Braid: Duckworth stays on, but new councillors won't take bull from administration |
City boss David Duckworth stays on the job for now, but a welcome revolt got underway at Calgary city hall on Tuesday.
For once the people you elected — the 14 councillors and the mayor — had the upper hand over administration.
Their sleek senior officials often condescend to councillors and even signal their impatience.
Not on Tuesday.
The big bosses, especially Duckworth, looked like desperate penitents begging for their jobs.
Afterward, an in-camera meeting on his performance review stretched into the evening.
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In the end council decided not to proceed with dismissal. Instead, they passed resolutions that order tougher oversight of Duckworth’s performance.
At one point Coun. Andre Chabot left the meeting. He objected to talk of firing.
Mayor Jeromy Farkas didn’t press the matter. He said firing couldn’t be property dealt with at what was technically a committee meeting.
True enough, but councillors still could have voted to convert that gathering to a special meeting of council.
That would have required 10 votes. At a subsequent special meeting, a simple majority of eight votes would have unseated Duckworth.
As so often happens at city hall, an expected result got lost in procedural muddle.
So, Duckworth is still in the top job, but this may not be over yet. The subject will come up again at a meeting Feb. 3.
Whether he tenure is long or short, Duckworth will face a council that’s far more critical and skeptical........