Katz was wise to avoid vote on selling golf courses

DEAR EDITOR,

Re: Golf course boondoggle is par for Katz (July 21). I am well-acquainted with Brian Kelcey, and also with the two public officials whom he would have endure his vitriol and calumny. His remarks about the public golf courses may have merit but suffer from his pretentiousness in claiming the answers to his own questions.

Mayor Sam Katz, I believe, was wise in avoiding a vote on selling some of the courses, knowing that a two-thirds majority was not likely at city council. Better to revisit the issues in a more focused manner in the next session than to lose the motion and be saddled with an omnibus and negative attitude.

No doubt we will hear again about some of the city-owned courses, perhaps one at a time. And maybe public opinion will support a change of use to greater productivity when a clearer picture of, say, the Winnipeg Canoe Club course is presented. And maybe we will have a picture that is not coloured by a floodgate of arguments that claim the loss of all of our green space.

To propose a line of definitive statements derived from a poll that asked questions of an uninformed public is manipulative and misleading. Why Kelcey would have asked Probe Research to ask whether Winnipeggers would support new uses for golf courses is not stated. But he does claim the results were supportive of change. Indeed, his words are, "So, yes, there was a plurality of support to build on," whatever that means.

What he avoids is referring to specific golf courses, and thus doesn't confront the antipathy of those who currently enjoy living near a golf course.

Instead, he moves to the conclusion the real problem is: "Neither Katz nor chief administrative office Phil Sheegl have shown much interest in building -- or in this case, maintaining -- public support for anything" (thus my use of the word calumny above).

What is Kelcey writing about? Is it the need to find new residential land in old neighbourhoods, or is his intent merely to trash his old employer?

City councillors do not like to be confronted by constituents who threaten organized opposition. Better to diffuse such concerns before a vote is called for. It may be, as Kelcey claims, that "months passed" and "seasons turned" and all we heard was "we have a process."

But we also heard protests and concerns and encountered confusion among voters who asked for more detail, and perhaps we now have a better gauge of what needs to be done to answer those concerns. Is that not the job of our public officials, such as the mayor and the CAO? There is no need to sink to name-calling and then claim to know better how a politician should act. And, incidentally, Kelcey neglected to compliment Coun. Scott Fielding on his hard and useful work on the file.

HART MALLIN

Winnipeg

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 24, 2012 A11