Côte St. Luc’s exit from the forced merger was perhaps the least elegant. Citizens were keener than some of their elected representatives to leave the megacity. The outcome was a landslide victory for Anthony Housefather over the former mayor, Bernard Lang, who, with former City Manager Jim Butler, had “built” the Côte St. Luc seen today.
“Youth won the day in this one,” the veteran Lang told Chronicle colleague Bram Eisenthal while waiting for the 2005 election night results.
The youthful-looking Housefather, however, brought new ideas as well as a lot of political experience, including 11 years as a local councillor.
He also has a serious day-job as a vice-president in a fast-growing high-tech company, which last week was named winner of the Frost & Sullivan Market Global Excellence Award.
So it was no surprise that Côte St. Luc turned to modern technology to help run its affairs. The city’s web pages are now among the best municipal sites in Quebec.
All councillors and managers now have BlackBerry “smart phones” and frequently communicate with each other. Although this is common in the business world, it is still a novelty in municipal life.
It’s not incongruous that Côte St. Luc, famed for its large population of senior citizens — the proportion over 80-years-old is four times the Quebec average — should be leading the way with using electronic resources. Innovation can have benefits at any age.
For an insider’s evaluation of the transition, I contacted Allan Levine, councillor for District Five. Elected 21 years ago when he ran for the first time in support of Côte St. Luc’s pioneering anti-smoking legislation, he has served with three different mayors — Lang, Robert Libman and, now, Housefather.
He felt the demerger left Côte St. Luc short of managers. Housefather brought in Ken Lerner from the airline business as City Manager.
“I have never known anyone learn so much, so quickly,” said Levine. “He fits in with Anthony’s conception of how things should run.”
So does the new City Treasurer, Angelo Marino, who came from the English Montreal School Board.
“We have been very fortunate in these and our other appointments. I must say the city is running very well at present.”
More services are being added. They include increased recycling and composting collections in Levine’s ward as well as Cllr Steven Erdelyi’s District Four.
“I am going to go door-to-door to explain to everyone,” Levine promised.
That’s the tried-and-true, old-fashioned way to explain new council procedures. But day-to-day work is conducted with the help of the patented electronic gadget known as a BlackBerry, which is provided by the city to all council members.
“They have certainly changed how we do council business,” Levine maintained. “It is more work for us, but also more ‘hands-on’. You feel part of everything going on.”
We spoke last Friday morning during the construction holiday — a relatively quiet time for municipalities. Already Levine’s pocket computer had involved him in several quite different city issues.
In one case, a constituent wanted to remove a tree from her property and needed Levine’s help. Another had Levine involved in hiring an additional staff member.
“We wanted someone to head up the new recycling operation,” Levine said. “As I needed to be away on business in the U.S., I was not able to take part in the choice.”
So two councillor-colleagues met the short-listed applicant proposed by the administration.
“Then on my BlackBerry, came the chosen applicant’s C.V. and the reports of the two councillors. Even though a long way away, I was able to make a make an informed endorsement of their recommendation.
I thought Levine was talking to me, perhaps from the South Shore or in the Laurentians, while attending to his movie business.
No, he revealed as we ended the interview, he was in North Carolina — and talking on his BlackBerry. Indeed, modern technology is marvelous –– and it works for municipalities, too! Don Wedge’s e-mail address is calert@web.net
