Adam Giambrone Withdraws From Mayoral Race

At 11:00 am today, Adam Giambrone held a press conference at which he profusely apologised to his supporters, to his personal partner, and to his fellow Councillors for the recent revelations about his personal life and his mishandling of the response.  Then he left the podium.

A few minutes later, his Executive Assistant, Kevin Beaulieu, return to read the full statement in which Giambrone announced that he was withdrawing from the mayoralty race, but would remain as Councillor for Ward 18 and Chair of the TTC.  He wants to address the renaissance of the TTC and the building of Transit City.

Whether he actually gets to do this remains to be seen.  The Commission will meet next week, and it is possible that a vote of non-confidence will end Giambrone’s role as Chair.  His opponents may use this opportunity to tar much of what he and others in Mayor Miller’s camp have achieved with transit, and that would be a terrible mistake.  Those changes, those policies exist not just because of Giambrone, but because many Councillors, the Mayor, Queen’s Park and countless members of the public recognize that transit in Toronto must improve.  The Chair may pass to another Councillor, but the organization and the goals remain.

The TTC is in desperate need of clear, unambiguous leadership from someone who inspires confidence and trust, from someone whose word can be believed, whose announcements are not second-guessed as photo ops for a political campaign.

I have been a long-time supporter and advisor to Adam Giambrone, but my view is that he must step down.

51 thoughts on “Adam Giambrone Withdraws From Mayoral Race

  1. What Giambrone did was stupid. I know he is young and he was attracted to the chick.

    It is okay to be friends with someone or go on a date when you’re at that age because the girl looks nice/friendly whatever you like to say it.

    But you don’t have sex in city hall or whatever he was doing. Mel Lastman did that same thing by insulting people’s racial culture.

    That is what pisses me off, when people who already have a girlfriend/boyfriend or they are married. They always cheat on another human being. It is okay to say hi or you can even give the person a hug, BUT DON’T HAVE SEX AND OR PUT YOUR TONGUE IN THEIR MOUTHS WHICH PEOPLE KEEP DOING.

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  2. Your suggesting he should resign as TTC Chair because of the affairs of an unmarried person?

    Should this standard be applied to all TTC commissioners? Perhaps they should start each TTC meeting by quantifying how many people they have slept with since the last meeting?

    Perhaps bloggers should declare their most recent orgasm in each new post?

    Steve: SFX — bloggers moaning in the background.

    This is getting silly. It was clear from day one that he was not experienced enough to be Mayor; but unless there has been any impact on his performance as Chair from all this, then I don’t see any need to go any further.

    Steve: I don’t care about Adam’s sex life. I do care about the fact that the story he gave to the press kept changing, that his explanation to the party directly involved kept changing, and that his primary partner was, by his own admission, reduced to little more than a prop for the photos at his campaign launch.

    How can people be inspired, how can they trust his positions and statements? That’s the issue, and that’s why he must step down.

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  3. I’m very scared on the future of Transit City now, and I hope this has no bearing on any of the projects to be constructed.

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  4. If he were to resign, is there a logical successor? Joe Mihevc?

    I was at the campaign kickoff, I was going to volunteer for his campaign, and I’ve spoken to the Adam on a couple of occasions. I’m deeply disappointed by him and feel that his presence as TTC Chair will only detract from the ongoing debate on transit. We can’t allow Transit City to stop, it is an idea that goes beyond one councilor.

    I thank him for the job that he’s done but he must step down now.

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  5. At this point in time, Adam Giambrone has clearly fallen off the tracks in his political aspirations and in his role as chairman of the TTC.

    He is viewed as immature, compulsive and lacking in good judgement. These are the very qualities demanded from people in leadership roles — and especially politicians.

    The public is weary of the tales of Tiger Woods, Bill Clinton and Adam Giambrone, but the same public has a short memory as well. Giambrone is now in fall back mode: there was little potential for success as the next mayor of Toronto, but the title of Chairman of the TTC and a six figure income is not such a bad consolation prize!

