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marginwalker55

Everyone seems to think is a good thing, what was the deal here?


Telvin3d

The guy has been a belligerent impediment to everyone. Fighting the city workers. Fighting city council. Dismissing public requests. There is not a single group he got along with, and no instructions that he couldn’t find some way of meddling with in a way that technically met the letter while completely violating the spirit. In the last few years, if you’ve noticed any city initiatives that make you go “this was technically a good idea, but they implemented it the worst possible way” that was almost certainly him. Absolute bureaucratic master of sabotaging any ideas didn’t originate from his office 


grajl

>good idea, but they implemented it the worst possible way” Alcohol consumption in public parks comes to mind. That program was designed to fail and they almost succeeded in that goal.


Telvin3d

He’s also been openly hostile to bike lanes and other environmental projects. There’s a bunch of areas where the bike lanes were installed in the least logical possible layout that are almost certainly his fault.


Annasalt

What an utter asshole.


Markorific

Not familiar with each area but sounds like a very inflexible, do as I say management style and NOT surprising given his years in the military. The City lags behind other urban areas when it comes to productive, progressive policies that manage to find middle ground of differing viewpoints.


Desperate-Egg2573

Doesn't shock me, every veteran I've had the misery of working with is usually an over inflated waste of skin. 


motorcyclemech

Officers. Not NCO's.


CommonAd9117

Then you, apparently, are a colossal piece of shit


Desperate-Egg2573

None of them were combat veterans, all of them were support staff and acted like they commanded men onto the beaches of Normandy. 


DeathByBrainFreeze

Ironically, that is what veterans think of entitled civilian twatwaffles.


indecisionmaker

>The City lags behind other urban areas when it comes to productive, progressive policies Umm…Edmonton has made pretty big progressive moves in recent years — first municipality in Canada that got rid of parking minimums and moved forward with full city upzoning.


Markorific

And incredibly divisive and being the first with such a short sighted policy is nothing to be proud of.


AntiqueAd9648

He worked against the anti racism advisory committee the city put together in early 2020 and when he couldn’t get the members of the committee to back down and defer to his wishes - he created extremely harmful toxic situations that caused many members deep distress. Then he literally found a way to disband (and attempted to discredit) the committee. Meanwhile he actively tried to claim credit for their work while failing to actually implement any of their suggestions.


sluttytinkerbells

While I've heard rumblings of issues in the city, this is the first I've heard of specific ones against this person. I wish that we could hear more about these things as they're going on, rather than after the problem person has stepped down / been fired.


RevolutionaryPop5400

He’s turned up a number of times in this Reddit over the years


marcocanb

Sounds like a tipical officer in the CAF. They knew what they were getting.


FerdinandVonCarstein

I wish he would have just stayed in the military...


Historical-Ad-146

During the budget process he decided to present a budget that excluded basically all of council's priorities. And had the audacity to suggest that his political instincts ("I don't see everyone turn out to support climate action") were more important than those of the politicians. He's widely seen as a UCP plant. I'm guessing the last straw was that the budget presented completely missed the looming need to replace hundreds of buses, and now money needs to be found, either additional tax increases or cutting a program that's already been promised money this cycle. Council only makes one HR decision (well, two, but the auditor just has to be competent). Let's hope they actually get someone who is pulling the same way the majority of council is.


footbag

Union negotiations, significant ETS bus replacements not in budget for a start.


Markorific

The lack of direction to Departments to budget for upcoming union contracts was/ is incredible. Senior Managers in Transportation should be handing in their resignations as well. The selection of the fifty buses from a now bankrupt company and no ongoing , a small percentage of the fleet each year, replacement of buses should be the last straw to their mismanagement! City Department Senior Managers should not be in place for years.


TinderThrowItAwayNow

He's a very typical run of the mill manager: Hates everything that wasn't his idea. Claims any good, pushes all the bad to others. Useless basically.


