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12:13 a.m. - 2004-06-01
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We arrived at the office a bit early today, so there was time to organize my day, without a thousand demands and questions. Got the coffee on and tried to login to the computer. No luck and it stayed that way until about 2 in the afternoon. Discussion the night before about all the weaknesses in planning and communication among teams lead to a team meeting this morning. The focus was on co-ordination of the teams, the sharing of information and expertise, and the commitment to ensure our workforce reflected the make up of our community. Respect for other people's time and resources also figured large. The word sharing had to be emphasized quite strongly, with the emphasis on the fact that all the players in the event had the same right to access and use of the tools we have. it did not sit well with some of the managers, but their choice is to accept that as part of their terms of employment or quit.

I called Elections Canada several times about the problems technology - or the lack of access to it in terms of the low number of computers and no connection to our intranet - was posing. Then there was a call from the local rep - they were going to be in observing in my office today. Not. I told her that until the resources I needed to do my job properly were received from EC, I wasn't accommodating any of their requests for access. I also told her that any requests for information about the work being done in the office be directed to me - not other staff. I don't like or trust people who feel it is ok to sneak around behind my back and that is how it felt. That was probably frustration talking, but I shouldn't have to run my office and staff 24 hours per day in order to ensure we can cover off all the extra work we have. I noted that I felt I was being set up to fail by that withholding of basic tools to get the job done and allowed that I would consider shutting down the office completely, if the promised support was not provided. That got a call from the head of the revision team in Ottawa back to me within a very short period of time. The five no's I had heard with regard to my requests finally became yesses. I shouldn't have to beg or threaten to carry out the very fundamental tasks to ensure a democratic society like this. I also got a call from the head of IT who apologized for the lack of access. I know that they have the same problems with respect to looking after me as I have looking after my staff's needs, but there is a point where one simply has to take a stand. I've reached it earlier than usual because of all the problems we had to deal with in the past week.

A lot more hiring and training going on today. There had been significant information go missing with respect to the most qualified workers - the city census takers. It turned up shortly after the team meeting earlier in the day. The person who had done the interviewing was the one now responsible to get people out going door to door and she had been as stymied by it as me. Once we "found it" it speeded that work up considerably and brought about the balance in hiring people who were more reflective of the makeup of our communities. Not only has that information gone missing, but the day books of the two people who are looking after our technology have also disappeared in addition to some key training material.

The one person who is really resisting the change has been trying to keep any person not of the same background as her off all the computers. She has done everything in her power to diminish their role and the importance of their tasks and literally tried to force them into a back room on their own. She may find she doesn't have a space left for herself, if it doesn't stop immediately. I moved the new office co-ordinator I've hired into her office this afternoon, after giving her her first assignments, so that the person causing the trouble's focus on shutting others out should now be on how she is going to change her behaviour to fit in with the make up of the office staff. At least that is how I hope she will approach it. There was a passive resistance by her to everything that was implemented today and it is apparent that a couple of the other staff are taking their lead from her. In those people's cases however, they seem to be basing it on the misinformation she had been feeding them about the hiring criteria and policies we have to follow around confidentiality and the like. For example where I had wanted a listing of each language an applicant spoke so that we can provide the translation services Elections Canada has committed to, she had changed my directions to "just provide the number of languages spoken" without reference to which. It meant, for example, that one person who I had directed to have a group ready for training by tomorrow opted not to follow through. That means my trainer's time isn't being properly utilized. ARggh.

On the positive side, I did finish off all the work I needed to do for my printer, the supplies I ordered last week finally arrived, the inventorying that we had done was finally faxed off to Ottawa, three of the candidates were finally contacted to ensure they came by to pick up their material, the alterations to the geo database are underway, and the procees we are going to use to get the Voter Information Cards has been fully developed and implemented in anticipation of the printer's delivery of our materials. I traded information and materials with three other Returning Officers and we vented as was necessary to each other.

I also spent a couple of hours with my trainer tonight though working through the lesson plans, tightening up the presentation and ensuring that the problems that regularly crop up are addressed before they occur. We still have a couple of hours to go to get everything as clear as I want it. It was funny in that she was the one to bring up the strangeness of the behaviour of the people who are doing the recruiting and the one registration person. I didn't think it would be that obvious to someone who is outside the day to day operation of our office, but one of her first questions to me when she arrived on site after finishing her regular job was "what is going on?"

As it happened I almost didn't get to spend anytime with her either. My number two son had stopped by around six pm. After being tied up with more questions yet, he said he hadn't eaten yet because he had come straight from his work to this work. I allowed that I needed to get out since I still hadn't had time for a break and hadn't eaten all day either. I gave my assistant my cell phone number and told him to call me if he wasn't certain about something.

Half an hour later as we were walking back in the office, I realized that one of the candidates and his people were just saying good bye to my assistant - all very chummy. I said hello and asked what the occasion was. "Well I just filed my nomination papers don't you know." Well wait a minute - the only person who can receive and authorize them is this girl - do I have a doppleganger hiding in the backroom? "Well no your assistant looked after it." "He can't sign anything related to that and I'm not going to unless I have a look at what each of you has done" "Well we want it right now" "Unless you follow the process set down by law in the Elections Act, nothing is going to be approved and you now have several documents to fix because you tried to force the issue" On it went with them claiming they had called me several times at home with the number Elections Canada had given them - Elections Canada does not give out our home numbers. "Well we have been calling someone's home who lists your name and you didn't respond so we have to do it this way." As I've noted earlier I don't like or trust people who lie to me or try to sneak around behind my back. They are now scheduled to file their papers in the morning and they had better be flawless - no more games. Right?

When I asked my assistant why he hadn't called me on my cell phone as directed, he said he thought he was handling it very well. Breaking the most stringent rules with respect to dealing with candidates is not "handling it well". What surprises me most is that when the nominations were processed last time, he was witness to what happens when the candidates don't comply with the legislation. We had to work with the RCMP for a long time after to gather all the evidence so the police could later pursue it. Why me lord?

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