    Steve: As a Councillor, he gets nothing for chairing the TTC, and his Council salary isn’t exactly stratospheric.

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  6. In a way, it’s odd that the first question on everyone’s mind was whether he’d continue to run for mayor — given what’s going on at the TTC, his role as its Chair is the more pressing matter.

    The simplest solution would be to elect the Vice-Chair as Chair and elect a new Vice-Chair from the remainder of the Commission. From what you know of the Commissioners, would this be wise… and is it likely?

    Steve: I am sure that Joe Mihevc wouldn’t object to becoming Chair, although he would have to give up some of his other work (notably Budget Committee) to concentrate on the TTC. He has also been around the TTC long enough to understand the issues.

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  7. Is he going to be Councillor for Ward 18 until October 25 2010 then bye bye or is he going to continue?

    Steve: He has not announced his intentions for Ward 18. I would not be surprised to see him run again, although it will likely be an uphill battle.

    I have to give him credit: He admitted to the whole affair thing. I think Kristen Lucas is using this to further that modelling career of hers.

    I have to give him credit as well for the fact that he uses transit, I am sure Commissioners Hall and Moeser (both living at the ends of the city) do not use transit. I have talked to him many times in the hallways of City hall and on the TTC. He listened to my concerns/issues. I will give him credit for Transit City as well. I even seen him in Scarborough (in January) and I talked to him at one of the SRT open houses.

    Councillor Rob Ford has mentioned that there are way more scandals that the media are aware of. I am sure he is correct in that.

    Steve: Councillor Ford had his own meltdowns that were well reported. They just didn’t involve sex.

    I do believe Adam Giambrone, Toronto resident, has right to privacy. However Councillor/TTC Chair Giambrone does not have a right as a politician.

    I am curious as to why Kristen Lucas came out now if she is alleging it has been going on for a year.

    E-mails can be faked, text messages – did they come from Adam’s #?

    He is getting all this heat because it is easy to blame him, instead of giving some blame to Queen’s Park for the 90s cuts, and for Ottawa for not properly funding the TTC. I have to admit, I was hoping that he wouldn’t step down. We need a young guy as well to the TTC, fresh blood unlike some “old fossils” on council.

    You could think he is to blame for TTC, you could think he is a good guy. Just leave him alone for some time, he has to deal with his partner and his family. That is not my business nor anyone else business.

    Let’s talk about what he does as a Councillor/TTC Chair.

    Yes I think he should step down. Maybe Joe Mihevc can become the chair.

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  8. I’m wondering why you embraced Giambrone in the first place. On his record as TTC chair alone, he deserved to be fired, not promoted.

    Sure, the structural and managerial problems at the TTC might not have been all his fault. But if citizens — including prominent ones, such as yourself — are more ready to make excuses than hold leaders responsible, then why would we expect things to change?

    Steve: You may need to read between the lines, but I have often been critical of the way Commissioners let their management get away with a boatload of standard excuses for all manner of problems.

    Having said that, Giambrone was easily the most committed of the Commissioners to the overall improvement of the system, and had a good working relationship with the Mayor’s Office. The Vice Chair, Joe Mihevc, who may now become Chair, needs to decide whether to wear his Budget Committee hat, or his TTC hat. The importance is that there must always be advocacy for transit, even if there isn’t enough money to go around so that, at least, we know what options are available with limited funds. For far too long, those decisions were made by TTC management alone.

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  9. The good side to this is that some other mayoral candidates may be more comfortable embracing Transit City since they are not running against one of its main proponents.

    On the other hand, with the focus off transit, less may change that needs to change at the TTC.

    We need someone effective as TTC chair through this difficult period. It is not yet clear to me whether Giambrone can be that person. Although his reputation is temporarily tarnished, the problem relates only to his personal life, which, in my view, is not directly relevant to his ability to do his job. From what Steve and others have said, he seems to have done a decent job personally at the TTC. It would be a shame to lose that commitment and interest.

