Post by Ducky on Jan 4, 2005 23:45:17 GMT -5
Tue, January 4, 2005
Katz keeps 'em happy
New mayor has stepped on some toes, but ...
By ROSS ROMANIUK, CITY HALL REPORTER
He's too entrepreneurial, too Tory and has killed too many of the former mayor's pet projects, his critics say. But Mayor Sam Katz has done more than enough, it seems, to keep most Winnipeggers happy during his first half-year at the helm.
And as a rookie politician, Katz has shown that city hall's top office isn't too big a leap from a career in sport and entertainment promotion, said urban affairs expert Christopher Leo.
"For a business person entering politics, he's displayed a surprising degree of political savvy," said Leo, a politics professor at the University of Winnipeg. "And that's unusual for a business person in politics because a different set of skills is required to be a political leader. A lot of people don't realize that."
Katz has won friends at City Hall for running an office seen as more open and transparent than former mayor Glen Murray's administration. And politicians have warmed to his efforts in -- as Coun. Donald Benham (River Heights-Fort Garry) said -- "building relationships and being collegial" with colleagues of all stripes.
The new mayor is realizing, however, that reversing the projects and policies of a popular predecessor means stepping on toes. Soon after Murray left office in May, the 53-year-old baseball team owner moved in and promptly drew criticism for allegedly avoiding a meeting with an ethnic organization while agitating municipal employees by suddenly showing the door to three veteran mayoral staffers.
By killing a planned system of high-speed bus corridors, Katz enraged Murray loyalists who had celebrated that $400-million transit scheme as Winnipeg's planning and environmental salvation.
Even one of the new mayor's more popular policies -- a 2% reduction in business tax for downtown companies in the coming year -- has run up against fears it will drain too much cash from the badly needed $63 in business tax revenue collected each year.
'A PROBLEM'
"This tax reduction is great, but if it leads to less litter pickup, less graffiti control and less police on the street, there's going to be a problem," said Stefano Grande, executive director of the Downtown Business Improvement Zone.
What's needed, said Grande, is a "delicate balancing act" to improve the city's business prospects and its municipal bottom line.
Katz's potential as mayor might be best seen in his ability to convince council "to turn around on a dime" in curbing the rapid-bus project in favour of eyeing a light rail transit system, said Leo.
"If you compare that with former mayor Susan Thompson, I can't remember a single vote on a major issue that she won in her first whole term," he said.