Ongoing YYCCC (Chu + Farkas) Transgressions Threat

[GGG]

Originally Posted by monkeyman

Have you never heard Nenshi speak, how he reacts to be challenged, how he bends facts to suit his naritive? It's also well documented how many out of camera sessions Calgary has compared to other jurisdictions.
Just to be clear, Im talking about a mayor who was sued and lost for making false, derogatory comments about a local business and was caught on camera making more false derogatory comments about an international business.
Nenshi is a horrible mayor. I can't wait until he's gone.

It’s also well documented that Calgary city council deals with issues involving land development in council that councils don’t.

When you said we had a dysfunctional city council I had assumed you were talking about city council. Like I said in the original post you are letting your hatred of Nenshi make you make false derogatory comments about city council.

[Minnie]

Ran across this on Twitter this morning. Interesting read, to me anyway.

Link

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Minnie

Ran across this on Twitter this morning. Interesting read, to me anyway.

Link

What you're not going to see is all of the adults saying, "I have been vindicated!".

[GGG]

I didn’t realized he faked a ballot to make it looked like people voted against it. That’s a lot different than just saying people voted against a pay cut when no one seconded it. The first is fraud the second could have been chalked up to the order things are done in council vs what makes a good sound bite.

That’s brutal behaviour

Are those real forms that are used in council or did Farkas make up fake sheets as well to display votes.

[Bunk]

I did a little rant of a thread too. This feature of our current political culture just eats me up inside. I cannot take it.

https://twitter.com/joshyyc/status/1076150801545027585

[powderjunkie]

The only thing about salary-gate that offends me is how much time has been wasted discussing it.

There is simply no good way to set politician compensation. There is also no very good way to hold politicians accountable anymore, including elections.

IMO, more politicians are underpaid than overpaid. Most work very long hours and work very hard for their constituents. It's as close to a 24/7 job as any in our society. Eating rubber chicken at a different luncheon every day may seem like a nice perk to many of us, but it actually takes a toll on your body. It's often a mind-numbingly frustrating job, often like banging your head against a brick wall.

Plenty of politicians mail it in and act like medieval nobles.

It is hilarious to me that we live in a world where many people characterize ownership of a professional hockey team as a 'hassle' at the same time as characterizing being a politician as a totally easy, corrupt, greasy, criminal, dishonourable job.

The system sucks. The only good argument for it, is that every other system in human history is worse. I feel neither sympathy nor hate for politicians. I wish they could all be better, but I understand why it doesn't happen. I often hate the decisions they make, but I'm always glad they are there to do the job.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Bunk

I did a little rant of a thread too. This feature of our current political culture just eats me up inside. I cannot take it.

https://twitter.com/joshyyc/status/1076150801545027585

I wonder if Brett Wilson has anything better to do? I respect whatever charity work he does, but he kind of puts the "twit" in Twitter.

[MoneyGuy]

Don’t forget the personal and professional sacrifices that politicians make.

There is so much time taken away from families. I know that’s what we signed up for so its part of the job but must nether be forgotten nor understated.

[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by monkeyman

It's also well documented how many out of camera sessions Calgary has compared to other jurisdictions.

The irony with this narrative is that council could easily have less in-camera council meetings by simply deferring these matters to committee level and administration like other jurisdictions do, which would mean less councilors will be informed on the matters because they'd still be in-camera, they just wouldn't be council sessions. So we could easily give into the illusion of transparency (because that's all it would be) which will provide what benefit?

[monkeyman]

Originally Posted by Roughneck

The irony with this narrative is that council could easily have less in-camera council meetings by simply deferring these matters to committee level and administration like other jurisdictions do, which would mean less councilors will be informed on the matters because they'd still be in-camera, they just wouldn't be council sessions. So we could easily give into the illusion of transparency (because that's all it would be) which will provide what benefit?

so your argument is, sure they're bad, but at least their not as bad as they could be?
ok, got it.
This council deliberately hides prudent information, twists facts and then freaks out when the public finds out(i.e. hiding costs related to an olympic bid). You're cool with that?
And for the record, I'm not saying these things because I don't like Nenshi, I don't like Nenshi because of these things.

[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by monkeyman

so your argument is, sure they're bad, but at least their not as bad as they could be?
ok, got it.

No. It wasn't.

It was: that council could easily have less in-camera council meetings by simply deferring these matters to committee level and administration like other jurisdictions do, which would mean less councilors will be informed on the matters because they'd still be in-camera, they just wouldn't be council sessions. So we could easily give into the illusion of transparency (because that's all it would be)

You brought up the comparisons to other cities. We could easily be like other cities and get a feel-good reduction of closed council sessions by just having less of them by including fewer people.

This council deliberately hides prudent information, twists facts and then freaks out when the public finds out(i.e. hiding costs related to an olympic bid). You're cool with that?