    Steve: Yes, it will be a shame, but the issues of credibility and trustworthiness are also essential in repairing that organization.

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  10. If Councillor Mihevc becomes the new TTC Chair, are there any indications that he might tweak the Transit City plan and/or process?

    Steve: At this point, it’s too soon to tell. Metrolinx is also a player here because they will own the lines although the TTC will operate them.

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  11. The question in all of this is where is Miller? (I’m talking from a transit perspective here)…he hasn’t been too vocal about the issues at the TTC, and I’m assuming this is the last thing he needs as far as legacy goes…TC is his baby, and I assume he was hoping that Giambrone would complete it…with all this trouble, it’s starting to seem less likely that the vision as it stands will be completed…some leadership here is definitely needed and it’s obviously not coming from the commission or from the TTC management anytime in the near future…Miller needs to take this year and fix the TTC’s customer service problems, some sort of shakeup on the operations side of things (and hopefully keep TC on the rails at the same time)

    Steve: Until very recently, I think Miller took a hands-off approach while is was just the question of customer service, and the moves by both sides in trying to deal with the situation. Then Giambrone’s personal life and his trustworthiness became the issue. That has spiralled faster than anyone has wanted to comment. The issue in the next few days will be who is going to lead the TTC for the rest of 2010. The Mayor definitely needs to get involved, although I suspect that will be behind the scenes. The chairmanship needs to be dealt with, and then the whole city needs to turn to the CS problem.

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  12. Ouch! I have to agree that Giambrone should step down as chair, if only to allow refocus on the real issues. Mihevc seems a natural choice as chair, though given the St Clair fiasco is in his ward, that might potentially work against him.

    Phil

    Steve: St. Clair is an excellent example of how management at TTC and the City let down the politicians, but were not publicly held to account.

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  13. I really hate to see Adam leave the scene but he really has been acting like a horney juvenile in this affair. Let him stay on the Commission because he knows a lot but Joe Mihevic is pro-transit and he is a man of integrity which is what is needed now. He also has the advantage of not being as associated with the Unions as Giambrone and regrettably, that is a plus right now.

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  14. Isn’t Transit City now in Metrolinx’s hands? Isn’t Metrolinx (AKA the province) in the driver’s seat for construction and ownership, leaving the operation for the TTC?

    Steve: Yes, but the TTC has done a lot of work behind the scenes to keep Metrolinx headed in the right direction. For all of Metrolinx bluster, they don’t have much experience actually building things.

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  15. His fellow Commissioners should ask him to step aside pending an investigation of whether he did in fact leak details of the fare hike to Kristen Lucas per the Star’s original story.

    That, and only that, is reason for him to be removed as Chairman of the Commission.

    Steve: Everybody knew a fare hike was coming long before it was announced. That’s basic math. The issue is confidence and trust in Giambrone’s role as Chair.

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  16. Poor guy — I actually feel sorry for him. I had a gut feeling that Sarah was a prop (she looks like Miss Prissy), but with all those rumors floating around, I thought it was to hide his secret gay life, and that she was in on it.

    The fact that he wasn’t married to her after supposedly living together for many years was a red flag to me, but the entire thing seems so strange. Giambrone is so clean-cut — he looks like one of those band members from that 60s group “Every Mother’s Son”.

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  17. Would Mayor Miller be able to temporarily step in as TTC Chair until the election? His gravitas and expertise are much needed to directly deal with the TTC right now. Since he’s not running, he wouldn’t need to worry about his image all that much, and might actually achieve some positive results in the short term.

    Steve: Definitely an interesting idea.

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  18. I met Giambrone once, and told him that my only beef with him was that he was in the same party as David Miller. He told me Miller was a great mayor. That one statement by him to me is what made me not want to vote for him, but put me on the fence between him and Smitherman

    When this story broke, I decided I was going to vote for Smitherman. Not because of the sex scandal, but because of the idea that Giambrone thinks of Miller as a God.

