I feel the council is set to fail.The “berbs” against The “Core.”
Short sighted competition for turf between the two areas; as a result no one is winning. Dysfunctional council.
Jane Jacob’s book on cities points out that financially healthy cities benefit the areas they exist in.
The old arrangement before amalgamation worked better.
Your suggestions are helpful, and there could be embellishment on all of them; but, ‘effective’ would be where the chair was more of a director of what their role properly is; which is to set policy; not rubber-stamp every action staff carry out, or stall with endless deferrals.
The city manager-form-of -government that we are ‘chartered’ with provides all the ‘work’. If all the council do, is one-after-the-other-around the room agreement-sensings, on matters like approving paving contracts etc., they will never get around to setting or changing policy which the manager is to follow (like what traffic plan is to be followed).
The chair should cut down on grandstanding. As you suggested, they need to review their own ‘effectiveness’ (without sending out for consultants: and heaven forbid if they were to reduce meeting time by half – they might eventually find it was not a ‘job’ [ the staff ‘work’] but a ‘responsibility’ – which is the public’s expectation and is the other half of “responsible government”).
(The other half incidentally, is the ‘responsibility’ of the voter – to monitor the ‘effectiveness’ and vote accordingly. As you suggest, it is more ‘effectively’ done when the meetings are open and ‘followable’.)
These are excellent suggestions for a group of people that probably have a lot more to do with our everyday lives, than even the provincial and federal governments. They actually can change things around us that help make our region better. So hope they take your advice, as we want them to be very successful in their efforts!
Agree with all the suggestions.One more would be having someone other than the mayor “running” the meetings.The former mayor showed us for years a great lack of comprehension and empathy to any debate and discussion as he focused on parliamentary procedure …only.
I feel the council is set to fail.The “berbs” against The “Core.”
Short sighted competition for turf between the two areas; as a result no one is winning. Dysfunctional council.
Jane Jacob’s book on cities points out that financially healthy cities benefit the areas they exist in.
The old arrangement before amalgamation worked better.
peter | February 21, 2014 |
Your suggestions are helpful, and there could be embellishment on all of them; but, ‘effective’ would be where the chair was more of a director of what their role properly is; which is to set policy; not rubber-stamp every action staff carry out, or stall with endless deferrals.
The city manager-form-of -government that we are ‘chartered’ with provides all the ‘work’. If all the council do, is one-after-the-other-around the room agreement-sensings, on matters like approving paving contracts etc., they will never get around to setting or changing policy which the manager is to follow (like what traffic plan is to be followed).
The chair should cut down on grandstanding. As you suggested, they need to review their own ‘effectiveness’ (without sending out for consultants: and heaven forbid if they were to reduce meeting time by half – they might eventually find it was not a ‘job’ [ the staff ‘work’] but a ‘responsibility’ – which is the public’s expectation and is the other half of “responsible government”).
(The other half incidentally, is the ‘responsibility’ of the voter – to monitor the ‘effectiveness’ and vote accordingly. As you suggest, it is more ‘effectively’ done when the meetings are open and ‘followable’.)
gordon a.... | November 6, 2012 |
These are excellent suggestions for a group of people that probably have a lot more to do with our everyday lives, than even the provincial and federal governments. They actually can change things around us that help make our region better. So hope they take your advice, as we want them to be very successful in their efforts!
Allan Purdy | November 6, 2012 |
Agree with all the suggestions.One more would be having someone other than the mayor “running” the meetings.The former mayor showed us for years a great lack of comprehension and empathy to any debate and discussion as he focused on parliamentary procedure …only.
don stoddard | November 6, 2012 |
Don I think that is a comment on the person,not the position.
Bill
Bill | November 6, 2012 |
Excellent advice and free too! Lets hope Council takes it in the constructive spirit it is given and acts on it.
Bernie Miller Sr. | November 5, 2012 |