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There has been much controversy at city hall during the past six month. First there was the coal tar issue, and then a direct spinoff â€" council secrecy â€" has been debated, with opposing sides rarel reaching a middle ground. â€" * The current threeâ€"year term of office for this council now heads into its final year. The Chronicle will interview councillors in alphabetical order to ensure fairness. Today, John Shortreed is featured, and the next councillor to nfpur on these pages will be Andrew Telegdi. John Shortreed, 50, has been in and out of the council chambers. After "sitting in ninth place" for two elections in the 1970s, Shortreed was appointed to counâ€" cil in 1979 when Waltemcl.ean left. He was defeated in the following election in 1981 by 29 votes, but was appointed again when Ald. Glen Wright left. Shorâ€" treed was elected in 1985. You have been quoted as saying that you don‘t read the local newspapers. Yet, for the time I‘ve been on council, you‘ve seemed to be the leading edge of reacting to news stories... A professor of civil engineering at University of Waterloo, Shortreed moved to Waterloo in 1964. He became involved in municipal committees two years later when he joined the nowâ€"defunct planning What I‘ve said, I think is that one time about two months ago, I did stop reading the papers. s on _ I tend to read them now, and I read them before, but for a period there about two months ago I stopped reading them. I don‘t think I‘m antagonistic (toward the media). I‘m concerned that the local media too often is not giving the backâ€" ground of the story. A typical example is they will start the report with the reaction to the report, the proposal, or whatever. They won‘t say what is in the proposal, so the public never quite knows what the proposal was. They certainly know what the reaction was. The (Toronto) Star, the (Toronto) Sun and the Globe (and Mail) will give the context of the story, and the main parts of the report, before they go into the reaction. The local media is not doing a very good job in terms of providing background information. Is there some event that crystallized this belief for you, or have you always felt this way toward the media? I wouldn‘t say it was anything in particular. It certainly varies by who the reporters are, and who the editors are, I guess, what else is on that day. I think with the media you expect some variation. As you know, when reporters do their job, they write so many stories per day. They are not going to get absolutely everything according to the facts. But I have noticed this pattern. How do you describe your methodology, your particular style on council? I would say my objective on council is to try and do what the majority of people in the city would feel would be best. This is what, as a councillor, we strive for: to understand what the issues are; underâ€" stand how these will impact people; try and figure out how people will react to this and then vote accordingly. Usually you ask a very small number of people what their response is. And if that coincides with yours, then you go forward If they are different, then you have to think it through and ask a few more people. You have sometimes been portrayed as the spokesperson of the "old guard" on council. Do you see yourself in that role at all? You don‘t see a tendency on council to a 5â€"3 vote split? How do you gauge where people are on I don‘t even see these groups you‘ve I think that there are a group of individuals on council. Those people approach issues as individuals and there certainly are votes of 9â€"0, there are votes of 5â€"4, 6â€"3, 7â€"2 and votes of 8â€"1. And I think if you examine them closely, you‘ll find out that the people in a minority position or a majority position vary. Sometimes they are groups of one set of individuals, sometimes they are groups of other individuals. I really think that the designations, if you look back on it, is something that has been named by the press. To have a group, you‘d have individuals getting together to decide which position they will take on an issue. I don‘t think it works that way. Individuals come to council on a Monday night, they listen to reports, they consider the different points of view, they consider the delegations before them, and they come to a concluâ€" sion of what their vote is going to be. I am not aware of any groups that meet before council to plan their strategy. John Shortreed sees his style on council as reflecting his training as a professional engineer. ‘‘‘You tend to have a logical and somewhat unemotional approach to issues...‘""", he said. lan Kirkby photo Certainly. Waterloo is one of the most progressive municipalities in Ontario in many areas. It has been for the 22 years I‘ve been in town. In adult recreation programs for seâ€" niors there‘s a leadership position in the province. In licensing of student accomâ€" modation and fire prevention in student accomodation, there‘s a leadership posiâ€" tion. In the whole area of bringing the public into the decisionâ€"making process for the major expenditures the city makes. The goals and objectives process we‘re clearly in a leadership position with that. We‘re also leaders in the whole area of community involvement, community serâ€" vices and recreation. We have consistentâ€" ly very strong representation of repreâ€" sentative teams in the province â€" people running things like baseball tournaâ€" ments, hockey tournaments. It‘s not unusual that when the world junior Do you think council is still effective? City potential a