A culture of politicians not hearing city staffers’ concerns contributed to problems with big Edmonton projects like the trouble-plagued Metro Line LRT, says Mayor Don Iveson.
The city’s audit committee heard Thursday from administration about changes that have been made to make it easier for city staff to warn council about potential problems with projects.
Under a new risk assessment policy, administrators include potential risks for projects with their reports to council.
Iveson said it’s important to let staff know they can be candid with council about potential issues.
Mayor Don Iveson said he’s trying to make it easier for staff to tell council about problems with major projects. (CBC)
“I think some of what happened with the Metro line, I think there were probably staff who said, ‘I’m not sure this is going to work,’ but the culture of the day was, ‘Council doesn’t want to hear that, council wants to get on with this, council wants to close the airport, council needs the LRT on the airport lands to do that,’ ” Iveson said.
“Politics was driving the day instead of good management.”
Change of culture
Iveson said council and city manager Linda Cochrane are working on a change at city hall that will result in getting staff to share their opinions, good or bad.
In the past, he said, “I think bad news was not well received. I think the culture was you weren’t a team player if you weren’t helping to advance the agenda, and people would get upbraided for that.
“We’re trying to establish a different culture where we’re hearing from citizens and hearing from our experts before we make big decisions and making course corrections where the evidence is there.”
He said the new approach will make for a better decision-making process that reduces the risk of something going wrong as much as possible.
“I think we’re moving in the right direction,” he said. “It’s not going to get perfection. The question is, are we managing those things responsibly? I think at this point I can say that we are.”