Conspiracy Theory: Is Bob Bratina Not Running for Mayor Because the Ticats' Stadium Will Be Seriously Delayed

Mayor Bob Bratina announced he won't be running this fall for a second term. There's a lot of speculation as to why, including running in the next federal election for the Liberals. However one reason could be Tim Horton's Field, the new stadium for the Ticats which in some sense is Bratina's baby. After a bad winter, the stadium is looking like it won't be ready for completion for the first scheduled late July game for the Tiger-Cats. Compared to Ottawa's stadium, which is scheduled to open a few weeks earlier, and has some seats installed, Hamilton's stadium is way behind. If the stadium is delayed for a couple of months, some fans and voters won't be happy and will be looking for someone to blame and some of that blame might have been transferred to Bratina in the fall election. Implausible? Who knows? One thing is for certain, local media has been derelict in investigating just how delayed the stadium will end up being. Bratina and the other members of council likely have a decent idea of where the stadium completion schedule is personally. Expect an announcement in a month after winter is finally done that the stadium is months behind schedule.

Bob Bratina Not Running For a Second Hamilton Maryoral Term

The Spec's Andrew Dreschel has a story about Bob Bratina not running for mayor again, but instead seeking the Hamilton Centre Federal nomination for the Liberals. That would be against current NDP MP David Christopherson.

I can see the logic in some ways for Bratina, as there's a possibility Justin Trudeau could be popular enough for a landslide sweeping away NDP seats across the country. However Christopherson has always done well in the riding despite the NDP's fortunes. Plus while Bratina was the downtown Ward 2 councilor before being mayor, as mayor with his quixotic LRT stances and musings about deamalgamation he hasn't been particularly been on the right side of issues that Hamilton Centre cares about.

Also I had heard local media person Martinus Geleynse was going for the Liberal nomination for Hamilton Centre as well. He probably has less chance than Bratina of toppling Christopherson, but zero chance if Bratina gets the nomination.

Bratina not running for mayor leaves the initiative to Ward One councilor Brian McHattie as the only declared major candidate. After the Joey Coleman shoving incident, I don't think Lloyd Ferguson will run. Maybe Larry Di Ianni will run yet again now that Bratina has cleared or councilors Chad Collins and Terry Whitehead.

Bob Bratina and Where Did All Day GO Go?

Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina has been bad mouthing the proposed East West LRT in favour of his pet project, all day GO service from the new James North station. Bratina has gone on and on about all day GO and it looked to be a near certainty.

However we now know that things haven't gone as Bratina had hoped. This Spectator article has the basic info, namely that rather than all day GO to the new James North station there will be two trains to Toronto in the morning and two back in the evening. That's a massive difference from the all day service that Bratina has been promising and saying was a much better project than LRT for Hamilton. Bratina has failed to deliver what was promised and he deserves scorn for not being able to bring in his pet project.

Some scorn is also due for GO. It would seem that with the new station being built, GO decided what was the minimum level of service they could offer to Hamilton (two trains) and went with that and then tried to paint it as a great thing.

One has to wonder how much use these trains will get. Transit wise they link in OK with the Barton bus going East and there's some parking. But I'm guessing most will prefer Hunter for its more transit accessible location, the fact there's four trains rather than two and maybe lost in the discussion, the fact there's bus service directly to Toronto and the Aldershot GO station so that if you miss your train you're not totally screwed.

I can't see how this isn't a total defeat for Bratina and his brand. His obfuscating and obstruction on LRT seemed at least premised on trading LRT for all day GO. Instead Hamilton received as close to nothing as possible as GO could do without doing nothing. 

Rob Ford and Bob Bratina, Ontario Municipal Election Cycle

I will say one thing about Toronto mayor Rob Ford and Hamilton mayor Bob Bratina. Going from a three year election cycle to a four year election cycle municipally in Ontario has not been a good thing in my opinion.

Hamilton Police Chief Glenn De Caire's Salary

I've blogged lately about Hamilton Police Chief Glenn De Caire's demand for 5.25% more police funding this year, despite other departments holding the line as well as a long line of previous increases for the police force.

Management pay for the City of Hamilton seems to be frozen lately, so I thought I would look to see how De Caire's salary has changed recently with the latest available sunshine list data for the city of Hamilton. In 2011, De Caire received $233,410,69 compared to $201,616.48 in salary, thus almost a 16% increase from 2010 to 2011. De Caire was appointed police chief in 2009 so we know that his 2010 salary all comes from being chief of police and not for being a deputy chief for part of the year. Why such a large salary increase? Why not something more reasonable given the economy and the increase in the city's revenues from 2010 to 2011? It should be interesting to see what the number is for the sunshine list for 2012 which comes out in March.

Regarding this large increase, is it possible for the senior management of the police to have their salary frozen like those of the rest of the city's management? There may be something contractual with the police that may prevent this, however freezing salaries for inspectors and up would probably cut down on the 5.25% increase De Caire is asking for in 2013. Along with cutting the mounted unit and no new officers and you're left with a much more reasonable increase in the police budget.

More On Hamilton Police Wanting More Money

Here's a good Spec opinion piece from Dreschel on the recent Hamilton police department's demand for more money (5.25% over this year's) in the 2013 budget. I was particularly interested in this part of the article:

"It doesn’t inspire confidence in the process when board member and mayor Bob Bratina compliantly says the board needs to take the conversation away from numbers and educate the public and council on why the increase is needed.

After all, Bratina noted, it’ll only cost the average household another $30 a year"  

Doesn't sound like Bratina is much interested in any fiscal austerity at all for the Hamilton police budget. 

Here's a CBC Hamilton article on what reducing the police budget from what is being requested would result in, according to Chief De Caire. Apparently 20 less positions and some overnight closures for two stations. I'm a bit confused as to what that means. From my understanding, this increase will fund 20 new positions. So is De Caire saying that 20 positions would be lost from the present staff, or the staffing would stay the same next year? Considering crime is trending down and Hamilton has an aging population, more police don't seem necessary.

I would say that one of my biggest issues with the police budget isn't that adding police wouldn't be good, but rather that the salary costs for an additional officer have risen so much (take a look at the 2011 city sunshine list) that they're not good value for money. Better to return the money to taxpayers or use it for infrastructure that will increase the city's productivity like paying the City's portion for the East West LRT.

Also the chief claims to be trying to save money, but as I'm writing this, the weather is pretty poor out. Why does that matter? The police mounted unit costs around $600K a year and I'm guessing it isn't deployed today, or if it is, with much reduce effectiveness. Hamilton has months of cold and snowy weather that limits the effectiveness of the horse unit. Plus the horses leave excrement everywhere (for example this week in the alley off John Street North leading to the Bingo hall parking lot downtown). If De Caire was serious about watching costs, the mounted unit would be gone.