Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin takes heat for hiring additional communication staff

By Mike Kozakowski • Published on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 • Categorized as Local News, Politics

As Victorians begin to refer to the Johnson Street Bridge replacement as “Fortin’s Folly,” Victoria mayor Dean Fortin is responding to accusations that the hiring of three additional communications staff is a wasteful expenditure of public monies and, on a per-capita basis, unnecessary. Fortin approved the hiring of the new communications staff, at $60,000 per year and bringing the total to seven, in order to communicate road closures and other municipal going-ons to the community. Interviewed by the CBC this morning, it was noted that Kelowna, with a similar population as the City of Victoria (approximately 80,000 inhabitants), has one staff dedicated to this task, and Saanich, with a population of over 112,000, has none. In response, the Mayor insisted the City of Victoria expands to 250,000 people on a daily basis. Meanwhile, on the discussion forum, this raised the need for amalgamation and not additional siloed responses from individual municipalities. VibrantVictoria.ca forum members referred to the interview as “not a puff piece,” and one individual said Fortin got “absolutley roasted.” It was also noted the interview was “overly axe-grindy,” and that the Mayor showed difficulty substantiating the need for the additional staff.

VibrantVictoria.ca forum member “spanky123″ commented on the CBC interview and the Johnson Street Bridge issue, writing, “Dean Fortin is a nice guy but he is in over his head. Now he has taken a position on the bridge and he thinks that he has to follow through or else he will be viewed as indecisive and weak.”

Discussion forum member “Bob Fugger” also mentioned that the City is planning on hiring an additional staff member for “community engagement,” but added that “the irony of this when seeing that [the City is] ramming through the bridge replacement option gave me a case of the howling fantods.”

For more information on this issue, refer to this post. To link directly to the thread in which this discussion is taking place, click here, and scroll down to post #691.

Responses to this Headline or Article

The five most recent replies to VibrantVictoria.ca's discussion forum's [Old Johnson Street Bridge] General discussion thread, the most relevant thread to the above headline or article:

sebberry

Apr 10, 2011 at 11:30 pm

Quote:
Police will be positioned at the Johnson Street Bridge Monday to direct a crush of commuter car and bike traffic that will share three narrow lanes following the weekend closure of the attached rail bridge, Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin said Saturday.

Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/could+manic+Monday+Blue+Bridge/4590283/story.html#ixzz1JC3isr3r

Honestly.. how hard can it be? Is the JSB the only road in town that drivers encounter cyclists on?

jklymak

Apr 11, 2011 at 7:59 am

^ Cyclists have to take a lane on the JSB. Which really should be fine, but a) some cyclists are afraid to, and b) some car drivers are so impatient, they can't slow down for 5 seconds it takes to go over the bridge. The alternative is the cyclists hugs the right, and the cars try to push by, and that is really dangerous.

Holden West

Apr 11, 2011 at 8:11 am

I believe the time it takes for a car to cross the deck of the bridge is around three and a half seconds. I doubt even a slow bike would take much more than ten seconds. It's amazing what will infuriate a driver.

"Sorry I'm six seconds late for work, boss. I got stuck behind some idiot cyclist!"

Bingo

Apr 11, 2011 at 9:52 am

I walked over the bridge around 8:00 am, and traffic was flowing smoothly with cyclists actually waiting near the S curve until they had a group together before heading east across the bridge.

One vehicle lane and one cycling lane each way seems to work. I saw no cyclists using the pedestrian path on the south side of the bridge.

No honking and no fingers, but it's only day one with three years to go.

VicHockeyFan

Apr 11, 2011 at 10:50 am

Quote: I walked over the bridge around 8:00 am, and traffic was flowing smoothly with cyclists actually waiting near the S curve until they had a group together before heading east across the bridge.

One vehicle lane and one cycling lane each way seems to work. I saw no cyclists using the pedestrian path on the south side of the bridge.

No honking and no fingers, but it's only day one with three years to go.

Yes, left to their won devices, it's amazing how much human-kind can figure out on their own. But these days, government figures it need police, city officials and bike volunteers to manage the whole thing.

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