Halfway through their four-year term, London’s mayor and 14 ward councillors are at the stage where they have to at least start thinking about their re-election chances for 2018. City hall reporter Patrick Maloney handicaps the Top 5 and Bottom 5 moments for council in 2016.

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THE TOP FIVE

1. Bus rapid transit

Council put the finishing touches on a $500-million proposal for a bus rapid transit system, shipping it off to Ottawa and Queen’s Park for a hoped-for infusion of $370 million to make it a reality.

This will be the biggest single project in London’s history and will take years to finish, but nothing would happen without council approving the blueprint. That was a big step.

2. Carding backlash

Lots of pontificating goes on in politics, but few speeches in recent memory at city hall can rival Coun. Mo Salih’s impassioned plea to demand London police stop street checks, also known as carding, a practice critics contend is arbitrary and racially biased.

Mayor Matt Brown backed him and council formally asked police Chief John Pare to end it.

Pare was unmoved.

After listening to the remarks by Salih, who is black, the chief would be in the minority.

Starting Jan. 1, Ontario is effectively banning carding as it’s often practised now, the random stopping and questioning of people not under arrest or investigation.

Police will have to tell people why their identifying information is sought and that they have a right not to provide it.

3. Transit subsidy

The good: Council found the money to let all kids age 12 and younger ride London Transit for free.

Until now, only children younger than five got on board at no cost.

The expanded program, echoing a recommendation from the mayor’s poverty task force, will cost about $150,000 annually.

Where is city hall finding the money?

Within existing budgets.

4. Integrity commissioner

After some delay, city council finally hired an integrity commissioner to police itself.

Gregory Stewart, a Goderich lawyer, has experience in the field but never in a large municipality. And mere weeks after his hiring, he was hit with a bombshell — examining the ethical implications of an affair between the mayor and a deputy mayor. Stewart acquitted himself well on a difficult file.

5. Budget harmony

It’s hard to get excited about a budget that forces the average Londoner to pay an extra $76 a year, but give council credit for approving in March London’s first multi-year budget, covering the years 2016 to 2019.

It calls for an average yearly tax hike of 2.82% per cent over that period and makes clear that the oft-tedious, time-consuming process of budget approval is now a quadrennial duty.

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THE BOTTOM FIVE

1. Mayoral tryst

Really, is there any doubt? The less that’s said about the affair between Mayor Matt Brown and then-deputy Mayor Maureen Cassidy, the better. But obviously the personal transgression — and the news conferences, the leaves of absence, the calls to resign — rocked city hall and were council’s low point. The real nadir was after the pair’s behaviour was ruled to be in breach of council’s code of conduct and their council colleagues gave them only a verbal reprimand as punishment, no unpaid suspension. Londoners were furious.

2. Light rail left behind

The $500-million proposal for a bus rapid transit system. (This is not a recording.) The problem with this plan is it drops the more expensive, and potentially transformative, light rail component bureaucrats and council initially eyed. As Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge builds its own light rail line, it will be years, maybe decades, before we know: Did London fall another step behind? Or sidestep a big, costly transit disaster?

3. Transit subsidy

The bad: During a budget update this month, Coun. Mo Salih and Coun. Phil Squire urged their colleagues to commit the money — possibly as much as $2 million — to give as many as 6,000 low-income Londoners a deep discount on their monthly bus passes. Council approved it, because it’s a great idea. Where will city hall find the money? Who knows? Council didn’t worry about that detail, a concerning departure for a fiscally responsible group.

4. Police budget showdown

The standoff with London police over their budget demands — it was essentially over $4 million spread over four years — ended badly for council, as the politicians ultimately agreed to give the cops what they wanted after a tense, months-long clash that was headed to an unprecedented provincial arbitration hearing. Council looked weak. Mayor Matt Brown and city manager Art Zuidema looked out of the loop. And taxpayers looked certain to be hit with more large annual increases to police spending.

5. Conspicuous absence

When Coun. Jared Zaifman suffered what he publicly called a concussion last spring, he was unable to go to work. By the fall, he’d missed three straight months of council meetings — which, under the Municipal Act, renders his seat vacant, sparking a likely byelection. But council gave him an apparently unlimited reprieve and he remains away, with no indication when he’ll return. How much longer should southeast Ward 14 be without a city councillor?

pmaloney@postmedia.com

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