Would you agree that sometimes less talk and more ACTION, is what counts?

Talk is cheap - and sometimes ideas are a dime a dozen. There are many great ideas and innovation from other places that are seen to be working there. We don't have to re-invent the wheel. Lets get the best of those ideas into action here in Calgary Currie. 

What counts is getting on with the job

• Worried about restoring Ethics, Integrity and Trust in Government? There are policies and legislative road maps to follow, in promoting better governance policies that have been proven to work elsewhere. Lets get them off the drawing board, and into action here in Alberta and Calgary.  
•  
• How about focusing on our local community resources here in Calgary Currie, to ensure we have access to grants, community initiative funding and renewal of our community buildings?   Lets make sure all our community and volunteer groups are aware of what is available to them -and help them get their paperwork filed on time. 
•  
• Crack houses and crime an issue? Lets get some legislation in place to fill in the gaps where it counts at the local level, and some resources focused on the hotspots. There are many successful and innovative models that are being done elsewhere - lets take those good ideas and get them into action in Calgary Currie.

It could start with some of these ideas:

Initiate improved GQ (Governance Quotient) policies and procedures Provincially and Locally, designed to put Alberta and Calgary at the forefront of governance in Canada on the subject of Ethics and Integrity in all our processes. Use best practices to make the process of change efficient and effective.

Reduce the Tax Burden on residents and small businesses by declaring a War on Waste and unnecessary expenditures. Use many methods to do this, such as Beef up the Employee suggestion plan to provide incentives to reduce costs, find savings, eliminate redundancies.

Qui Tam Whistleblower Reward legislation:   In the US, this very different approach to uncovering fraud against the government, has resulted in $22 Billion in direct recoveries, and the deterrent effect alone is estimated at over $100 Billion in preventing fraud in the first place. It costs nothing to have these laws on the books, and if there is no fraud this will help confirm that - but if there is ( and the US experience is illuminating) this will help stop it in it's tracks. 

other things we need: 

Much more Soccer, Hockey, Lacrosse and other sports for our Children:

I propose building new single or twin arena/field steel-span structures in communities throughout the City,  plus 3 large Regional multi-sports larger facilities, all could be complete within 3 years using my Sport4Calgary plan. I have identified the way to do this with the City being in partnership with the Province, and I believe the solutions,  while a bit complicated, will work.

Promote "Work from Home"  Telework to reduce cars on the road, improve work/life balance  people working from home on computers instead of fighting traffic to work downtown. Productivity, actually improves from 10% to 50% with proper implementation using electronic monitoring and Management by Objective instead of Management by Walking around. People really like it, are happier and healthier, get more done, eyes in the community by day cuts down crime, jobs for the disabled, less CO2 emissions from cars - its a win win all they say around. I have said: 20% of government employees at least one day per week, maybe more...set the example for the private sector. Thats a lot of cars off the road.

SW RING ROAD:  YES, get going on it NOW......perhaps using  our 4 part plan to get going on it ASAP. We have the ideas, the plans, and believe the money will be in place. No houses lost in Lakeview, better for Lakeview than they have now, better for the environment of Weaselhead, doesn't use T'su T'ina land......we have addressed most of the major problems everyone is complaining about.

ARTS and CULTURE:  Promote a vibrant underground scene similar to Austin Texas and other successful places, working with small business, BRZ's artists, musicians, landlords and others. It all starts with small business success.

Creative Hub: GET a MULTI-MEDIA FILM STUDIO built and operating, by resolving the political squabbles preventing it ( just like we did in resolving the 30 year battle over Stampede Expansion.) Stampede, and all other potential industry players, and anyone else interested, could make this a whole new beginning for Calgary in this industry. 

Government Finances: Ensure Independant Auditors have guaranteed autonomy, plus enough power to get the job done!

Triple E Government:  Efficient, Effective, Ethical   Ethics is the key goal for me.

Small Business and Poverty alleviation: Double the success rate of Small Businesses start-ups, from one out of 5 to two out of 5......80% of all NEW jobs and all NEW wealth, come from our local small businesses that succeed. Let's double this!  My comprehensive plan has been developed over 20 years of working on behalf of small businesses- at one point, as FedBRZ chair, I represented over 4000 small businesses......I know what needs doing, and we CAN do this!

Homelessness and Affordable Housing: More Seniors housing is a MUST  -  see our Midfield Mobile Home park video on this web page in that regard.

