Edmonton Journal Civic Election

Candidate Questionnaire
Bryan Kapitza, 47
Councillor, Ward 6

E-mail * campaign@communitiesfirst.ca
Website * www.communitiesfirst.ca

Twitter @bryankapitza

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001335103290

What are the three biggest issues in your campaign?

Your number one issue, and why?

"Re-Investing in Mature Neighbourhoods
Council has vigorously pursued the development of distant suburbs and has forgotten about the
needs of mature neighbourhoods close to the downtown core. It is a model for growth that will
lead to economic and social ruin. A city cannot prosper if its core communities are crumbling
under the feet of its residents. I believe that it is reasonable to expect that some of the taxes we
pay for living in mature neighbourhoods stay in mature neighbourhoods to maintain and improve
infrastructure and services."

Number two issue, and why?

Community Engagement

Communities have been left out of the loop on many decisions that affect their livability. I am
committed to developing a responsive process that involves communities at the conceptual
phase of planning and policy initiatives. Our present planning and development processes do
not allow for this. By bringing communities, city administrators, planners and developers
together at prior to the onset/approval of a project or policy change all parties will be in a better
position to express their positions, address concerns and realize acceptable outcomes. The City
needs to recognize that the residents of a community are the stewards of that community and
that their vision for their community needs to be taken into account when making decisions.

Number three issue, and why?

Re-organizing City Departments for Efficiency

Enterprise in the public and private sector is structured vertically. This is a historical
development. In times past power flowed from the head of state to ministers through various
levels of administrators to the workers. When corporations came into common existence in the
1600s they duplicated their control structures on the only model available – that of government.
CEOs acted as the head of state, VPs as ministers, and various levels of managers
corresponded to the various levels of government administrators that directed the workers. As
corporations grew, and owners became richer, they became more and more concerned with
being able to track their capital. That level of control is easiest to achieve in a vertical
organization where budgets can be assigned to individual divisions or departments and
managers held accountable for improving their productivity while staying within their allotted
financial limits. Our taxation and accounting systems are a response to the capital management
structure put in place by the robber barons of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and have
reinforced that structure over the last 100 years.

The problems associated with a vertical organization are well known (and yet for some reason
tolerated by citizens and shareholders). Seldom is there reason not to spend your entire budget.
Doing so must often results in a budget cut for next year. There is no motivation for a manager
to seek efficiencies outside of his realm of influence - his focus is to run his department as
“efficiently” as possible. He doesn’t care how his decisions affect the manager next to him. Nor
is there any reason to share information. Keeping information to yourself makes you more
valuable to the organization. This concentration of budgetary, operational and technical control
that grows out of a vertical capital control structure is the impediment to more efficient delivery
of services.

To improve the efficiency, i.e. the delivery of services and reduction of costs, of any
organization we need to reduce our focus on capital accounting. This is achieved by separating
budgetary, operational and technical control within the organization. Departments continue to
exist but department managers become technical experts in their particular area like roads or
water or waste management . Operation managers now manage a whole service process
looking for cost and service efficiencies between departments instead of just in departments.
Neither has any budget - that rests with a budgetary manager who must validate spending and
its implications along the whole process stream.

Immediate consequences on the operation of government is the diminished capacity for

government ministers to manipulate processes – no more micro-managing. The separation of
authority makes this much more difficult. No line manager will act on a change that reduces his
productivity and his bonus, and claims of efficiency now have to be verified by a separate
budget manager. A further consequence is a reduction in the size and vertical height of the
managerial core. Cross department operational control reduces the need for management that is
hired to deal with other management. A single budgetary office removes that responsibility
from all other offices. Furthermore, the cooperation that must now exist between various
departments in the same process stream speeds up service delivery. And capital costs fall
further because of the free flow of expertise and the common goal of achieving the best result
for the operation group instead of any particular department.

Which should be a higher spending priority for council, and why?

LRT construction. LRT is more cost effective, cleaner and faster in moving people.

City council has turned down a motion to hold a non-binding plebiscite on keeping the
City Centre Airport as a general aviation facility. Should the new council reopen the
airport issue?

No. The airport issue has been decided by the city clerk and our present council. The petition
failed to meet statutory requirements - there is no legal recourse. That means councils'
 previous resolution to close the airport are in full force and affect. A motion to rescind by
a new council is unlikely given that other agreements attached to airport closure are
already in place (Rules of Parliamentary Procedure - a motion to rescind can only occur if
the previous decision is unencumbered). Operations at the CCA will be phased out and
the land will, over a period of decades, be redeveloped into a new urban community. The
role that I can play as a potential representative is to ensure that the contracts for
development are properly let, existing business are given assistance in relocation, that
certain historical buildings remain in place (blachford hanger, home of the alberta aviation
museum) and that the new development maintains space for the operation and servicing
of STARS and Police helicopters.

Do you live in the ward where you're running?

Yes

How important is social media to your campaign?

3 out of 5

What is your favourite blog?

None

What is the last book you read?

Don Quixote

What is the last piece of music you listened to?

None

What is your favourite beer? Answer this question to humour Mark Suits, Edmonton
Journal beer blogger

None

Favourite place in Edmonton, outside your home?

Paul Kane Park

Three fantasy guests you'd like to have dinner with, and why? Can be living, dead or
fictional
Rene Descartes - philosopher and mathematician
Thomas Jefferson - american revolutionary/president
Amartya Sen - economist/philosopher

What type of car do you drive? Make, model and year

VW Van 1991

What is the best advice you ever received

Listen