This is different than complaining about how many in-camera sessions council has compared to other jurisdictions. One is an actual issue, the other is a manufactured one. People were given the Olympic info because of an in-camera council meeting. Had they kept in at committee level as long as possible with only a selection of councilors involved in the process until they would present the info as they wanted, it might never have gotten leaked in the first place (but hey, the comparison to other jurisdictions would look better because there would have been one less in-camera session).

Get what I'm saying now?

[Wormius]

Well, some more revisionist history with respect to Farkas’ council theatrics. Corbella is kind of coming off as Rick Bell light. Still fighting over a meagrely 2.3% nothingburger.

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...cluding-farkas

I am kind of shocked how the Calgary Herald has devolved over the last couple of years.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by Wormius

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...cluding-farkas

I am kind of shocked how the Calgary Herald has devolved over the last couple of years.

Being bought by Postmedia in 2010 was the beginning of the end. Just became a Calgary Sun clone. And with no union they cut costs more with the Herald.

[Frank MetaMusil]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Well, some more revisionist history with respect to Farkas’ council theatrics. Corbella is kind of coming off as Rick Bell light. Still fighting over a meagrely 2.3% nothingburger.

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...cluding-farkas

I am kind of shocked how the Calgary Herald has devolved over the last couple of years.

She's not really wrong about the apology though. Nenshi really digs in when simply saying sorry would clear the air (see Wenzel lawsuit)

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Frank MetaMusil

She's not really wrong about the apology though. Nenshi really digs in when simply saying sorry would clear the air (see Wenzel lawsuit)

Farkas wasn’t kicked out of council for using the wrong (which turned out to be right) numbers.

He was kicked out for intentionally making up a vote result (for a vote that never happened) and posting it on social media. He got the numbers right, but that’s not the issue, and never was.

Also, again, council did not vote for a raise in pay, they simply allowed the formula which has been working for the last number of years to continue. It wasn’t even really a final vote, it was more of a “let’s not spend too much time on this because we don’t have the final numbers yet” kind of vote.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Well, some more revisionist history with respect to Farkas’ council theatrics. Corbella is kind of coming off as Rick Bell light. Still fighting over a meagrely 2.3% nothingburger.

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...cluding-farkas

I am kind of shocked how the Calgary Herald has devolved over the last couple of years.

Some of you have really strange expectations of media. Just because you don't agree with an article I'm not sure why you have to claim that it's lowest common denominator writing. Should we just stop with opinion pieces because heaven forbid not everyone will agree?

[Zarley]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

Farkas wasn’t kicked out of council for using the wrong (which turned out to be right) numbers.

He was kicked out for intentionally making up a vote result (for a vote that never happened) and posting it on social media. He got the numbers right, but that’s not the issue, and never was.

Actually at the time he was kicked out, the mayor cited his incorrect numbers as the reason. After it turned out that the HR numbers were right, apologists for the mayor changed the reason to the vote misrepresentation, which is problematic but obviously a far more minor issue.

Irregardless, the issue here is the fact that council seems to be paying far more attention to social media idiocy than to the very basic details that pertain to how their pay is calculated - all of which are publicly available on the City’s website and via Statscan. By drawing attention to a single post on a dying social media platform, they’ve made the issue far larger than it should have been. It’s all very childish.

[Zarley]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Well, some more revisionist history with respect to Farkas’ council theatrics. Corbella is kind of coming off as Rick Bell light. Still fighting over a meagrely 2.3% nothingburger.

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...cluding-farkas

I am kind of shocked how the Calgary Herald has devolved over the last couple of years.

I’m not usually a fan of Corbella’s writing, but I don’t understand your issue with this article. She (correctly) points out that everyone involved in this issue including Farkas comes out of it looking bad and makes some valid points about the shortcomings of using an AWE benchmark.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by Zarley

By drawing attention to a single post on a dying social media platform, they’ve made the issue far larger than it should have been. It’s all very childish.

Twitter posts are constantly used on news and sports sites and broadcasts, and used by politicians to talk to their constituents. It's been said to be "dying" for years but gets tons of use anyways. I don't see how that's relevant to anything you just said.

And you're right, it's all childish, and I'm impressed that Farkas continues to waste so much time by starting these things in the first place.

[Wormius]

The article is strongly biased with no mention of any of the other details about why Farkas was kicked out that day. It reads like something Rick Bell would write. Farkas now has it linked to his Facebook page where people believe that Farkas is this champion of the City of Calgary and his Facebook followers are frothing at the lips over how great he is.

Of course this is still over that paltry sum of a 2.37% salary adjustment that YYCCC wasn’t going to accept anyway (also conveniently left out of the article) and still in the grand scheme of things this amounts to about $40,000 a year for the entire council.

It isn’t about disagreeing with the article because I think Farkas is a bit of a dolt, either. If Nenshi did the same thing I would be questioning his rationale too. Why Farkas is happy to keep this alive is weird. And again the amount of money this is about is so stupidly insignificant, I wonder if his fan club is really comprehending it at all.