Foster more Venture Capital creation, make Calgary the centre of innovation in Canada, diversify our economy but also build on our strengths.

 The only things that truly count, are first having the Vision to recognize the best ideas, and then having the ambition and experience to get those ideas off the drawing board and into Action in the community.

A good Action plan, must include specific approaches and plans, and include thinking about time lines and costs. How realistic are they if they are just pie-in-the-sky ideas that sound common sense- but really aren't?

I generally have posted my plans with very specific costs and timelines. Many talk about lofty goals, but no costs are shown, no time lines, no specifics on what and how by when at what cost.

Financial Control is #1. We have to have the resources before we can do the rest.

As a penny - pinching and award-winning small business person for over 30 years, in addition to being a Licensed FC in Corporate and Venture Capital Finance, I have had a front row seat watching world economic upheaval over the past 6 years. My first priority will be to work to ensure we have our financial house in order.

Priority #1 

Financial Management – Getting our financial house in order, opening up the doors in government, watching pennies, claiming dollars.

We need to regain confidence that we are in control of our spending. If there is any useless spending, we have to stop it immediately.  We need to ensure we have accountability, transparency, disclosure and control systems in place - comparable to those required by law and best practices in the private sector. We need to streamline business decision-making and quantify value in spending to make sure we not only are doing things right, but also doing the right things. 

As your representative, I will ask for implementation of thorough business process reviews, using road maps such as  Executive Leadership/Black Belt Six Sigma  programs  which saved Motorola an est.$17 Billion, 3BL (Triple Bottom Line) and/or step up to IS21000 from the ISO14000 program I initiated 14 years ago as an Alderman, (which has been instrumental in developing Calgary’s environmental successes and was a first in North America).

•  I would fully expect such programs to pay for themselves in identified savings, ultimately requiring:

          No net expenses anticipated.            Program roll out completed within first term. On-going.

• I will encourage wider citizen participation at the table in the City’s Audit committee to create greater confidence in the City’s procurement processes. I will  form a Mayor’s Financial Advisory Council task force comprised of prominent CFO’s (Chief Financial Officers) of major Calgary Corporations to volunteer their time to go over all our processes and budgets and ensure we are meeting or exceeding Best Practices in Corporate Governance standards.  Formation of this group will begin prior to taking office. Since I would ask for these people to volunteer, this initiative would have negligible costs. Such people will be rewarded with a personal “Lord Award” for Community Service, and more importantly, be civically recognized for their contributions.

          No Net Expenses anticipated.   Implementation beginning  prior to taking office. On-going.

• I would call for Calgary to achieve the equivalent of a (CGQ®) (Corporate Governance quotient) that is in the top 10% of any government organization. I will ask for good Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC) controls similar to those required by law in the industry I worked in for the past 5 years as a licensed FC/Corporate Finance.  We need to ensure we avoid such potential dangers as reputational risk, crony capitalism, and missing or misspent monies. Since we have many qualified Compliance officers in Calgary and many accountants already working at City Hall, the costs of any training and upgrading of skills for current staff would be negligible compared to the cost savings likely achieved.  Benefits in risk avoidance could conceivably be into the millions in future.

         Minor Net Expenses anticipated. Initiated within 6 months of taking office. On-going.

• As Mayor, I would call for the appointment of an Independent Certified Ethics and Compliance Commissioner. We are not a little City anymore; we can afford an Ethics Commissioner.  Ethics and Integrity must become part of the overall business strategy and operations, pervasive throughout the entire organization.  As part of this initiative, I would anticipate re-instatement of the Real Estate Registry.

                    Investment anticipated: 1 FTE position, $100,000 per year range.

                   Cost savings and Benefits:   Risk avoidance potentially into the millions.

Priority #2    

 A “kinder, gentler” Calgary Parking Authority  

The Organization That Irritates Everyone. Revenue is up and citizen satisfaction is down!     

• As Mayor, I would call for a complete review and value-for-money audit of the Calgary Parking Authority mandate and directions. By both restricting parking and also owning the major beneficiary of those restricted parking policies, many people feel that the City may not be acting with overall Calgarians best interests foremost. Furthermore, costs at CPA have increased dramatically and citizens are rightfully inquiring if those increases are justified.  Most importantly, it is clear that having some of the highest parking rates in all of North America, is killing our downtown vibrancy, from small businesses to giant employers and therefore is killing jobs and our economy all over.  This must be addressed, and quickly.

