Olympic village project manager Jody Andrews tendered his resignation on Thursday, after several weeks of being stripped of responsibilities and pretty much ordered not to talk to the public/media about the village.
The relatively young 40-something Andrews, who has worked at the city for 18 years, was put in charge of the Olympic village and Southeast False Creek overall in February 2005.
Although he’s an engineer and spent most of his time making sure that the village developers were carrying out the project according to city guidelines on design, sustainability, etc., he was also the main negotiator with Millennium on financial issues. Andrews wrote the 2006 report recommending Millennium as the successful bidder.
Presumably, that marked him as either: (a) someone who drank the kool-aid at city hall that convinced senior bureaucrats to delusionally think the Olympic village-Millennium deal was a good one, and therefore he had to go; or (b) someone who knew and could explain what the positives of the Olympic village project were, and therefore he had to go. Take your pick, depending on what your point of view.
My colleagues at The Globe and Mail were unable to reach anyone from the Vision Vancouver team who could offer an explanation. Councillor Geoff Meggs said, as far as he knew, Jody was talented but had walked in today and tendered his resignation. (You can read the full scraps of details we were able to get here.)
I should explain, for people who don’t understand how the city works, that while Jody would have been the negotiator or had his name on the report, he would have been part of a team that worked together. Finance director Ken Bayne and real-estate services director Michael Flanigan would have supplied numbers. The legal department would have weighed in from their end. Former city manager Judy Rogers would have been part of the team.
So everyone has got to be wondering who else is on the list to go at city hall.
Non-Partisan Association Councillor Suzanne Anton was stunned to hear the news.
“Here’s a guy who’s given his life practically to the city He worked day in and day out. I don’t know how as a city we would attract top people at this stage," she said.
Suzanne said it seemed to her that he must have been forced out, which she can’t understand. “It’s almost like they’re trying to sabotage the project. Do they want us to fail?”
I, for one, am looking forward to the explanation from the city manager tomorrow about all this. I hope it will enlighten us all.
I think I speak for everyone in the city when I say that it’s getting to feel a bit too much like a murder mystery around city hall these days, all these people disappearing with no explanation as to what’s happening.
Frances Bula's blog has become a clearinghouse of fact and comment on the Olympic village debacle.
Hmm
18 years = Life.
Funny how some people think.
Can't Understand Why Gregor Is Housecleaning?
Francis, I really don't think you are that ignorant, just too obviously partisan. Any good new leader would try to clean up the mess at city hall, before proceeding to the next stage of protecting what is left.
Actually, you don't speak for everyone
It's not a murder mystery, and you don't speak for the many of us in the city who understand exactly what's going on at city hall. A new administration is bringing in people it trusts. It's political. That's life. Maybe they're making good choices, maybe not. Time will tell. Meantime, we look to informed commentary to guide us as we watch and wait.
Too bad someone with your experience (which we're aware of largely because of your constant references to it) can't put some of it to use for readers.
Ok, you didn't get the big leak. You aren't getting ongoing leaks. You aren't getting the big 'heads up' every time someone quits.
Get over it.
Stop making light of an issue that some of us without the endless insider connections (again, thanks for the frequent reminders) are pretty concerned about.
Stop suggesting people calm down, and start helping the people who are increasingly alarmed at the signs of how badly the NPA and some of our senior managers confused our interests with those of VANOC, developers and the business community in general.
Next time you're getting a personal tour of the site by one of the Millennium brothers, why not take a second or two to ask them what the fudge monkey they were thinking offering that much cash, what part of the overruns were "the overheated economy" and which were their own failure to manage a project that was beyond their experience. Questions like that might actually make your ever-so-girly, sit-on-the-riverbank navel-gazing easier to swallow.
Better still, go back to being the poor woman's Maureen Dowd. Map it all out as a highschool sorority plot.
To quote you: Sheesh.
Suzanne Anton
To quote suzanne
"I don`t know how as a city we would attract top people at this stage"
Really, I think a deaf dumb,blind person could of negotiated a better deal!
Maybe a provincial political run is in order for Mr. Andrews.We really need a "gag law" directed at Suzanne Anton.
I am sick and tired of all the experts blowing their own horns about top notch performance,seems more like group stink(think) or more like the blind leading the blind.
Altered Recommendations
Re: quote
"Andrews wrote the 2006 report recommending Millennium as the successful bidder."
Over the years I've written a variety reports to City Councils, along with the specific recommendations and the rationale to support those recommendations. Periodically certain bureaucrats would alter the report so much that the original document was no longer mine, but I was still percieved to be the author.
It could be that Andrews wrote the report but the actual recommendation was not his.
During deliberations the recommendation(s) can also be amended, which is Councils prerogative.
I was thinking
All this talk about going to the rivers and Councilor Anton.
Wonderful metaphors for a blog.
So maybe this was Leonard Cohen's contribution to the Pillagegate.
Now lets all say it together. Ommm, Ommm
Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
You can hear the boats go by
You can spend the night beside her
And you know that she's half crazy
But that's why you want to be there
And she feeds you tea and oranges
That come all the way from China
And just when you mean to tell her
That you have no love to give her
Then she gets you on her wavelength
And she lets the river answer
That you've always been her lover
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that she will trust you
For you've touched her perfect body with your mind.
Now I feel better.
Don't Do It PeteL! Don't Do It!
If Suzanne takes you to her place down by the river
Her lies will hold you captive forever
No one else will listen to her...
Actually, the fog horns around here are starting to sound alot better than she ever will.
Nice Pete L
Can we make you the Tyee poet laureate?
The whole damn council has been travelling blind apparently....I understand some 350 million dollars worth of unsold real estate in the city have now gone on fire sale:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/01/14/bc-onni-condo-sale.html
Maybe Ms Anton
Maybe Ms Anton better get her FOR SALE, huge discounts, signs out.