Has Council’s growing to-do list spiralled out of control?
City Hall | Paul Dechene
The REAL Saga continues. We’ve gone from the VERY ill-advised tourism rebrand to a VERY dire consultant review of REAL’s financial position. That led to a VERY contentious executive committee meeting where council voted to have administration investigate the feasibility and impact of dissolving REAL and absorbing their operations into city administration.
That report is still coming and should land by the middle of next year.
And so, I went into the Nov. 22 council meeting thinking councillors would take a break from headline-making news about Regina Exhibition Association Limited. I imagined they’d receive and file that crushing report from accounting firm MNP outlining how the municipal corporation’s business model isn’t sustainable, then wait quietly for a few months while City administration writes its own report on REAL’s fate. Then council could calmly make some decisions. Council does have other priorities to attend to, after all.
(In fact, when I joked last year about council having an expanding list of number one, mission-critical, tippity-top priorities, REAL’s management structure didn’t even rate a mention.[1] I guess I was naive to think that list wouldn’t keep growing.[2])
Imagine my surprise during that Wednesday, Nov. 22 meeting when, after an hour-long private session with their lawyer, Ward 3 Councillor Andrew Stevens dropped a motion to dissolve REAL’s volunteer Board Of Directors and appoint a new one!
It was startling indication of just how far council’s confidence in the municipal corporation had fallen.
That motion passed and at a special meeting on Nov. 24, council appointed an interim REAL board consisting of city manager Niki Anderson; the city’s chief financial officer, Barry Lacey; the city manager’s chief of staff, Ly Pham; the newly hired director of Tourism Regina, Jennifer Johnson; manager of sport and recreation, Jeff May; and manager of client services and labour relations Maria Burns.
Ward 2 Councillor Bob Hawkins will remain as council’s non-voting representative on the board until he is replaced by Ward 4 Councillor Lori Bresciani in January.
A non-voting provincial appointee to the board will also remain.
This interim board will be in place until July 31, 2024 at which time, hopefully, REAL’s organizational status will be sorted and a new, permanent board can be appointed — or the whole friggin’ kit-n-kaboodle can be tossed in the bin or whatever.
It’s worth noting that council’s decision to turf REAL’s board was not unanimous. Voting to dissolve REAL’s board were Councillors Stevens, Lori Bresciani, Dan LeBlanc, Terina Nelson, Cheryl Stadnichuk and Shanon Zachidniak. Mayor Sandra Masters and councillors John Findura, Bob Hawkins, Jason Mancinelli and Landon Mohl voted to keep the REAL board intact.
Of those who voted to keep the REAL board, Ward 9 Councillor Jason Mancinelli was the most visibly upset by how council’s decisions were being made. During a special meeting on Friday, Nov. 24, Mancinelli was cleared peeved when his questions for the city manager about administration’s workload were repeatedly challenged by deputy mayor Terina Nelson. Ultimately, Mancinelli announced he would not participate in the vote to confirm the interim board as he “didn’t want his name on it”, and he left Henry Baker Hall.
“Very, Very Scared”
Coincidentally, I did a phone interview with Councillor Mancinelli that Friday morning, just a few hours before the special meeting he stormed out of. Our conversation was quite pleasant. He gave me no indication he intended to abstain from voting. In fact, he started our conversation by stating he wasn’t angry.
“Not mad, not mad in the least, actually. Very, very scared,” he said.
Mancinelli’s concern seemed to flow from two sources: the amount of costly work a complete re-evaluation and overhaul of REAL would entail and the fact that his fellow councillors seemed blind to that.
He indicated that it seemed unfair to tear REAL to pieces and beat up REAL CEO Tim Reid after the organization had just gone through a series of shocks — some of their own making, such as the disastrous Tourism rebrand, some of council’s making such as the crushing debtload flowing from putting a new football stadium and an international trade centre on REAL’s books.
And one of no one’s making at all — a global pandemic that devastated the sports and entertainment industries.
Mancinelli said he understands the need to rethink REAL’s model but said it needed to be done in a careful manner at a time when the organization isn’t in crisis mode.