I would call for an immediate cap on parking rates, or even a decrease of 5% by the Calgary Parking Authority until such time as the review and Value-for-Money Audit was completed.

Calgary Parking authority revenues have increased nearly 59% in 6  years to $64M - far more than City population growth. Top-level Administration costs have increased 88% despite modest growth in parking spaces under management and introduction of new technology ( Park Plus) which should have dramatically reduced workload and labour costs during this time. Operational costs have increased 67%. Even the costs of operating the Impound lot has increased 68%.  However, contributions returned to City coffers, have decreased from 36% of revenues, to only 27% during the same period -  a modest 20% increase in overall dollars. Is the City getting the best bang for the buck?  I do not believe that Calgarians support the current parking rates, fines and increasingly predatory appearance of the Parking Authority. I believe we need more common sense and recognition of deleterious impacts on other stated objectives the City has, such as developing a vibrant residential downtown core, which would require small businesses and amenities to become more viable. I believe we need more common sense, and I would call for a long term plan of how to better manage parking rates and fines for all our futures.

Before allowing the Calgary Parking Authority to adopting such seemingly predatory policies, we must ensure that our Public Transportation is more convenient, and more desirable as an alternative. Increasing the safety, timeliness and convenience of Public Transportation is of paramount importance to getting people to use it rather than to using their cars. People paying the exorbitant costs of parking now, clearly do not have much choice in the matter, and therefore such policies are really just a major irritant negatively affecting all Citizens and City Hall employees as well as badly impacting the small business and residential viability of the downtown core.   

We need to encourage more parking at the edges and throughout the City, by creating lower cost or no-cost parking for LRT riders further down the line, by ensuring sufficient capacity of the LRT during peak times, and perhaps by offering discounts for flex-time travelers.

Investment: 

Cap on rates: opportunity lost to increased rates and fines. If 5% rate decrease: approx. $ 3 million dollars annually

Benefit:    

Potentially renewed mandate more aligned with citizen’s interests. Improved public perception of City Hall, increased viability of downtown core. Potential recovery in future years of any value-for-money savings identified.

Priority #3  

Unlocking Gridlock

Project #1:  Promote Telework and Telecommuting - Leading by Example at City Hall.

The benefits of Teleworking (working from home), Telecommuting, Flexwork (shifting of work to hours outside of the rush hour) are numerous:                  - Jobs outside of the downtown core
                                    - Jobs for our disabled and our young people nationally and internationally
                                    - Reduced emissions and fuel consumption, increased productivity ( 30%?) 
                                    - Improved employee retention
                                    - Reduced wage demands
                                    - Economic development
                                    - 10-20% less cars on the road
                                    - Better quality of family life
                                    - Allow educated women to continue in the workforce if they want to 

In 1998, as an Alderman, I brought the Telework initiative to City Council. It was leading edge in the nation at the time.  As a result, Calgary became the first City in Canada to have a major civic telework program. We can build upon this.

As Mayor, I would upgrade our commitment to this project, and I call for these specific goals in regards to our current efforts.

• 20% of City Hall employees to be at least partially teleworking and flex working by the end of 2011, taking upwards of 1500 cars out of the downtown core during rush hour and improving productivity of these employees by 7% minimum as a result of the shift to management by objective.  I would expect to see improved results in our downtown private sector as a result our telework and flexwork promotional efforts, multiplying these results several times over. 

Investment:  Approx. up-front costs initially in the range of $10 million dollars.

Benefits:  Annual savings in parking, wage demands, improved productivity, employee retention costs and happier and healthier employees should fully pay for this program within 3 years.

Priority #4     

Poverty, affordable housing, jobs and the economy.

A rising tide, lifts all boats.

Grow the local economy by Doubling the success rate of local entrepreneurial start-ups and local businesses. There are many things that will need to be done to address this, but it starts with gathering good information. It  also starts by H.O.T. ( Harnessing our local Talent) to get all the good ideas into action, the most important consideration.

More and better jobs, a stronger and more diversified economy for all. It will take someone with major entrepreneurial experience to accomplish this complex and difficult task.

Jon is the only candidate with long-term entrepreneurial success - over 30 continual years - combined with political experience and financial licensed credentials on top of that.