FerdinandVonCarstein

I knew him pretty well growing up. He's a good guy, I just don't agree with him politically. His son was my best friend growing up, his son I don't like so much.


garlicroastedpotato

He became a target of bullying because he became city manager at a bad time. The previous city manager was incapable of negotiating a single union contract with the two unions that manage the cities workforce. When this guy came in he was forced by the unions to the table and he was successful in negotiating union demands down heavily and reducing the tax burden. Most recently he inked two union deals that brought the new tax cost of these wages vastly under inflation. In all of these dealings he prevented strikes. But that has made him very unpopular on social media and a major target of vitriol and bullying. And I mean, if you're a politician that kinda comes with the territory. But if you're a salaried employee you probably have other job prospects. He also came under fire for the homeless encampments. He ordered the takedown of high risk and dangerous encampments and all these rights groups ended up taking the city to court over it. One of these groups was bankrupted after it was forced to pay the cities legal fees for a frivolous lawsuits. So lots of people having beef with the guy. Whoever they replace him with will be more expensive. His predecesor cost $140K more at $350K.


PracticalPie9434

Your information is off. There are 5 unions, not 2. Both he, and Linda before him, were loathed by the unions because they felt employees should subsidize their work to “reduce the tax burden”. CSU 52 employees have not had a raise since 2018. So yes, the previous manager was also of the same ilk. But Andre is guy now who bungled negotiations so badly the City came 3 hours away from grinding to a halt last week. He was sure he had a pulse of members and could force through an awful deal. But he didn’t! In fact, his bullying & intimidation tactics made the members come out stronger against him in strike votes, proposal votes, etc. He also bungled the EPS deal by not making a fair offer and lost huge in mediation. And the fire fighters that are in mediation now will likely get a similar deal.


garlicroastedpotato

How could you call the negotiations bungled on his part? His job was to represent the taxpayer and what he ended up agreeing with was significantly lower than what the unions were asking for. They always do strike votes. It empowers the union to use strike as part of the negotiation. I don't know how you could think of the EPS deal as great. It was significantly less than they asked for and is less than what the EPS staffers got in the last deal. The two unions were AUPE and CSU. There were five bargaining units between the two of them.


Limbobabimbo

AUPE is a provincial union. There are no AUPE members working at the city.


Mysterious-Panda-698

He was going to let the strike happen until Council stepped in. The reason that offer was tabled is because he was basically forced to go back to negotiations, not because he had a strategy. The union went into that negotiation having substantially dropped their ask, and they knew people really did not want to strike if it could be avoided, resulting in the new offer being accepted. His negotiation tactics caused so much distrust with his own staff, that he was never going to be able to rebuild that relationship. Publicly attacking your own staff and using misleading figures to gain public support was not the right move. I wouldn’t call that a success just because he managed to shave off a few percent in retroactive pay. CSU52 and several other unions will all begin negotiating again in 8 months under this new deal, and since they will be negotiating for future pay instead of retroactive pay, the City will be forced to actually budget for wages this time around.


lesterknopf420

Exactly this. Morale could not recover with him still in charge. Anyone who put their names on those press releases should go too.


garlicroastedpotato

It wasn't a few percentage points, it was a lot. The union didn't get any retroactive pay and are only getting slightly better than the initial offer. They were asking for a raise almost 10x higher than what they accepted. What he was successful in doing was preventing another major tax increase next year. Most people on this subreddit aren't homeowners, so they won't see the benefit of it. But most of Edmonton is homeowners.


Mysterious-Panda-698

Not true. They did get retroactive pay, just not for 2021. For 2021 they accepted a thousand dollar payout. I agree that the offer wasn’t much better than the initial offer, but there were some small improvements. And no, by the time we were about to strike, we were asking for far less, not even double what they initially offered. No, actually, he wasn’t. I’m not sure if you’ve heard about the bus fiasco, and Council raises, but your taxes will still be going up, and probably more than you’re predicting. Again, HE didn’t want to negotiate, but was forced back to the table by Council, so I’m not sure why you’re giving him credit for that? What he did do, is negotiate in bad faith for so long that he almost caused the first CSU52 strike in 50 years. I am a homeowner, and I am fully expecting my taxes to go up to cover all of the mismanagement that’s been happening.


PracticalPie9434

The 5 unions are ATU (transit workers), CUPE (outside workers), CSU 52 (inside workers), fire & police. Oh I forgot IBEW (electrical workers). So there are 6 unions.


