SYS heads up on governance series coming next week:

Dear SYSRC Residents:

The importance of municipal governance is not always fully appreciated.  This is demonstrated by low voter turnout in the municipal elections throughout the province and by the lack of competitive races for council in almost every municipality. I would like to do my best to address that in SYSRC.

I am giving you a notice that starting next week on February 11^th, and ending on February 20^th, there will be a series of 7 consecutive statements over 7 consecutive workdays about municipal governance and what residents should expect from a well functioning council. I began crafting these messages in early December and finalized them in January.

The objectives of the series of statements are basically:

–  To increase the level of understanding of the importance of getting good governance and leadership

–  To increase the understanding in the population on what makes an effective council

–  To encourage people to run for election and to get competitive races for every seat

–  To increase the proportion of the population who vote

The topics of the seven statements will be:

• Day 1: Introduction to the upcoming series on governance and leadership and why it is important…basically outlining the series
• Day 2: The power you hold over the next council until 8:01 the evening of May 11 and an encouragement for interested people to run and for the population to vote
• Day 3: Good governance and good leadership (what they look like)
• Day 4: Council establishing a vision and a model for conduct
• Day 5: Establishing guiding principles for council and mayor
• Day 6: Councillor responsibilities and how to deliver
• Day 7: Final thoughts to live by for elected officials, employees and the population

I have great admiration for the courage expressed by people who run for election at any level of governance including for those who have already declared their intentions in SYSRC. It takes great courage to run for office and to govern.

During the series, I will note questions and comments made on Facebook every day and will address or respond to them all in a follow-up statement or series of statements in mid April.

Please note that these statements are also posted on the municipal webpage.  If you have friends, neighbours and family who might be interested in the topic but are not on Facebook, please let them know they can access the statements on the website.

I will be back next week.

Don Ferguson
Supervisor SYSRC