[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/TOMayorFord/status/70644442498998274″]
The Toronto Star’s David Rider and Paul Moloney, whose article is accompanied by a great picture:
Mayor Rob Ford has won his biggest victory since storming into office, setting the stage for a new era of privatization with a garbage contract that slashes 300 unionized city jobs.
“We’re getting this city turned around,†Ford crowed Tuesday night after council voted 32-13 to start a bidding process that, if it unfolds as predicted, could see a private waste hauler collect garbage from 165,000 households between Yonge St. and Etobicoke’s eastern edge.
via Toronto votes to contract out garbage pickup – thestar.com.
Ford’s spinning this as a hard-won victory for his administration, but I’m not sure I buy it. What happened tonight was not a vote to contract out garbage collection, but rather a step towards receiving quotes from qualified bidders. Council will have another opportunity to review and debate before awarding the contract for private delivery of service sometime in 2012.
The proposed process was always my biggest problem with this item, so I’m happy to see that Ford and his allies made a concession on this one.
In addition to that, Team Ford were also on the losing end of six votes relating to amendments on the item, including:
- A recommendation by Josh Matlow that would see the City manager provide annual progress reports relating to the contract
- A recommendation by Matlow that staff not accept any bid from the private sector company that recently hired former General Manager of Solid Waste Management for the City of Toronto, Geoff Rathbone
- A pair of recommendations by Matlow that that require any bidder to meet or exceed existing and future diversion targets for solid waste, and to essentially guarantee a minimum level of savings
- A recommendation from Josh Colle that the City ask the Auditor General to perform a post-implementation audit on the awarded contract
- A recommendation from Ana Bailão that will require the City manager to “conduct an independent review of both the bid/contract numbers and the cost for identical services provided by the City”
Council also ended up deadlocked, tied 22-22, on three other amendment votes. Ford’s whip proved to be less effective than ever tonight, which is certainly something that can be seen as a victory for his opponents.
Of course, the vote that mattered wasn’t even close. I feel that most councillors — especially suburban councillors — could not ignore the fact that contracting out garbage is a massively popular idea with many people in this city. In addition, now that the contract will return to council, there will be another chance to review the numbers and make a more informed decision. (I suspect this is why councillors like Shelley Carroll and Raymond Cho ended up voting in favour.)
So what happens next? Seemingly not a whole lot, at least for a while. The union will hope that the bids that come in don’t show savings at the level the mayor anticipates — and some of the amendments passed today will make savings challenging –, while Ford and his allies will continue to not really care about the numbers, because for them this is primarily about revenge.
Tags: ana bailao, council, garbage, josh colle, josh matlow, privatization, raymond cho, shelley carroll