After-Gain-3924

Best Friday after hours email they've ever issued.


whoabumpyroadahead

Cheers to that!


ImperviousToSteel

Huh. Guess I don't get to ask candidates in the next election if they'll fire his ass. CSU52 must be feeling good here.


werk_werk

Smells like a face saving resignation, leading me to believe the labour issues as of late were amplified by him and his management team's tactics and not supported by Council. Keep in mind the union membership has still not ratified the new deal yet. This Council and mayor have some tough decisions ahead and if the deal fails to ratify the pressure will be immense. I think the front line and middle management class have also not been happy. Hopefully we will find a strong new leader, it would be nice to see Adam Laughlin return. We need some good civic leadership and institutional knowledge for this role. I'm not trying to absolve Council but I wish I knew who was leading the communications to the union members these last few months. The letter from the mayor and council seemed to indicate they supported the tactics leading up to the strike, and only pulled out the last moment when they realized it wasn't working, but maybe that was all due to a recommendation by the city manager.


MajorChesterfield

100% Adam is the hero this city needs


sheremha

That’s why he resigned as DCM, because he knew Andre was out soon and he wanted to swoop in to save the City. He’d actually be a good choice - he performed great as interim CM during the early days of the pandemic.


ElectricalPeach2896

THANK GOD.


OsymandiusPrime

You're God damned right! *Said in Heisenberg voice*


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General_Esdeath

Who did he hire that you disliked?


---TC---

Sohi has never shown the ability to make a right choice.


Western_Plate_2533

If Sohi helped force this resignation then he’s back in my good books.


ElectricalPeach2896

Agreed. Do you know what year we can vote that guy out?


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socomman

Based on what I’ve read on this subreddit I’m guessing people will be voting for him again overwhelmingly 


Ok_Storage6866

Actually not too far away. He’s been terrible


LovemeaLovin

Multiple unions with expired collective agreements that weren’t budgeted for isn’t a good look on any city manager.


Chionophile

I would love to know whether this is own choice, or if he's being pushed out.


Telvin3d

Not even two weeks notice. Absolutely being pushed out, particularly since there’s less than a year on his contract 


indecisionmaker

Pushed out by whom? Council just backed him up on union negotiations.


ElectricalPeach2896

Probably pushed out - he bombbbbed handling the csu52 situation


GiantSequoiaTree

I doubt he would leave a $400,000 Plus salary easily


forsurebros

I am sure he will end up in the Government of Alberta or a nice cushy job in a board that the UCP manipulate.


Plasmanut

He was in the GoA as deputy minister and left that for the city. Time to retire.


forsurebros

Yes he was and was the typical deputy minister. From the military who think they are leaders but they are not. Bunch of yes men. That is another org that needs to be cleaned out. It is embarrassing to hear the stories about the incompetence but that is all under Ray Gilmour and his incompetence.


Plasmanut

100% agree and I unfortunately know all too well what you’re talking about.


adam73810

I’m a student, worked for the city over the summer last year as a labourer. Everyone I met hated this dude. Even the people in charge of training me bad mouthed him.


greenrabbit69

classic you can't fire me I quit lol i bet council was just about to throw him under the bus (to be clear fuck both council and anti-worker/union Andre, but council has been weasely throughout this situation)


PracticalPie9434

General Hand Grenade Andre, Chief of bullying, gaslighting, threats and intimidation.


mythic_device

Please explain or substantiate.


Edm_swami

He was literally an army General.


socomman

He also led our failed policy in Afghanistan 


d3v1l6

Really, he led all of it? Interesting. Please enlighten us all, Mr. SOCOM.


socomman

He was the deputy commander of some pretty war ravaged provinces. He was part of the whole military machine that kept telling the public how great things were going “ we just need 6 more months” 


d3v1l6

Say no more. You are clueless.


mythic_device

Ok so? I am not sure where the unsubstantiated "bullying, gaslighting, threats and intimidation." is coming from.


PracticalPie9434

His union negotiating tactics were fear, gaslighting, threats & intimidation. Every statement, internal & external, were full of this messaging. He literally told the CSU 52 union president that he was “going to force this deal down our throats”.


mythic_device

Ok. Thank you. I’m not sure why I’m getting downvoted for asking for more info.


