‘This is municipal politics. Water. Sewer. Garbage. If you can’t wrap your head around the fact that’s part of your job then don’t do this job,’ says Coun. Sonya Sharp
The Stampede is over but at Calgary city hall there are fireworks.
One Calgary city council member tells some others on city council to start doing their jobs.
“Cut the B.S. Cut the nonsense.
“They pontificate on whatever they want. Everyone is tired of that. Everybody is tired of the B.S. People just want you to do your jobs and that’s providing services to Calgarians at a reasonable cost.”
So says Sonya Sharp, who speaks out on this day knowing she could get a mighty cold shoulder and lots of dirty looks at Wednesday’s city council gabfest.
Such is the price you pay for speaking truth to power.
For raising the curtain and revealing what goes on at city hall, where it is often like going to a strange circus and you don’t know what the next act will be but it won’t be entertaining and it will cost you money.
For Sharp, council is grunt work.
City council is about stuff like roads and transit and the fire department and public safety and infrastructure and picking up garbage and filling in potholes, and yes, providing a normal flow of water.
“This is municipal politics. Water. Sewer. Garbage. If you can’t wrap your head around the fact that’s part of your job then don’t do this job,” says Sharp.
“If you want something more, go find it.”
But the councillor says some on council get sidetracked. They lose focus.
“The shiny star comes and they’re like: Oh, we need the shiny star over here.
“It’s exhausting when you see a report come on the agenda and you ask: Who is this for? What is this for?”
Sharp is speaking her mind big-time about the state of affairs in the big building downtown where your tax dollars go to die.
“We need to listen and not lecture. We should be listening to our constituents and actually think about what they’re saying to us and not just spew out what we think is the right thing.
“You listen to Calgarians. They’re saying they don’t like something, bring their voices to council.
“If you think about rezoning look at the surveys done and it still passed.”
Unfortunately too often Calgarians are just the ATM for council and the pawns where some of these city politicians can try out their latest brainwave in social engineering.
Sharp says if city council has an idea they want to try out, fine and dandy.
“But if things don’t work then they don’t work.
“When we have ideas make sure these are ideas Calgarians would be interested in.”
That would be a novelty.
Sharp is not finished, sitting at this picnic table in Bowness.
“Wasting time and money. Lately, we’ve been really good at that.
“Calgarians aren’t stupid. I think some members of council think Calgarians are stupid. They’re underestimating Calgarians.”
And, therefore, the councillor believes many Calgarians feel unrepresented.
Simple things like justifying property tax hikes doesn’t really happen.
Just shut up and pay and … worse still … be grateful.
Sharp says Calgarians are speaking out more. Finally.
“People are very vocal. They’re vocal at events. They’re vocal in emails. People are more bold than they’ve ever been. You better believe it.
“There is a time and place for the nice-to-haves. But right now this is not the time and this is not the place.”
These days, in the mid-summer heat wave, we now know all about catastrophic failures and hot spots and snapped wires and water restrictions and forking tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on a screwup.
Some have said city council will learn a lesson from this water pipe fiasco. City council will concentrate on making things work. They will get back to the basics.
It’s a real long shot so don’t bet the farm.