Alan Slobodsky remembered as 'nice guy'
Chief of staff to Mayor Mel Lastman died Monday
By Nick Westoll, Toronto Sun
First posted: Friday, July 22, 2016 04:57 PM EDT
Alan Slobodsky, the ex-chief of staff to mayor Mel Lastman, is being remembered as a consensus builder with an innate good nature.
Slobodsky, who also worked as a development consultant, died on Monday at the age of 54 after a battle with cancer.
“I’ve never been so intertwined with someone in all my life,” Lastman told the Toronto Sun on Friday, saying he thought of Slobodsky like a son. “I miss talking to him. We spoke every day for the last four or five months.”
Looking back on the start of his professional relationship with his good friend, Lastman said it only took about 10 minutes to decide to hire Slobodsky as his chief of staff.
“I wanted somebody who could work with members of council,” Lastman said. “Somebody — like him — who doesn’t get offended if they say no they can’t support it when they’re being lobbied.”
Slobodsky was chief of staff throughout Lastman’s 1998 to 2003 tenure as mayor of Toronto.
He and Lastman met every week to review agendas and discuss upcoming events and meetings.
“Not once did we go without a Sunday meeting, and I miss those meetings — I miss everything about him,” he said.
Postmedia Network President and CEO Paul Godfrey spoke at the funeral for Slobodsky this week and talked about his respect for the man.
“Alan and I had a special bond between us. And our link in the chain of life was unbreakable,” Godfrey said.
“‘Nice guys finish last’ is a myth put to rest by Alan. He was a nice guy and was able to settle matters because of his ability to deal with individuals, respectfully,” he said while talking about Slobodsky’s work inside city hall.
Godfrey also talked about Slobodsky’s career as a consultant after leaving the mayor’s office.
“From Lake Ontario up to Finch, from Don Mills to the West Mall, from BMO field to Sheppard Centre,” Godfrey said. “Alan worked on residential, commercial, retail and community projects. All with his characteristic good nature.”
Slobodsky is survived by his wife Rochelle and children Alyssa, Jonathan and Tara.
NWestoll@postmedia.com
Alan Slobodsky
Alan Slobodsky remembered as 'nice guy' | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun
Slobodsky handled Mel-odrama with grace, dignity and a sense of humour
By Sue-Ann Levy, Toronto Sun
First posted: Friday, July 22, 2016 06:03 PM EDT | Updated: Friday, July 22, 2016 06:11 PM EDT
He was there when a former Bad Boy employee, Grace Louie, filed a $6-million lawsuit over an extramarital affair with Mayor Mel Lastman that she claimed fathered two sons.
That lawsuit came just two weeks after the 2000 election, when Alan Slobodsky was Lastman’s newly minted chief of staff.
Slobodsky, who passed away from cancer earlier this week at the terribly young age of 54, was also in the top job when Lastman, before leaving for Kenya to pitch Toronto’s bid for the 2008 Olympic Summer Games, made that infamous comment about pots and African natives.
Ditto for Lastman’s unfortunate comments during the city’s SARS crisis of 2002 when he went on CNN and asked who the heck was the WHO.
The ever calm Slobodsky — along with deputy mayor Case Ootes — were the front men for Lastman during the 16-day garbage strike of 2002 when the leftists at City Hall and their media friends went hysterical over attempts to get rid of the jobs for life provisions in the union contract.
A few months later that same year, the mayor’s office led by Slobodsky worked feverishly to evict 100-odd squatters from a contaminated Home Depot site on Lake Shore Blvd. known as Tent City — notwithstanding the efforts of NDPers like Olivia Chow and her hubby Jack Layton to keep them there.
During those three years the mayor’s office lurched from one media headline to another and often I didn’t know whether to laugh, or cry. If anyone deserved a medal for handling those Days of Lastman — a Herculean Task I dare say — it was Slobodsky.
Along with his team of enforcers (as I called them jokingly for their abilities to stick handle council into voting for Lastman’s agenda) — Tony Rossi and Andy Stein to name two — Slobodsky handled each Mel-odrama with grace, dignity and a sense of humour.
Characteristically self-effacing and always kind, I still remember his impish grin and the twinkle in his eyes whenever the proverbial s--- hit the fan at City Hall or some leftist councillor like the ever media-hungry Howard Moscoe tried to upstage the mayor.
Unlike the mayor’s staffers who succeeded him and far too many councillors and their assistants, he was forever even-handed. He took it in his stride and didn’t try to ostracize me when I criticized Lastman during those three years — as I did plenty enough.
He understood I had a job to do.
It was the same warmth I’ll forever remember whenever I’d bump into him at City Hall post-Lastman or when he sent me an e-mail in 2007 saying we were “practically related” because he was the long-time friend of Bradley Berns, a brother of my wife Denise’s brother-in-law.
Slobodsky had class and didn’t take himself too seriously — traits sorely lacking in many of the political staffers on the City Hall and even Queen’s Park payroll these days.
As they say in Yiddish, he was a true mensch.
