without the approval of council? I doubt we will ever know.