The city’s top manager says spending nearly $70,000 for 58 city directors and managers to attend a one-day seminar from Disney last year was money well spent.
The mayor is also defending the expense, stating he’s seen “lots of positive changes” after city staff attended the Disney Institute training session in Calgary titled “Disney’s Approach to Business Excellence.”
“The city manager manages the city. That’s his job,” Mayor Naheed Nenshi told reporters Monday.
“If we’re going to look at every single training program, every single thing that we do, every consultant that we hire just because it happens to say Disney and it’s fun to make Mickey Mouse puns, I don’t think that’s a particularly useful exercise for me.”
City manager Jeff Fielding said the Disney course, which was attended by city staff in January 2015, seven months after he started his post with the city, was devoted to intentional management.
“In order to get focus in an organization, to concentrate on the things that you need to be focussed on, you have to have a business model that you follow, that sets out what it is you’re trying to accomplish,” he said.
“So, Disney does that very well. Anybody who goes to visit their park knows exactly what they intentionally manage.”
Fielding said the course, which is offered through McMaster University, was his one big training expenditure in 2015.
The one-day course cost just under $70,000, according to the city, though that price doesn’t include other costs like meals attendees were provided.
“I think it was money well-spent,” Fielding said. “I’m conscious of the fact going forward I need to be able to create those opportunities again.”
Fielding said the course price was “negotiated hard,” and before committing to a Calgary seminar, two city staff were sent to Ontario to examine the Disney training. Fielding said he didn’t know how much the bill for that trip was.
The Disney course was sole-sourced because the cost of the course rang in at under $75,000, so the city wasn’t required to issue competitive bid opportunities for the teachings.
“I have no evidence whatsoever that there was anything inappropriate on one training session that happened a couple years ago. We do training all the time,” Nenshi said.
Fielding said the emphasis of the Disney program was about “focus and creating a culture of collaboration,” and city managers learned a lot at the training.
“What we’ve really tried to do is build a culture that’s collaborative,” he said.
“To be seen, by the public, working together as opposed to in isolated silos. We’re still working on that. We’ve made some significant changes.”