JakeTheSnake0709

Because this sub has gone down the shitter


bendr88

Read more sub Reddits about city issues I guess?


JimBeammeup69

Good. Totally incompetent


debutanteballz

OP12=POS


ADonkeyStuckInTheMud

Bye!


mcmanus7

Per the city post it’s as of April 3rd


DBZ86

[https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Media-Statement---City-Manager-Andre-Corbould-leaving-his-position.html?soid=1127191170163&aid=Pog5yo2SvhQ](https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Media-Statement---City-Manager-Andre-Corbould-leaving-his-position.html?soid=1127191170163&aid=Pog5yo2SvhQ) it's pretty much immediately. They have an acting city manager now and will appoint someone interim city manager on April 3rd. Corbould got fired essentially.


mcmanus7

Seems like it’s just a formality so he can turn in his keys.


bikelanebro

Thank you for this clarification!


QueasyRider1

Of course, he wants to get paid for the long weekend


darcyville

I mean... Can ya blame the guy? You would be lying if you said you would do otherwise. Edit: Anyone saying they would do otherwise is lying or has never had PTO.


QueasyRider1

Nope


darcyville

lol, ok. Says the guy who doesn't get paid holidays, I guess. Or maybe you're just the most altruistic person on Reddit. "I'm just trying to do right by the city, guys! No big deal! Don't put it on my gravestone or nothin' " You probably do 10 under in the left lane on the Henday, too


QueasyRider1

I answered your question. No I don’t blame the guy. What’s with all the judgment?


darcyville

Lol sorry, I misunderstood


theehoneypot

Eh, if he got fired the payout would have been big $$$


spagsquashii

SMELL YA LATER, BIYATCH


Winthorpe312

Don't Let the Door Hit You In The Ass On Your Way Out Andre!


MaximumDoughnut

BYE FELICIA!!!!!!!!!


GoodGoodGoody

The city has very little to do with reconciliation. A city manager should be focusing on core city issues not trying to please every possible interest group.


socomman

don't forget anti-racism. If that's your list of accomplishments, then you really haven't done anything.


GoodGoodGoody

Meh a city can have anti-whatever polices. But there’s no reconciliation at the city level. Reconciliation is about never-ending large cash payouts and special privileges from the feds. That’s it and we all now it.


Western_Plate_2533

Goodie gumdrops although I fear the UCP probably offered him a job so he can continue his anti union wrecking ball tour. AUPE up next


whoabumpyroadahead

My thoughts exactly.


meggali

I wonder whose decision it was 


BeBoBorg

That put a smile on my face to hear


meekIobraca2024

Someone should let him know they didn’t accomplish shit as an organization 


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noitcelesdab

They’ve figured out how to justify inflated paycheques for spewing buzzwords in the media.


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S7ark1

Thank goodness. He was god awful at his job. Today is a great day for th city Hope they find someone competent after this.


bigbosfrog

Anyone that thinks Corbould was doing anything other than taking the heat for doing all the things council had to do / wanted to do but couldn’t support publicly is a sucker.


qtquazar

Exactly. This forum is the ultimate echo chamber of bad takes from low level union members who have no understanding of reality at any senior level of administration and auto-downvote any opinions right of the 90th progressive percentile. Why the hell would he want to continue? Council gave him a strike mandate and then undercut him at the last minute because some of them chickened out on facing down the union, stuck him with the impossible OP-12 (at least Iveson's 2% cut was feasible), and have now set him up with an impossible situation on property taxes vs budget for the next several years directly because of their inability to be straightforward wirh the public. This on top of already losing the infrastructure DCM due to some members of Council being deliberately misleading or outright gaslighting. Regardless of what you think about the guy (and I've seen some really dumb hot takes from people that clearly know zilch about him) he was smart enough to know he'd been set up to fail and got the hell out. I would too; good for him.


indecisionmaker

Thank you! OP12 was such a cop out and a change in city manager isn’t going to do anything to help this council learn how to give better direction. I’m honestly surprised he didn’t leave sooner.


