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Jutta Mason, Editor
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Friends of Dufferin Grove Park Website and Newsletter
Editor:
Jutta Mason
Illustrations:
Jane LowBeer
Webmaster:
Henrik Bechmann (bechmann.ca)
Digital photographs:
Wallie Seto
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editor@dufferinpark.ca
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875 Dufferin Street
This website was originally developed thanks to a generous grant from the Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation.
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From the editor
ARE DUFFERIN GROVE STAFF IN “CONFLICT OF INTEREST”? (Editorial #1)
Although both the general manager and the recreation director told reporters in February that the current Ward 18 offerings of snack bars, skate rentals, etc. are in no danger of elimination, management pronouncements over the past year suggest otherwise.
Some background: last rink season I was told, and Dufferin Grove rec staff were also told, that staff must find a way to stop handling cash outside of city policies (i.e. at the zamboni cafe, skate rental, and Friday Night Supper). To drive the point home, the recreation manager (the one before Kelvin) sent everyone the auditor's fraud policy. Recreation staff made considerable efforts to adapt the existing, workable Dufferin Rink cash handling system to that of the city. The city's policy is designed for registration and events payments, but it doesn't work well for food or skate lending at all. In March 2009, the staff sent in a detailed report on possible workarounds, but that report seems to have been shelved without comment.
Attempts in winter 08/09 to continue the previous years' involvement at Christie Pits outdoor rink (working with the “Friends of Christie Pits”) were stopped by Recreation supervisor Kim Brown, saying that recreation staff must not handle cash, for food or skate lending.
Then at a meeting in September 2009, Malcolm Bromley, the Recreation director, spent some considerable time explaining conflict of interest to part-time Dufferin Rink staff Sarah Cormier. He warned her that her contributions to the a rink bulletin, recommending improvements for Giovanni Caboto Rink, put her in real danger of being fingered for conflict of interest by the city auditor. He emphasized that he was quoting from a conversation he had with general manager Brenda Patterson. As a follow-up to the meeting, Parks director Andy Koropeski sent me the city's Conflict of Interest Policy: "please see attached 'Conflict of Interest' policy which all members of the Toronto public Service must govern themselves."
And finally, Recreation manager Kelvin Seow told me in late February that he felt the staff were acting in conflict of interest, and that he intended to call them together to discuss this.
Back in 2005, the Parks and Recreation director of the time asked Tino DeCastro to work with Dufferin Grove part-time staff to prepare a report on what these staff do at the park. This report also went unacknowledged when it was submitted. But it’s a very useful document now. It’s time to ask management – again – to highlight those tasks that are against policy and therefore prohibited. That will help clarify the future of the park programs.
MEETINGS ABOUT “CONFLICT OF INTEREST” with Recreation manager Kelvin Seow.
Since the end of February, Recreation manager Kelvin Seow has met twice with Dufferin Grove part-time recreation staff and CELOS. To his credit, he made it clear in these meetings that he didn't mind people disagreeing with him. There have been two animated conversations about what actions of the Dufferin Grove Rec staff might put them in a situation of conflict of interest. Kelvin said that the first problem with Dufferin Grove activities is that staff might be doing work not in their CUPE Local 79 collective agreement. Staff pointed out that part of their job description is "other duties as assigned." Kelvin said that this sentence probably protects Dufferin Grove activities at the moment, but it may disappear when the process of job harmonization is complete.
Harmonized job descriptions for part-time recreation workers are being hammered out between the union and management. The question arises: "what about the third interested party, the public, do they have any input?" Kelvin said no, but "management is the agent on behalf of the public. We advocate on behalf of the public." It did seem very likely that in the new harmonized job descriptions, there may be specific prohibitions against part-time staff preparing food for the zamboni cafe, or Friday Night Supper, or skate lending, or pizza days. Nobody knows for sure (including Kelvin), since the negotiations for job harmonization are being carried on privately. Kelvin says he’ll see if the process can be opened up to the third element, the public.
In further attempts to define what activities put staff in conflict of interest, Kelvin was asked whether part-time staff involvement in CELOS, researching city practices and writing reports, was on the list of “conflict of interest.” Kelvin said that using knowledge staff have acquired as a city employee was not permitted under the policy. He cited this line in the policy: “Employees may not engage in any outside work or business activity...which use their knowledge of confidential plans, projects or information about holdings of the corporation.”
CELOS researcher Belinda Cole is working on an Ontario Trillium Foundation grant to explore how laws, regulations, policies and guidelines may affect citizens’ abilities to shape our public spaces. She countered Kelvin’s interpretation, referring to Malcolm Bromley’s warning to Dufferin Grove part-time staff Sarah Cormier. In Belinda’s evaluation, “Sarah has no confidential information; in fact, she is often not even given the information she requests to do her job well and to keep park users informed about park activities such as scheduled rink clearing, picnic permits, etc.” Conflict of interest policies are an attempt to prevent insiders with power from having undue influence on city decisions, Belinda wrote. “To date, in Sarah’s five years of work for the City, no one in the corporation has ever sought her considerable experience or opinions about what makes parks and rinks work well for the people who use them. She is, in fact, in no position to influence city decisions in any way at all.” Stay tuned.
WHAT’S NEXT: CITIZENS’ HALL (Editorial #2)
The B.C. town administrator and writer Andre Carrel writes that what’s needed to run cities is “Citizens’ Hall” more than “City Hall.” His phrase prompted park friend (and CELOS board member) Jane LowBeer to draw the picture on this months’ newsletter cover. Parks are good “citizens’ halls” because they have no walls, so conversations can happen at any moment, and debates about public space can be observed and joined as people are inclined.
Dufferin Grove Park is one of Toronto’s current hot spots for the contest between centralized control versus local shaping of public space. Working this out is not a matter of professional mediation between two squabbling parties. Nor is it a matter of people using their imaginations to devise an idyllic park. Nor is it a matter of constructing a local bureaucracy to pick between centrally-pre-digested options: would you like this blue plastic slide or that red plastic teeter-totter?
It might be a matter of centralized power winning over local resistance, but that’s still up in the air.
There are some complicated issues in public spaces, and people who want to participate in a “citizens’ hall” need to learn the details. Judging by the letters that went to the ombudsman (many are posted on the clubhouse bulletin board), popular understanding of the way this particular park works is already diverse and interesting. The participants in the discussion are park users of all ages, local park staff, local and citywide politicians, Parks, Forestry and Recreation management staff, reporters, the ombudsman, CELOS researchers, friends of other parks, neighbours who don’t like what happens at this park, candidates for all levels of government, academics, Facebook users....a crazy-quilt of actual and virtual discussants.
The weather’s getting warmer, the park will soon be green, nothing has yet been forbidden, and Tino DeCastro’s removal has tripped the switch. This is the summer for public discussions, little and big, at Dufferin Grove. Several years of general warnings and raised eyebrows need to be made explicit enough that they can be debated, by people enjoying the shade of those big trees, sharing a meal beside the bake ovens, or pushing a swing. Policy documents developed in distant meeting rooms need to be held up to the light and examined by the people affected. “Citizens’ Hall”..... maybe it will work, and there will be some energetic, engaging arguments, and enough plain talk to make it fun. Might as well try it.
Park bulletin boards are fair game for contributions too, and the virtual bulletin board of the dufferinpark.ca website. (Send comments to mail@dufferinpark.ca, so that Aseel Al Najim can post them.)
Editorials by Subject Area
Editorials since September 2003, by Subject area...
See also Table Of Editorials by year.