SLevy@postmedia.com
Slobodsky handled Mel-odrama with grace, dignity and a sense of humour | Levy |
Chief of staff to Mayor Mel Lastman died Monday
By Nick Westoll, Toronto Sun
First posted: Friday, July 22, 2016 04:57 PM EDT
Alan Slobodsky, the ex-chief of staff to mayor Mel Lastman, is being remembered as a consensus builder with an innate good nature.
Slobodsky, who also worked as a development consultant, died on Monday at the age of 54 after a battle with cancer.
“I’ve never been so intertwined with someone in all my life,” Lastman told the Toronto Sun on Friday, saying he thought of Slobodsky like a son. “I miss talking to him. We spoke every day for the last four or five months.”
Looking back on the start of his professional relationship with his good friend, Lastman said it only took about 10 minutes to decide to hire Slobodsky as his chief of staff.
“I wanted somebody who could work with members of council,” Lastman said. “Somebody — like him — who doesn’t get offended if they say no they can’t support it when they’re being lobbied.”
Slobodsky was chief of staff throughout Lastman’s 1998 to 2003 tenure as mayor of Toronto.
He and Lastman met every week to review agendas and discuss upcoming events and meetings.
“Not once did we go without a Sunday meeting, and I miss those meetings — I miss everything about him,” he said.
Postmedia Network President and CEO Paul Godfrey spoke at the funeral for Slobodsky this week and talked about his respect for the man.
“Alan and I had a special bond between us. And our link in the chain of life was unbreakable,” Godfrey said.
“‘Nice guys finish last’ is a myth put to rest by Alan. He was a nice guy and was able to settle matters because of his ability to deal with individuals, respectfully,” he said while talking about Slobodsky’s work inside city hall.
Godfrey also talked about Slobodsky’s career as a consultant after leaving the mayor’s office.
“From Lake Ontario up to Finch, from Don Mills to the West Mall, from BMO field to Sheppard Centre,” Godfrey said. “Alan worked on residential, commercial, retail and community projects. All with his characteristic good nature.”
Slobodsky is survived by his wife Rochelle and children Alyssa, Jonathan and Tara.
NWestoll@postmedia.com
Alan Slobodsky
Alan Slobodsky remembered as 'nice guy' | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun
Slobodsky handled Mel-odrama with grace, dignity and a sense of humour
By Sue-Ann Levy, Toronto Sun
First posted: Friday, July 22, 2016 06:03 PM EDT | Updated: Friday, July 22, 2016 06:11 PM EDT
He was there when a former Bad Boy employee, Grace Louie, filed a $6-million lawsuit over an extramarital affair with Mayor Mel Lastman that she claimed fathered two sons.
That lawsuit came just two weeks after the 2000 election, when Alan Slobodsky was Lastman’s newly minted chief of staff.
Slobodsky, who passed away from cancer earlier this week at the terribly young age of 54, was also in the top job when Lastman, before leaving for Kenya to pitch Toronto’s bid for the 2008 Olympic Summer Games, made that infamous comment about pots and African natives.
Ditto for Lastman’s unfortunate comments during the city’s SARS crisis of 2002 when he went on CNN and asked who the heck was the WHO.
The ever calm Slobodsky — along with deputy mayor Case Ootes — were the front men for Lastman during the 16-day garbage strike of 2002 when the leftists at City Hall and their media friends went hysterical over attempts to get rid of the jobs for life provisions in the union contract.
A few months later that same year, the mayor’s office led by Slobodsky worked feverishly to evict 100-odd squatters from a contaminated Home Depot site on Lake Shore Blvd. known as Tent City — notwithstanding the efforts of NDPers like Olivia Chow and her hubby Jack Layton to keep them there.
During those three years the mayor’s office lurched from one media headline to another and often I didn’t know whether to laugh, or cry. If anyone deserved a medal for handling those Days of Lastman — a Herculean Task I dare say — it was Slobodsky.
Along with his team of enforcers (as I called them jokingly for their abilities to stick handle council into voting for Lastman’s agenda) — Tony Rossi and Andy Stein to name two — Slobodsky handled each Mel-odrama with grace, dignity and a sense of humour.
Characteristically self-effacing and always kind, I still remember his impish grin and the twinkle in his eyes whenever the proverbial s--- hit the fan at City Hall or some leftist councillor like the ever media-hungry Howard Moscoe tried to upstage the mayor.
Unlike the mayor’s staffers who succeeded him and far too many councillors and their assistants, he was forever even-handed. He took it in his stride and didn’t try to ostracize me when I criticized Lastman during those three years — as I did plenty enough.
He understood I had a job to do.
It was the same warmth I’ll forever remember whenever I’d bump into him at City Hall post-Lastman or when he sent me an e-mail in 2007 saying we were “practically related” because he was the long-time friend of Bradley Berns, a brother of my wife Denise’s brother-in-law.
Slobodsky had class and didn’t take himself too seriously — traits sorely lacking in many of the political staffers on the City Hall and even Queen’s Park payroll these days.
As they say in Yiddish, he was a true mensch.
SLevy@postmedia.com
Slobodsky handled Mel-odrama with grace, dignity and a sense of humour | Levy |