Glenn Hicks, the News Director at paNOW, comments on why city councillors should stop their well-documented bickering and work together, especially at this time of crisis. (file photo/paNOW Staff)

By Glenn Hicks

council and COVID-19

Opinion: P.A. city council needs to show they can work together amid COVID-19 pandemic

Mar 24, 2020 | 6:00 PM

OPINION: The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the writer of this editorial do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of paNOW or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.

paNOW News Director Glenn Hicks comments on the optics of what happened at Monday evening’s council meeting.

Prince Albert city council is playing an embarrassing game of hide and seek in the open. At best it’s another example of our politicians’ inability to get along and work collectively; at worst it’s a dangerous move that hinders democratic debate at a time when such behaviour is certainly not needed. There’s a reason why sports across the planet have been cancelled. This is not the time for city councillors to attempt to fill that void.

paNOW generally does not do editorials — we leave the community engagement and comment to our very popular Facebook page — but, given the extraordinary times we’re in amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we thought it necessary. Folks, we’re just at the beginning of what will be a period of great social isolation. It could be very stressful for some. We should be talking to each other; councillors included.

On Monday night, with an important council meeting about COVID-19 on the agenda, three councillors were already missing. Evert Botha and Charlene Miller chose to maintain their self-imposed absence based on their social distancing stance that such meetings should now be happening electronically or not at all. We understand the third councillor, Dennis Ogrodnick, was self-isolating as a precautionary measure.

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As proceedings unfolded, Coun. Terra Lennox-Zepp went through a long laundry list of motions and attempted to get them on the floor for debate. Most of them gained no traction and, without a seconder, they went nowhere. When she continued to bring further motions forward two other councillors followed each other out the door, about five minutes apart: Ted Zurakowski and Blake Edwards.

Their departure left council without the quorum required to do business, so things were shut down, leaving Mayor Greg Dionne to bemoan the lack of unity around the council table.

Edwards told paNOW the next day he walked out because of his frustrations with Lennox-Zepp in the manner in which she brought her points forward. Zurakowski told paNOW he left early because he had a personal family matter to deal with.

This is not right. With three people already choosing to stay away, it means any two others can now technically and mathematically hold matters to ransom — intentionally or not — whether that’s because they don’t like what’s being put on the council floor, they are frustrated, tired, or because they think they have something more important to deal with. This is not a good situation at a crucially important time for collective decision-making and leadership.

Should we be surprised by what happened Monday night? This is after all a council that, by the self-admission of its most veteran member, Don Cody, is “dysfunctional.” He has already wondered, very publicly, “why don’t we trust each other?”

This is a council that has the mayor and a councillor taking each other to court in a “he said, he said” spat which has been the basis for sanctions on ethics grounds – a matter that has widened the fault lines in an already divided chamber. That followed a council imbroglio surrounding the sexual innuendo social media message mini-scandal that resulted in further sanctions. This is a council where divisions are palpable around the table each week and where you can almost see the internal cringing and the eye-rolling of senior staff as councillors bicker. This is the council that when offered a course on conflict resolution, squabbled about it. Go figure.

Forget social distancing; this is a council where it seems some can’t stand the sight of each other. Two metres social distancing? Try two miles.

The optics of Monday night’s walk-out are ugly. As always, city councillors will likely hold their own personal grudge-based territory on this one, dig in, and claim it’s the other guy’s or gal’s fault. At least one councillor took to Facebook to keep the already incendiary situation ablaze.

Well, like it or not P.A. city council, you need to get along. In case you haven’t heard there’s a pandemic out there and the citizens and taxpayers are looking for leadership and togetherness. Yes, there are more personal vendettas around the P.A. council table than in a Godfather movie, but how about just faking the collaboration if you really have to guys? Optics is everything at the moment.

It says much about this city council that some of its members may now be reading this editorial desperate to put their social media fingers to work in reaction, others may just be seething quietly, others might laugh, others may contemplate legal action, and at least one won’t care a darn because of their (perhaps astute) ability to completely ignore social media.

We’re all missing sports on the TV at the moment, but what Prince Albert could do without is the second-rate soap opera we’re witnessing again around the council table. Actually, maybe it’s a psycho drama. One thing it certainly is not is comedy. Not during a COVID-19 pandemic.

Editor’s note: paNOW does not have a regular editorial section but in this case, invites all city councillors to offer their comments to paNOW regarding the events that unfolded Monday evening.

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow