::::UPDATE:::

At a December 1 committee meeting, the policy was narrowly quashed with Naheed Nenshi, Carra, Farrell and Woolley supporting the policy. It will return to city council again in a couple weeks

I really don’t know any other way to describe this ridiculous council proposal other than to label it the “Anti-Farkas Bill”. This proposal which will go before Calgary City Council on Tuesday looks nothing more like a complicated solution looking for a problem.

Unless that problem is Counselor Jeromy Farkas. Then this ridiculous proposal which likely could be actionable makes perfect sense.

The entire absurd policy proposal can be downloaded beow.

This idiocy would force any city councilor who wants to do anything in a ward outside of their own to get the permission of the sitting counselor in that ward and I mean anything!

This policy was clearly designed to kneecap any sitting councilor who is running for Mayor and since Farkas is only councilor doing so, that means this proposal was specifically modeled in order to target Farkas’s campaign efforts.

In running for Mayor, a candidate MUST be able to campaign in every ward within the city. They must be able to communicate in regards to ANY issue which is raised by a constituent and must be able to quickly and effectively be able to communicate with EVERY constituent in the city whether their local councilor damn well likes it or not.

This proposal adds requirements of consultation and permission from sitting councilors which are not necessary and are an affront to democracy to be blunt. When one considers how embittered and vitriolic many city councilors are with Farkas and his efforts to reform city hall, one can see just how much these councilors would be able to hinder Jeromy’s campaign if they had this regulation in place.

Ward Sutherland’s insecure bitchiness when dealing with Farkas demonstrates how it is completely unreasonable to force Farkas to seek Sutherland’s permission in order to speak to constituents within Ward 1. Requests for access to constituents would be dragged out and delayed until the election was over.

That of course is the intent of this regulation.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi in the meantime will be able to reach out to constituents within the entire city without any hindrance as he campaigns to try and keep his job. This odious proposed piece of regulation would give Nenshi a terrific advantage over any councilor running for Mayor. Hardly an unintentional outcome from this proposal.

That the mushrooms on city council considering using their regulatory powers in order to hinder electoral up and comers is third world stuff folks and it needs to be called out hard.

This regulation would create 14 little city fiefdoms where the incumbent councilor will be able to control all access to the citizens within them.

That such a repugnant policy has been even proposed is bad enough, chances are good with this broken council, it will pass.

The Mayor and his entire little gang of lickspittles on city council need to be electorally flushed from their seats this year. Citizens know this and polling is showing it. That is why these desperate souls are now stooping to abusing their regulatory abilities in order to sideline electoral challengers.

I can’t speak for him but I do hope that Jeromy Farkas completely ignores this ridiculous regulation if it comes into effect. I am sure that many folks will be happy to help him take this sort of thing to court in order to force city council to explain at length why they feel it is acceptable to model regulations which gag the ability of people to reach out to people during an election year. Free speech, free mobility and free expression all trump the petty needs of this pathetic council.