Damn the public, full steam ahead
BLOG #567: Dale Henderson, the rookie councillor for Ward 9, seems to have a particular aversion to taking the time to find out what the public thinks. Twice last night he tried to circumvent community engagement events and just do things his way.
Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011 – London
Maybe it’s the concept of talking to people that bothers him, but twice last night Dale Henderson dumped all over suggestions that ideas about how London should grow and where should be road tested with the public first.
“I don’t like it at all,” the rookie councillor for Ward 9, who doesn’t even live in London, said after planning staff outlined new concepts for the Southwest Area Plan. These include commercial and residential development on vacant land along the Wonderland Road corridor to the 401 that will soon open for public discussion.
What Mr. Henderson wants instead, he told his colleagues on the new Planning and Environment Committee, is more serviced industrial land, much of which would be in private hands, that could be sold to businesses he says are lining up to move into London.
“What we need are jobs. I don’t want a $400,000 home next door to that. They should be in Lambeth.”
Earlier he tried to shoot down an extensive public consulting process proposed as part of an Official Plan review slated to begin early in 2012, a process that would help council understand the vision Londoners have for their city.
Said Councillor Henderson about that: “It sounds long and expensive and certainly not market driven. I want it fast enough to do the things we want to do in this city to get it moving. We don’t need to look at the whole city.”
What is most bothersome about Councillor Henderson’s outbursts, often delivered sans punctuation and complete sentences, is they usually show a lack of understanding about some fairly basic concepts of municipal government – concepts that have been explained to him before during his first year on council.
He knows – or should since it was just outlined to council in October – that a regular review of the city’s Official Plan is mandated by the provincial government and that public consultation is part of that mandate. He should also know, since this was a decision he supported, that public engagement is one of this council’s goals. Says so right in the strategic plan council approved last month.
He should know, since much of the land included in the Southwest Area Plan is within Ward 9 which he represents, that most of it isn’t zoned at all but is designated urban reserve. But the motion Councillor Henderson moved – it didn’t get a seconder – was that the land should be returned to its original zoning which he assumed was industrial.
“These people bought the land with the expectation it was zoned industrial,” he said. Not so.
Later, during a discussion about traffic problems at Fanshawe Park Road and Richmond – which Mayor Joe Fontana described as “a mess” – Councillor Henderson offered this solution: A traffic circle. Except, of course, a traffic circle to handle three lanes of traffic needs to be very, very big and how would you fit that into this intersection with private development on all four corners?
A businessperson with a background in electronics and computers, Councillor Henderson does pride himself on trying to offer off-the-wall solutions to what often are intractable problems. And occasionally his suggestions are really creative. But they almost always have a “Let’s do this now” approach that bypasses due process or public feelings.
He admits the sheer volume of issues facing a city councillor overwhelms him at times and that the amount of reading necessary to prepare for weekly committee or council meetings is far in excess of what he expected. Then again, if you’re serious about running for city council, shouldn’t you at least bone up on what’s involved?
In the year since his upset victory over council incumbent Gina Barber – although she had been a controller, not the ward councillor – he doesn’t seem to have tried very hard to learn. And most of the rest of council doesn’t seem to be trying very hard to help him, either.
So it could be a long and lonely three more years for Councillor Henderson, not to mention how the good folks of Byron and Lambeth might feel about it.
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I wish we had legislation the way California (and to a more limited extent B.C.) does, which permit the electorate to recall an incompetent elected politician and get rid of him or her before the end of his or her term.
reasoning by past city councils we now live in a polarized community: East vs West. Since 1961 almost every square metre of industrial land was created in East London. No public input was sought and no consideration was given how locals would be affected in the future. It's only recently city administrators are starting to listen to the voices in Argyle, London's largest neighbourhood.
We who live in the East are happy to see a glimmer of hope.
Aside from that typo, I willing concede that Councillor Dale Henderson is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Whenever I hear him speak at city council or committee, I think of that song by Paul Simon, "Slip Sliding Away."
Layers upon layers of buried history...buffalo bones and mamoth tusks.
Rather then giving the UWO that white elephant on Dufferin St, why not give them a parcel of that land for archeological and geographical research and data gathering. That would create productive employment opportunities. It could even be a tourist attraction, where people could spend a day or a week digging for bones and artifacts.
Industry creates industrial waste, some of which is enviromentally unfriendly. That's something to be concidered when envisioning the future.
Ward nine isn't wasteland. Let's not allow it to be strewn over with debris our grandchildren will have to dispose of.
The only solution is interchanges.
There should be no right hand turns onto Highway 22/Fanshawe Park Road off Highway4/Richmond...except for emergency vehicles with lights flashing and siren blairing. Use Sunningdale.
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