    Miller is a bigger failure than Lastman was. Because of Miller the idea that we should have good transit has forever been tied to all the bad crap that he’s pulled over the years.

    We need a mayor who will allow good transit to stand on it’s own legs and prove it is a worthy investment, not someone who supports these things because it is part of his or her ideology.

    To that end, Giambrone should indeed step down as chair of the TTC. Not because he is anti-transit, but because I believe the only reason he is pro-transit is because it is part of his ideology and his agenda.

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  19. Mark Dowling does bring a good point. AG leaked some confidential information.

    I am thinking what about if he leaked other information? I do not trust him right now.

    I think I said it above in my previous comment, or on twitter…Adam’s sex life is none of my business, he can have all the sexual relations he wants with as many women as he wants…..but to have it on his councillor office couch, then that’s Councillor Giambrone having sexual relations. It is wrong. I wonder if it’s possible for someone (not saying me or the public) to check the City Hall cameras to see if Kristen Lucas was in City Hall during the times she allegedly has sex with Councillor Giambrone.

    Also the fact that he (along with Gary Webster) let things go this far down the toilet on the TTC. A car can’t go from 0 to 100, it technically goes 1kph, 2kph….99kph, 100kph. There is one small minor piece of shit issue on the TTC, then other one comes up which both get ignored as minor…….then eventually you get to today, A HUGE PILE OF SHIT.

    Giambrone and TTC management can’t deny that they knew things and didn’t say/act about it, that to me is a lie when they didn’t act to fix things from the begining.

    I lost all trust on AG.

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  20. I think what people are suggesting is that he step down as chair because he has shown to be somewhat unethical while in a position of power. We expect that those handling important affairs that affect us all, be held to a code of conduct that includes trust and integrity.

    I use to think that a person’s personal affairs was none of our business but I’ve changed my tone. If you demonstrate questionable behaviour where you lie and cheat in your personal life this then suggests that perhaps you can’t be trusted. Period. I’m not sure that someone willing to break the rules in their personal life wouldn’t do the same while at work.

    As someone said in a message earlier on the radio today, if you’re willing to break your trust with your partner and cheat then … What other rules are you willing to break once temptation comes along.

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  21. It was plenty obvious that Giambrone wasn’t all that mature when he sent that threatening email to Palacio. All the recent brouha just made it more obvious.

    What really bugs me the most was his refusal to accept responsibility for any of the TTC’s problems because he’s “only the chair”. What kind of executive does that? Contrast that with military’s Chief of Defence Staff who’s taken full responsibility for the crazed pyschopath that killed two women, even though virtually everyone agrees that it was undetectable and that the military should not be blamed. There’s a leader. He’ll take fire so his troops don’t have to.

    Giambrone is not cut from the same cloth. For all his admiration of Miller, too bad he didn’t pick up Miller’s honesty and integrity. I may have disagreed with Miller’s policies. But I admire the man for integrity, hard work and honesty. I wish we had more politicians like him.

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  22. Perhaps this whole affair is good for transit. I thought Giambrone running would just introduce more political fluff to a serious issue.

    It is regretful that he had been advised to run this time round. He’s strength is his youth, so he should have realized that he can wait for a better time, perhaps in 10 to 15 years.

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  23. Hello Steve,
    We need to purge all existing TTC chairs and management….as Furious George and Rocco Rossi stated, we need civilian oversight not City councilors running the TTC. When the exposed laziness of certain TTC employees came to light Gary Webster and his minions decided to start sending memos out the ying yang, but without these customers exposing the mess that was brewing, it would be business as usual for these characters who run the TTC. I am sorry but its too late, they failed us miserably so its time to purge the pipes of these toxins that are reactive and not proactive towards managing are transit. Giving them a chance to right the ship is unacceptable. You got my vote Steve….

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  24. I was hoping Giambrone was going to get elected and that transit would get more funding for different projects. I know people aren’t perfect but I thought Giambrone would have been good for my own agenda which is transit funding. Now I will look for the most transit friendly candidate to help me decide who to vote for.