“I ran for council on asset management,” said Mancinelli. “You know my political stance… Coming in as a councillor, [REAL] is an operating machine and we have to deal with tax dollars.
“It’s like, we have a car that has to get us to Moose Jaw. It’s still running. We have to be there in a half hour but it’s got a bad misfire. If we miss our appointment, someone dies. But if I have to replace a piston, I have to shut the car off for that. Do I shut the car off? Or do we get you to the emergency first?
“Things can be done in an organized manner. Let things settle and try to plan through how we can implement a change and work towards it,” he said.
Also of concern: Mancinelli pointed to REAL’s mammoth infrastructure deficit that developed from deferred maintenance of the campus’ buildings and facilities. According to REAL’s budget report this year, that deficit was estimated at $44 million in 2019, but has grown to over $70 million thanks to inflation. Mancinelli noted that the infrastructure deficit has been known for a long time and he finds it hard to accept how some on council are treating it as a surprising number.
“We’re talking about the debt of REAL. People are referring to it as a surprise. And it’s been our job, for some of us, seven years. We’ve been reported back on these things,” said Mancinelli.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’ve been in those meetings, has [the infrastructure deficit] not been talked about? Am I the only guy, when someone says $44 million, and I think back years and I start rolling that number up for inflation? I know it’s grown. Don’t you do that, too? Or is that a superpower I have?” he joked.
“For the [councillors] that I’ve shared history with, it makes me wonder about the wisdom going forward that we’re sharing in making this huge decision. And I wonder, are they being truthful about their memory or not? Or is it just convenient memory?”
As far as the wisdom of adding REAL to the list of administration’s priorities, Mancinelli points to the fact that the city’s CFO has four manager positions reporting to him but at present, only one of those positions is filled.
“The overworking is what led to the mess we’re in. I can go into it piece by piece, but I guess you get where I’m going with this. Does that sound insane to you?
“So yeah, I’m not mad. I’m scared.”
This concern informed his questions at the special council meeting. where Mancinelli quizzed the city manager on administration’s workload and the city manager responded in increasingly frustrated tones that her team can handle it.
The Bubblegum Peril
In the end though, agree or disagree with the impulse to defend REAL from the effort to break it apart, the guy does have a point.
It really does feel like every few meetings, council is taking on something new and big. There’s always a crisis. There’s always a headline. And administration always has to step in and put everything back together to make the city work.
It’s getting to be a lot. And I just watch the meetings. I can’t imagine working inside city hall.
I know all these various things council has tackled over the last three years are important. Housing, recreation facilities, property taxes, the environment, community wellness. The list feels endless and it has to be a lot to manage.
I remember back in the day, when council took on the three-part Regina Revitalization Initiative and reporters would ask how city hall could build a stadium and prep two new downtown neighbourhoods for development at the same time as doing all the other things it’s supposed to do, the response was, “Council can walk and chew gum at the same time.”
Well, maybe.
But eventually, you’ll have walked very far from home and have a mouth straining around a wad of stale gum, saliva drooling from the corners of your mouth, and you’re going to start wondering about your life choices.
Which is to say, gum is bad for you.
You can read the full transcript of my interview with Ward 9 Councillor Jason Mancinelli below. Steve didn’t want to put it up but it took me a very long time to assemble so I’m making him post it, goddammit. And I swear, it’s worth a read.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story got Councillor Terina Shaw’s name wrong. Prairie Dog apologizes for the mistake.
[1] The list of projects as of Aug. 4, 2022 was 1. Catalyst Projects, 1. Implement Energy & Sustainability Framework, 1. Implement Community Safety & Well-Being Plan; 1. Implement Transit Master Plan; 1. Implement various housing plans; 1. 10-Year Official Community Plan review; 1. Neighbourhood Planning Process; and, finally, coming in at number one! Hire new city manager! Fifteen months later, you can scratch one of those “number one items” off the list.
[2] I wasn’t naive. I always knew that council was going to keep piling number one priorities onto administration’s plate.