It feels wrong to cover civic politics in Vancouver these days without mentioning that someone somewhere, at least once an hour, claims to have inside information that city manager Judy Rogers is going to be canned by the incoming crew.
Some of the rumours seem to have originated in the city works yard and then mushroom-clouded out around the city from there. Others come from the second and third circles of the Visionista cell.
I hear reports that people have marched into various offices here and there saying “She has to go.” Certainly, the role she played in the civic strike, especially the disastrous final-offer vote and her leaked letter (oh, another leak!) with her opinions on the motivation for the strike, is something that really rankles with a whole set of people.
But, to date, there is absolutely no solid evidence that she is going anywhere. And what I’m getting from the first circle of the Visionista cell is that no one wants to rock the boat too severely at city hall.
With everything else that needs to be accomplished, the last thing the incoming team needs is a bureaucracy in chaos. And, I feel I have to mention here, Judy is being somewhat unfairly accused of an awful lot of things.
Yes, there are legitimate criticisms to be made of someone who has had such a strong role, especially after two weak and fractured administrations. But she’s not responsible for every bad thing that happened at city hall.
I hope this post isn’t going to unleash the predictable round of Judy-bashing — I think your opinions are well known by now, so no need to repeat! New thoughts, however, always welcomed.