Random Access

Architect Edward Jones once explained that the podium where citizens stand to address council at the Mississauga Civic Centre was strategically placed at the exact physical centre of the council chambers to symbolize that the voice of the Mississauga citizen is at the very centre of civic discourse in this city.
Wonderful image.
Difficult sell though - especially to those who have stood at that spot and received a less-than-civil welcome from the politicians who sit arrayed in front of them on the council dais.
After the $2.5 million in renovations to the third floor which the public will get its first peek at tonight, that striking metaphor will need a small asterisk beside it.
As part of the municipal makeover, the podium at which the public makes delegations has been moved forward a couple of feet.
Instead of having room for just one deputant at the lectern, the podium now has three stations, including a lower one intended for use by citizens in wheelchairs. For the first time since the building opened in 1987, the public speaking post is fully accessible to all Mississauga’s citizens.
Ken Owen, the City’s director of facilities and property management, explains that the project encompassed a number of needed upgrades, which were prompted by the need to add two more councillors’ offices on the third floor.
The public will notice a few changes. When there is a problem with the sound system and the mayor gets that familiar quizzical look on her face and stares up towards the back of the chambers looking for someone to pillory, the A/V guys will be closer at hand. The top of the escalator cavern that divides the chamber has been bridged over at the top, making the technicians a better target.
Those huge, irksome screens that used to be lowered over the doors at the sides of the chambers for video presentations and forced one to crane one’s head to see them, are gone. They are now behind the council dais so the audience can see them clearly while looking straight ahead.
Councillors won’t have to scurry into the audience to see the presentations either. A new computer screen system will allow them to see them at their desks.
The vote management system also shows who has pushed the button to speak and provides a chronological roster of speakers for each item. Do you suppose they can program it so that councillors can speak only once to an issue, as the rules suggest, or so that an alarm sounds when the allotted time for bafflegab has been breached?
The most nettlesome thing about the chambers has always been the Great Wall of Mississauga down the middle. The walls of the escalator pit prevented anyone sitting on one side of the chambers from seeing anyone on the other side.
“That was a key issue,” said Owen. The solid wall has been reduced in size by half. It could not be lowered further because it is a structural element.
A glass panel has been erected on the top half of the former wall.
“It works as well as we can make it work,” says Owen.
Pity the first deputant who gets out of line with our hockey-loving leader. He just might find himself not only plastered against the boards and/or glass, but subject to Coach’s Corner analysis on the big screen between periods of the council meeting.