    Also I think it was a mistake Giambrone made and that everyone makes mistakes. Hope he continues to head transit because a lot of funding for different projects here in Toronto has been secured while he was chairing the TTC.

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  25. Let me preface this by saying that I was generally supportive of Adam Giambrone, and before this scandal broke, was likely going to vote for him (although not with a huge amount of enthusiasm).

    I thought Giambrone’s mayoralty bid was ill-conceived. Whether or not he *was* too young, it was certainly the popular conception that he was too young. Add to that the general political trend (and media hysteria) was against Miller or a Miller-type candidate; and on top of it all, fairly or not, Giambrone was becoming the public scapegoat for all the ills of the TTC (many of which, as Steve has documented, are really the fault of upper-levels of government). So to launch his mayoralty bid despite all those things showed a bit of a political tin ear. Nevertheless, I was initially tepidly supportive of his campaign, because none of these things are issues that substantively affect the reason one should vote for a candidate. To my mind, far and away the most important reason to vote for someone is that they support and will enact policies I support.

    But this scandal was enough to make me reconsider voting for him. I normally couldn’t care less about personal matters or affairs, because they don’t have anything to do with public policy. But the nature of this affair showed horrible judgment. It wasn’t that he had had an affair in the past, it was that he thought he should string along a 20 year old woman through a mayoralty campaign – and thereby putting a huge risk to his agenda and the interests of his partisans.

    But having said all of this, I am disappointed with the call – and the reasoning articulated here – for Giambrone’s resignation as chair of TTC. It is clear to me that him telling Lucas he was announcing he had a partner for political reasons was simply a lie of convenience to keep stringing her along; it was skeezy as all hell (and sufficiently calls into question his maturity and judgment such that I doubt I would have voted for him as mayor), but it was a private lie. I don’t doubt that he he is *actually* with Sarah McQuarrie (although this is also virtually entirely irrelevant). This is precisely the kind of lie adulterers tell all the time to justify being in more than one relationship. In fact, Tiger Woods is reported to have said almost the very same thing about his marriage to one of his various mistresses.

    When Adam Giambrone takes the stage to announce the breaking ground of a Transit City project, for instance, I’m not going to second guess whether it is actually true because he lied to a girl to get laid. And in fairness to Giambrone, it wasn’t *only* the kind of private lie adulterers use. Politicians (not because they are politicians, but because they are human) must lie in private all the time. I can only imagine the (justifiably) vitriolic things David Miller must say in private on a daily basis about Jim Flaherty and the Harper Government, but that doesn’t stop him from grinning and bearing it while thanking the feds profusely for this or that infrastructure project.

    Or on an even larger scale – and much more germane to actual public policy, Toronto’s large deficit is structural in nature. The only real solution – especially in the long term – is for the province and feds to start taking on a larger share in financing things that are really within their purview, and/or substantial tax hikes. Yet no mayoralty candidate will say this truth. Instead, we will hear about wasteful spending, tightening the belt, outsourcing, selling off assets (a total non-solution to a structural deficit, btw) and creative revenue enhancements. If we apply the same logic that calls for Giambrone to resign as TTC chair, then we must not only vote against all the candidates for the failure to articulate the truth, we must call for them to resign from whatever position of power they currently hold.

    My concern is that Giambrone has already given his pound of flesh, and transit users risk losing a valued supporter if we ask for more. Steve, as a keen observer of transit issues, and of how the TTC operates, you have as good an understanding of Adam Giambrone as a public persona as anyone. Does knowing that he was lying to a girl (admittedly, in a scummy way) in order to get some side action *really* cause you to call into question the things Giambrone may have said at TTC meetings or to you in private about policy and the workings of the TTC? I would find it rather odd that you would.