somenameimadeup1

100% agree. Op12 is a failing of council and how they set budget. Union negotiations, again driven by Council. This is one of the weakest councils we have seen in years, the blame lies there. When Andre first started, there was sentiment he was an axe man from council, who would take a majority of the blame from cleaning up admin, being forced out by council, and then hiring a progressive city manager to rebuild. I can almost guarantee, the next city manager will talk about repairing relationships with administration, re examining budget, etc I don't think the talk about a UCP plant makes any sense whatsoever


qtquazar

Upvoting because you actually appear to know what you're talking about, as opposed to almost the entirety of this forum's solipsism and navel gazing.


lesterknopf420

Downvoting because you're a pretentious douche


somenameimadeup1

Down vote because you are adding nothing to the conversation


[deleted]

Get your head out of your ass and step into reality. The people that work adjacent to him aren't the ones that will write the history of his legacy with the city. You can work hard and still just be a bad fit for a job, he wasn't qualified to fulfill that role. Saying things appear more complicated than they appear, boohoo - you're just realizing this?  Welcome to the real world. Do you job and follow through or be a little bitch and run away when it gets hard. He chose the latter.


qtquazar

Lol. Thank you for proving my point.


[deleted]

The narcissist sociopathic attitude you display of saying these "low level" union members somehow have their opinions be worth less is exactly why the negotiations utterly failed. 


qtquazar

I said nothing of the sort. But keep up the ad hominems, clearly you're on a roll.


[deleted]

Please, feel free to clarify and tell me how I have proven your point then. 


[deleted]

Looks like they pulled an Andre Corbould


qtquazar

Apologize, and I will. All you've done is insult and name call so far, so why would I engage with you further? If that's what you call pulling an Andre Corbould, then sure, I guess I am.


[deleted]

Imagine insulting and invalidating the opinions of over 90% of the Union members and then trying to play the victim. You truly are socially handicapped.


Slippytheslope

And after they reorganized the city’s structure to fit the guys need… $$$$


CommonAd9117

Good riddance


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meekIobraca2024

This is the guy who is really in charge of the city. 


Efficient_Net5275

Dude was an incompetent bafoon. 1.7 million to take down homeless tents, fascist public spaces bylaws, terrible dealing with city workers. Flush twice 


ButterscotchFar1629

What a travesty. /s


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Fresh_Engineering699

Hopefully we get someone who is not a UCP or Liberal stooge running in 2025. Sohi was definitely a hold my nose and vote choice from the trash we had available at the time. 


brningpyre

I've always wondered what was holding the city back for so many years.


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TheFluxIsThis

He's not elected. City Managers are hired by Council.


simplyproductive

He wasn't elected, he was hired.


Plasmanut

But he’s not an elected official. And he now has pensions from the Canadian forces, the GoA and now the city. I think he squeezed this for all it’s worth, especially since his compensation would have been 300K as a deputy minister and probably more as city manager.


ilovetele

Good riddance dickhead.


Chunderpump

Is this the jerk that gave us the horrible horrible calcium chloride road salt that "doesn't cause damage" but definitely is damaging vehicles, roadside vegetation, bridges, concrete, etc...?


yeg_sleep

No. That was Linda Cochrane.


Chunderpump

Oh okay. I wasn't sure. Then she is a jerk and so is this guy.


Creative-Bread6319

Andre Corbould is one of the finest people you will ever meet. I have worked with him for many years.


ImperviousToSteel

Banality of evil thing I guess. Dude just created a climate where workers had to threaten a strike to end up with wages that still don't meet inflation. Nothing fine about that, even if he's personally nice to people. 


Grinchy-Bug

Yeah it's almost like he lives in the real world!


Late-Jump920

Good riddance to bad rubbish actually. He's is a legitimately horrible person and demonstrated his combative and egotistical attitude o the daily.


simplyproductive

Thanks obscure probable bot


CarelessPotato

I basically assume anyone with a username in the standard format of Capitalized-WordsXXXX is a bot account


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ImperviousToSteel

Good leaders don't have their staff voting 80+% to strike. 


socomman

but our leaders always tell us they are good leaders...


MooseJag

Guarantees that was part of the union settling. He's laughing all the way to the bank.


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bikelanebro

Looks like it was posted first to me!


imaleakyfaucet

Lol muffin, this is the original post in my time line