I wonder what keeps Mayor Mandel’s head from exploding.

I don’t always agree with what he wants, but there are some initiatives he has championed that I do support. Unfortunately, they often come to naught, but it’s certainly not his fault.

Given the brouhaha surrounding the downtown arena debate, you might have missed the administration’s response to his spray park and beach idea for Hawrelak Park. A beach, even an artificial one, would be a wonderful addition to our city. He thought it would be good for kiddos who can’t get to a lake. That was visionary thinking.

The mayor figured we could make one for less than $5 million. That’s not chump change by any stretch of the imagination. But spending tax money on creating something innovative that would bring pleasure to a lot of Edmontonians seems like a good investment to me. But no such luck.

So what price tag does the civic administration come back with? Well, they were able to change the mayor’s vision into a fiscal nightmare. According to the administration, we can’t put sand in a park and make the pond swimmable for less than $60 million.

I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that an administration that seems to be able to eat up a gazillion dollars for non-tendered roadways, bridges and the like would suggest that kind of price tag.

Apparently it’s all about keeping the water clean from goose poop.

The end result? The mayor says forget it. No surprise in that. I don’t think any one would agree to a $60 million price tag.

So what does this say about the ever-swelling ranks of city employees who also told the mayor it was impossible to make a section of the North Saskatchewan safe for swimming? I think what it says is that they are creatively bankrupt. I bet there is someone or some group in this city that could come up with an approach to a beach and spray park that was within the mayor’s budget.

If I were mayor, I would start planning for a thorough third-party evaluation of the civic administration and its activities. I would mandate a study that determined where we were getting value for money and what areas could be provided by the volunteer or private sectors. Maybe that would make every civic employee abandon mediocrity and commit to excellence in all that they do.