Keith Gerein: Edmonton’s city manager the safe choice for a risky time

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When it comes to hiring a city manager for Edmonton — arguably the most important decision city council makes — there is typically a dilemma over whether to bring in new blood or put higher value on continuity and familiarity.

That tension can get particularly fraught during times of turmoil as council tries to find the right fit to carry out their priorities while also staying open to leaders who innovate and challenge their way of doing things.

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Making matters tougher is that there is not a deep pool of talent out there for a role like this, which requires fluency in the various languages of politics, bureaucracy, communications and strategic planning. City managers tend to have a relatively short shelf life, largely because of that complexity and the burden of serving a lot of different squabbling interests.

As such, though I have no insight on the overall quality of applicants who put their name in, council likely made a wise choice in opting for continuity by giving the office to Eddie Robar — the internal candidate who has been serving as interim city manager since Andre Corbould’s abrupt departure seven months ago.

In more than eight years with the city, Robar has, by most accounts, performed capably in various managerial roles, which has garnered him respect and a strong knowledge of municipal operations in both good times and bad.

More importantly, council members seem to be on a more solid footing with him than they were with Corbould, who was a hire of the previous council. Though serious struggles remain — hello, proposed 8.1 per cent tax hike — the past months have felt calmer and more productive in the council-administration relationship.

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It was interesting to hear comments by Mayor Amarjeet Sohi and Coun. Keren Tang on what they have liked about Robar’s work so far, specifically his dedication to give council “robust, accurate” information, embrace innovative solutions, and delegate more decision-making. His work with unions and ability to improve workplace culture were also praised.

A source within city hall described all that in broader terms as an “unclenching” that has occurred since Robar took over.

Turning the page

Though Sohi and Tang didn’t draw a direct connection, it is worth noting the things they listed as Robar’s strengths are the same things some critics cited as Corbould’s flaws — that he acted outside council direction too often, withheld information, centralized too many functions in his office, and mishandled a labour dispute that nearly resulted in a strike.

(Corbould’s supporters, for their part, would suggest council was at least equally responsible for the failure of that relationship through micromanagement, indecisiveness and unreasonable demands. If that’s true, perhaps the group has learned to take a different approach with Robar.)

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Whatever the case, it is crucial that those who govern Edmonton be on the same page with those who operate it. Distrust only leads to dysfunction, which would debilitate the city’s efforts to contend with a structurally unsound balance sheet.

On that front, while Robar says he is “not naive to the challenges” in stabilizing municipal finances, the good news is that most of council and city administration at least seem to be aligned on a strategic direction. It’s a start anyway, and one that could have been disrupted if council had brought in someone new.

Still, there is risk to removing the interim tag on Robar’s title.

It’s valid to wonder if council might have been better served by deferring the decision on a permanent hire until after next fall’s municipal election.

Similar to what happened with Corbould, it’s possible the next council won’t see eye to eye with Robar, and will prefer to select its own city manager. The new civic party system increases the odds of this, especially under the scenario where a single party elects a lot of candidates and wants to install a top bureaucrat loyal to them.

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Messing with the mayor’s pay

Like the city manager, there is an awful lot of pressure on city council these days to rein in tax growth. And while I suspect we will see several adjustments to the upcoming budget, it doesn’t help optics when the pay of the mayor and councillors continues to rise — even at relatively incremental amounts.

Clearly sensitive to that, Sohi made a motion last week to cut the mayor’s annual base salary about $2,800 — from $216,585 to $213,737 — to put it on par with the Calgary mayor’s base pay.

Council defeated the motion 7-5, though the vote did not split along ideological lines as some might expect.

While many taxpayers won’t like it, council made the principled choice.

The principle in this case is that politicians should not be setting their own pay, which is why the city has given that responsibility to an independent commission for the last 25 years or so.

People rightly get angry when elected officials vote themselves arbitrary pay raises, but is it really any better when they engineer a pay cut? In both cases, they are inviting politics into an issue where it doesn’t belong.

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We have certainly seen moves at the provincial and federal levels in the past to cut the pay of politicians, whether as a cheap way to curry favour with the public, or prove who’s more financially tough, or even as an attempt to gain an advantage in negotiations with organized labour.

All that tends to do is create a cynical race to the bottom, ignoring legitimate independent advice about what compensation is fair for the workload and responsibility, what is needed to attract good people to run, and so on.

“The heart is in the right place for this motion. But the minute we start changing and amending an independent process is the time that you then give permission to start politicizing every aspect of a system that has been, I think, really as good as it can be,” Coun. Andrew Knack said.

He went on to note the gap between Calgary and Edmonton was created only because Calgary’s council stepped outside of their independent process and approved pay freezes for two years.

In other words, principles only matter if they are also enforced at times of inconvenience.

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