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  26. Steve: Thanks for another thoughtful and calm posting. I too have strongly supported Adam Giambrone at the TTC (despite his sometimes odd ideas such as the boat service) but I am afraid he DOES need to go. The TTC needs a strong, calm and firm pair of hands at the moment and the idea of David Miller himself is certainly an interesting one. Another possibility would be a non-politician but I can’t immediately think of someone who would quickly be able to get the Commissioners, the TTC Management and the TTC Unions all on the same page and actually singing in tune.

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  27. I wonder if the suggestion that we replace the governing body of the TTC with private citizens deserves its own post. This call is coming again and again and it seems likely to be an election issue.

    I can’t help but recall similar discussions taking place in the late 1980s when the TTC’s committee consisted of private citizens, and there was a big push to replace them with elected councillors, in order to make the commission “more accountable” to the public. Clearly, twenty years down the line, this change has not brought the benefits that were promised, but we mustn’t forget the conditions that existed in the mid 1980s which made the issue of replacing a board of private citizens with elected officials in the first place.

    When people talk about getting rid of the politicians, I picture us returning to an old state that we thought wasn’t particularly good to begin with. Is the committee of elected councillors doing the quality job that we deserve as Torontonians? Many would argue not. But was the committee of private citizens (which as Steve noted, was sometimes just a dumping ground for political cronies) any better? And, if not, how do we make it better? Maybe direct public elections, either by all Torontonians or perhaps by Metropass holders? What?

    Steve: I have to be delicate about how I say this: by the time the “citizen” members of the Commission were replace, they were not informed experts or businessmen with an altruistic interest in directing a large public corporation, they were political insiders whose role on the Commission was little better than the Councillors who replaced them. The one difference is that they were not accountable. I will not go into the reasons behind the removal of the citizen members, but from what I have learned over time, this was entirely justified.

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  28. Did anyone take note of the fact that, according to the press reports, Giambrone allegedly divulged confidential TTC information to his girlfriend and that one of his mayor campaign advisors was Bombardier lobbyist Lecia Stewart? I really couldn’t care less about this egotistical juvenile’s sex life, but I do care about the company he keeps and his ability to keep confidential information truly confidential.

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  29. The media is having a field day. The national post has a breaking story that Giambrone has flown the coop with his girlfriend. The Toronto Star reports Giambrone ended his speech because he only had 1 page of a 2 page speech.

    Looks like the TTC should hire a feng shui master to change the chi. They certainly need it.

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  30. I’m trying it understand how people think it is OK about how he treated his partner – it sounded very sexist to me. He called her a prop.

    Women are not props.

    Anybody who thinks they can be has deeper issues that indicate a poor grasp of human relationships. As one of the bigger issues for the TTC right now is about human relationships, he isn’t good enough for the job as it currentlys sits.

    Giambrone doesn’t fit the personality needs of the TTC and should resign.

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  31. Steve, it also occurs to me that we do a disservice to the TTC by making Giambrone the fall guy. 85% of the TTC problems are the product of chronic underfunding from senior levels of government. It doesn’t matter if the TTC was chaired by Warren Buffet, Bill Gates or Jesus Christ – leadership isn’t going to change this fact.

    Those hostile or indifferent to transit (ie. mainly the right) have a vested interest in pretending that the TTC problems are simply issues of leadership. By serving up Giambrone’s head we risk feeding that narrative, and the province and feds can blithely continue to do lip service to proper funding levels for the TTC as we wait for Giambrone’s successor to also fail (since he/she will be as incapable of resolving the TTC’s problems with insufficient funding as Giambrone).

    Steve: It’s not a question of Giambrone’s head, but of the credibility of whoever is leading the organization to be able to handle difficult discussions with TTC management, staff, the public and the funding partners, and be trusted that he is telling the whole story and the same story to each one of them. Many of the current problems can be traced to TTC management and to the lack of real oversight, by the acceptance of what sounds good enough, by the Commission.

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  32. It’s Bill Clinton all over again in my opinion. Just because Giambrone couldn’t keep his pants does not mean that he is/was not a good Chairperson for the TTC and an inspiration for others in his age group to strive for success. His private life, especially in this case where no crime was committed, is none of our business.

