Mayor says last year one of his worst
Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
NNSL (Dec 30/98) - Nobody felt the birthing pains of the new council elected 14 months ago more than Mayor Dave Lovell.
"If I picked the five worst years of my life, this would have to be one of them," said Lovell during an interview just before Christmas.
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Lovell on the issues
Secret meetings court case:
"That was a real black eye and in retrospect I would have done it differently. It sounds a little trite, but live and learn ... the court case didn't change much, it put safeguards in place.
Economic development:
"The budget for this department has gone from $136,000 last year to $435,000 this year. What that says is we're going to take responsibility for our own economic development.
Electoral boundaries court challenge:
"Personally, I'm very pleased we're into it. I don't think its something we could ignore ... you can stand up for yourself without being mean and demanding the world."
Securing a piece of the secondary diamond industry:
"Yellowknife is positioned to become one of the diamond capitals of the world. It's positioned, not will be. We have the opportunity. That's something we didn't have a year ago."
new council procedures by-law:
"It was something on the to do list for three years and included some much needed revisions...I think it made council buy into the process more. Because its their bylaw, they have an interest in making it work."
Houseboats lawsuit:
"Another thing I would like to be able to do over again. We're no closer to resolving it than we were three years ago and it's still a mess ... the other side of it is there haven't been any more (houseboats in Yellowknife Bay) in the last couple of years."
Twin pad arena:
"I think the right things happened for the wrong reasons. We're sitting here in a better position today (ie. considering the site at Sir John Franklin school instead of the old GNWT liquor warehouse), but we had no way of foreseeing this opportunity ... One thing I'd really like to see before I see another arena is a new youth facility."
Downtown Franklin Ave
"A damn disgrace for a capital city. It's got to be addressed."
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For the first half of the year, deep rifts developed between Lovell and new councillors, in particular Coun. David Ramsay. Ramsay exposed Lovell's involvement in extending services to a lot owned by Yellowknife MLA Seamus Henry and called Lovell to task for deeds of the past council.
Ramsay's accusations followed hard on the heels of those from the Yellowknife Property Owners Association. Members of the association felt Lovell should resign for sanctioning secret meetings, which in May the NWT Supreme Court declared illegal.
Lovell is hoping the difficulties of the transition between the old and new councils is a thing of the past.
"In the end we came out okay, but it was on the point of disintegration for quite a while," said Lovell. "We have good people on council but it was very dysfunctional for a while. We still have the same people, but now it's one of the best councils."
How did the change come about?
"I don't really know," the mayor said. "Maybe we're all a little more seasoned. This was a new council, and we had lost six of nine key people in administration. The lack of continuity hurt. Council had a lot of individual plans...but didn't have a common base of knowledge to work from."
Apart from the intrigue it provided, the political turmoil that prevailed at city hall had little effect on city residents -- the city's long-term debt continued to decline, its infrastructure replacement program (and user fees) continued and property taxes did not increase.
The new council had a hand in that result. It called a halt to the Twin Pad arena project slated for Twin Pine Hill, slated to cost over $10 million.
Though it happened in November 1997, council's decision to bring an end to secret meetings was seen to have prompted the departure early this year of Doug Lagore, the city's senior administrator for 11 years.
Despite the difficulty of the transition from old council to new, Lovell said he sees good things ahead in the future.
"I wouldn't be surprised if the next two years will be as productive as the last two months. I think council has really come together and I think it's going to do good things."
Lovell said his tenure as mayor will be to the benefit of his successor.
"I'm the administrative mayor who's going to set up a platform for a promotional mayor who is going to do really well."
As for whether he will be running for a third term, Lovell said that's a question that will remain unanswered for the next little while.
"Ask me the same question again next year and maybe I'll have a better answer. Right now I'm still a little shell-shocked."
