After more than three months in office, the city has made little progress on top-priority items such as creating an official plan or a budget for 2001

Today is day 94 in the life of the new city of Ottawa. Next Tuesday Mayor Bob Chiarelli and council will pass the 100-day mark in our new city. South of the border, analysts focus on the first 100 days of a president's administration to judge its effectiveness, momentum and ability to implement a coherent mandate.

Closer to home, a few years back New Brunswick Progressive Conservative Leader (and now premier), Bernard Lord laid out a 200-day action plan with 20 concrete promises that would be implemented if he was elected. After 200 days, Mr. Lord had fulfilled 19 out of 20 of those promises. Talk about momentum and engendering confidence with your constituents.

So it is in this spirit that we evaluate the effectiveness of Mayor Chiarelli's first 100 days (yes I'm rounding up, get over it) in the big chair.

When Mayor Chiarelli was sworn in with his colleagues at the National Arts Centre on a cold Sunday back in early January he made it very clear that his top two priorities were to put the 2001 budget process in motion and work with council to define an official plan. On these two fronts progress has been, let's be generous, underwhelming.

Right now, council's timetable won't see the adoption of the 2001 budget until May. Turning to the official plan, a document to guide Ottawa's growth and development for decades to come is still a mere gleam in some city planner's eye. Most work on this document probably won't begin in earnest until a consensus emerges from the smart growth summit in June.

Just as an aside, when Mr. Chiarelli's opponent, Claudette Cain, honestly stated during last fall's campaign -- at one of their many debates -- that development of an official plan
would probably take 12 months, Mr. Chiarelli scolded her and said she was a "business as usual" candidate while he represented a more dynamic, take charge approach. In fact, on Page 11 of Bob Chiarelli's campaign document entitled Building a Better Future Together, he pledged to "immediately launch a process to create a new, unified official plan." Immediately... hmm?

If these two big-ticket items have been left on the table, taxpayers should rightfully ask, okay then, what has been accomplished over the past 100 days? Rest assured, your city
council has been hard at work. Who can forget its first act of business in January? Was it tackling the land ambulance problem? No. Was it discussing homelessness issues in the
heart of winter? No. Was it discussing our burgeoning landfills and the need for a long-term garbage strategy? No. In fact, council's first real act of business was to raise its office and staff budgets by $1.6 million, a 50% hike over the transition board's estimate.

In early February, the transition funding spat received council's undivided attention. The mayor and council told us the sky was falling and the development and growth could come to a halt if the province didn't pay the 75% transition tab as originally planned. To be fair, it was a blow. But after the dust had settled, the facts became clearer. The power to control the pace and costs of transition rests with council, not with the transition board which has long since disbanded.

And while the flurry and bluster of council and the mayor did belatedly attract the premier to Ottawa to account for his government's action, this short-term victory probably came at the expense of harmonious long-term co-operation between the city and Queen's Park.

Moving into March, severance packages for departing CAOs and other former municipal officials took hold. The hypocrisy of some councillors on this file was too much to take when they themselves had voted for the pay packages (some with guaranteed employment provisions) of their former bureaucrats.

So the first 100 days of council, has for the most part been a period of great headlines but no news. A time of destructive soundbites as opposed to constructive action. In a response to the Greater Ottawa Chamber of Commerce survey last fall (then known as the Ottawa Board of Trade), candidates were asked: "How will we know what progress you have made to effect positive change?" Candidate Chiarelli's response is noted as "propose citizens' committee to monitor progress." I guess with little progress, establishment of a committee at this point would be moot.

Of course, this is just my opinion. If you're upset about this state of affairs or you believe differently and think that the mayor and council are doing a good job (all things considered), you may want to drop by the mayor's office on April 20 and voice your displeasure or express your support.

According to Page 8 of his campaign platform, the third Friday afternoon of each month is for informal visits from community association representatives and members of the public.