    Personally, I hope he remains Chairman of the TTC.

    Steve: The issue has nothing to do with Giambrone’s pants. It’s his treatment of the people involved, and the repeated lying to his campaign team, the media and through them the public that destroy his credibility. How can he possibly negotiate anything when someone sitting across the table doesn’t know if he’s telling the truth and the whole truth? How can we regard transit initiatives, including those related to customer service, without second-guessing them as props intended to bolster a political agenda?

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  33. Why can’t any Toronto politician make the TTC’s state stick on the true cause: the province? That you can’t get that message to Toronto voters, when the facts are so clear cut about the poor funding, means you’re incompetent, no matter the number or the gender of the people you’ve sleep with, or even their age (and 19 is old enough to be legal, and vindictive).

    Steve: I’m never one to defend Queen’s Park, but funding is only part of the problem. What you do with that funding is another issue. The TTC, always happy to blame all its problems on external factors, uses Queen’s Park and even Ottawa. With a perception that the TTC wastes money through bad management and with a well-paid but surly workforce, this does not make a strong case for more handouts.

    If, for example, there is a problem with working conditions re breaks in shifts, the issue is to change the work practices. This may cost money (more operators to provide relief breaks), but that’s productively spent rather than simply giving everyone a raise to “compensate” for the breaks they still wouldn’t get.

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  34. I agree with Steve: Adam should immediately step down as TTC Chair.

    Adam has clearly lost his moral authority to lead the TTC: he lacks the character, trust, integrity needed to credibly lead and Chair the TTC, especially its 12,000 employees, through a major crisis of confidence with riders and should voluntarily resign or be replaced as Chair.

    It is not so much the personal sin of lust as his failure of character: his repeated lies and deception to The Star about his personal relationships (and his professional micro-management of the TTC) to further his Mayoral ambition: denying any personal responsibility for the TTC’s customer service woes and rider revolt; conveniently casting the blame solely on TTC Staff led by the very capable TTC CGM Gary Webster, one of the brightest, hardest-working, competent, apolitical individuals I have ever worked with—a true gentleman—that I cannot abide.

    Martha Stewart was jailed, not for insider trading but for obstruction of justice, i.e. lying about her stock trade activities and falsifying her records to a Grand Jury. It is not Adam’s infidelity but his repeated lies and deceptions about it that warrants a “time-out” from the TTC.

    Adam needs to focus on the personal life lessons learned the past few days, weeks and months as he sorts out his personal and professional future and works to rehabilitate his public image and to regain the public’s trust.

    Adam is a very bright, hard working, ambitious young man. To err is human. Martha Stewart bounced back and so can Adam—but only after a period of sincere introspection and contemplation.

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  35. “Steve: It’s not a question of Giambrone’s head…”
    “Steve: The issue has nothing to do with Giambrone’s pants …”

    OK, so we’ve narrowed it down to the torso then?

    Mayor Miller has now weighed in:

    I have confidence in chair Giambrone because the TTC is going through the most remarkable transformation in the history of this city.

    They’ve got the biggest increase in bus service – ever. They’ve got the highest ridership – ever. We’re replacing the streetcar fleet, we’re building Transit City, we’ve almost completely replaced the bus fleet and we’re replacing the subway car fleet. All of that and much more – customer service initiatives that started a couple of years ago are under chair Giambrone’s leadership.

    Do I have confidence in that leadership? I have confidence in that leadership because this transformation is unique.

    Obviously, the Commission may come to a different conclusion – but Miller’s passionate defence of the status quo would seem to quash OTerry’s interesting idea of Miller himself serving as TTC Chair.

    Steve: It’s particularly odd that the Mayor cites many initiatives that were his own doing. Transit City, after all, was part of his last election campaign, and Ridership Growth Strategy got its start while Miller was still a member of the TTC. Giambrone may be carrying the torch, but without Miller, these things wouldn’t have happened.

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