Your City Council at Work

Spending time at City Hall over the past months has provided me the opportunity to watch the behavior (antics) of councillors during committee and council meetings. One pervading issue is the amount of time many members spend away from the committee/council table speaking on the side with other committee members, staff, consultants and members of the public or glad-handing with VIPs.

This occurs when public delegations are presenting to committees, when staff are answering questions on reports and also during debate. First of all it is insulting to members of public delegations presenting issues and concerns to committees that their presentations are ignored. Secondly, it means that committee/council members are not fully informed on matters under debate. It makes the work of committees and council irrelevant. Clearly, minds are made up already and no amount of public input, clarification or debate will influence their decisions.

Some individual do business this ay more frequently than others. His Worship the Mayor is one of the worst offenders followed closely by Councillors Maria McRae, Jan Harder, Rainer Bloess, Bob Monette and Marianne Wilkinson. But most councillors stray off from time-to-time.

One-on-one strategizing, consultation and discussion between councillors, staff, consultants and others should occur before meeting or during intermissions, not at the committee/council table. At least lets see a perception that council really cares what the taxpayer and other committee members think.