challenge for John Shortreed Council Profile figure skating championship, that when the host country cancelled at the last minute, the only place in the world where they could come and run a world champiâ€" onship in that short a time was Kitchenâ€" erâ€"Waterloo. There‘s a tremendous kind of leaderâ€" ship in that whole field of community activities and volunteer activities. Can you see areas where Waterloo needs to catch up? Certainly. For the obvious ones, you only have to look at our capital program to see where we‘re catching up. _ We have been growing at about three to four per cent a year, which next to Mississauga, is about the top in Canada. So, any municipal service will sometime require additions. Recent additions are obvious â€" the new city hall required more space. The library required more space. The fire service will require another station. In recreation facilities, we require another arena. We need more cricket fields, we need more soccer fields, we require more baseball diamonds. And as the growth continues, we will continue to need these additions. What are you most proud of from the years you‘ve contributed on council? I started in 1966 as a member of the Waterloo Planning Board. Believe it or not, in those days we added more houses than we do today. We added upwards of 1,400 houses a year. The present rate is about 1,000 plus apartments. What struck me about Waterloo is this sense of community. This feeling that if there‘s something for the community that‘s important, people will volunteer for the community, they‘ll pitch in and make it happen. I guess the thing that‘s given me the most pleasure is that 22 years later, the city is almost 21/2 times the size that it was and that sense of community is still there. That ability, that if we want to do WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 16, 1987 â€" PAGE 5 nnothinc,vn'llrtonwithitanddoit. It‘s there. I have lived in at least four or five other communities for significant periods of time, and I‘ve never seen my:‘l’un( like this anywhere else in the world. Are you in favor of a ward system for municipal elections? I took a position seven or eight years ago in favor of a split ward system â€" four councillors from wards and six atâ€"large. Today, I would say my ition is 100 per cent with whatever tr:referendum would say. I think that an individual position of a councillor on this issue really doesn‘t mean too much. A ward system is an electoral process for the population, it‘s their process. If I have a say in it, I‘d really want to reflect what they want. Do you have any political party affilia tions? No. I‘m very concerned that 1 not be associated with any party while I am on council. I don‘t even tell my wife which party I voted for (laughs). I guess it‘s the opportunities that I see in Waterloo. We‘re fortunate to live in one of the richest countries in the world, we‘re fortunate to live in the richest province, and I think we‘re fortunate to live in one of the best communities. We have in addition this sense of community. And we have ideas which come from people at the university, ideas which come from people in business. We derive a tremendous benefit from conâ€" tinued immigration â€" from Germany, from South America, from the area of Cambodia and Vietnam. This continued immigration and the ideas these people have. We have in addition a very good city staff. We have the benefit of having an interest in council, of having good people run for council. You just have to look at the programs that are in place for the next five years. Imagine for a minute five years from now. Uptown Waterloo with a large park in the middle, it will have parking so that you can get there. It will have many new buildings, have some old buildings. We‘ll see continued growth of the art galleries, we‘ll have the Seagram‘s Museum, we‘ll have the clay and glass museum, there‘s another museum in the works, there‘s talk of a couple of the museums at the university moving down. The Globe Furniture building which the city owns could see an activity associated with retail, small shops, crafts, commercial. We‘ll have the recreation complex with the leisure pool. There may or may not be a hotel and regional headquarters in Uptown Waterloo. In addition, there will be pathways, green connections where people can walk or bike, leading out to the neighborhoods. And the neighborhoods will go from the adâ€"hoc community councils they have now to something which is perhaps more formalized. We have a tremendous opporâ€" tunity to put a lot of plans in place, there‘s a lot happening, and it will be a very very attractive place to live in the future, as well as it is now. Personally, I enjoy council because, for instance the other night Woldemar Neufeld said he was honored that the city of Waterloo, which he came to as a small person, would display his paintings and put them in the old Carnegie Library. That same night we honored disabled athletes, we honored waterskiers. You have to have a good feeling when you see what a great community it is that we live in. That you have a small opportunity to contribute to that community to help things along. _ Having said that, the work load is increasing and I find it increasingly difficult with my regular job to make the time available. If the election were held tomorrow, I would not be a candidate today. I have found out that you don‘t want to say what is going to happen in six months time. In six months it may be different, who knows? Does that mean you are considering not running again? Is there anything you‘d like to add? Do you still enjoy council?