Sixth Day

SYSRC Governance series: Councillors roles and responsibilities and how to deliver on them:

Dear Residents of SYSRC:

So far we have talked about the power you, as residents, hold over the next council and the attributes that separate good governing bodies from bad ones.  We talked about guiding principles that would hopefully lead to a strong positive culture within council and with staff. Today, we touch briefly on council roles and responsibilities.

Being a mayor or councillor is a very important business, and it can be quite complicated.  The information package I mentioned on Day 2 has detailed information on what is involved in being a councillor and mayor.  However, I’m going to provide some details here because it is very important that people who are thinking of becoming a candidate for council to know what to expect.  It is equally important for the residents to know how a council should operate.

At a high and very simplistic level, council is responsible to:

• Provide good government to its community.
• Provide services, facilities, policies, by-laws and other matters for community benefit.
• Foster the economic, social and environmental well-being and development of its community.
• Provide responsible stewardship of the public assets of its community.
• Develop and maintain safe and viable communities.

To deliver on those responsibilities, there are a few tenets that a council member should keep in mind:

• Having a focus on the total breath of their responsibilities and staying out of the weeds.
• Respecting each other’s roles and responsibilities and being careful at the intersections of the roles where it can be very murky (e.g. between staff and council).
• Avoiding parochial attitudes by finding the proper balance between representing their Ward and making decisions that benefit the whole community.

• Avoiding block voting.
• Having the lead administrator provide good advice, implement all council decisions without question and understand and respect that council is in charge of policy making

Local Governments are employers. I have observed that in many communities across the province and the country, councils don’t always seem to realize that the municipal staff are employees of the local government, and councillors and council as a whole should treat them as they would treat anyone they work with in their daily career. Staff are responsible for advising council and implementing their decisions. Therefore, it is very important to maintain a good working relationship. It is also important for individual councillors to not be involved in the day-to-day administrative work of staff. Both staff and councils must respect each others’ unique roles and responsibilities.

To be a good employer, elected officials need to realize the value of the role staff plays in achieving the councils’ mission and need to show respect for the expertise of staff and avoid undercutting their efforts by ignoring the evidence-based solutions they propose.

Conversely, staff need to recognize that councillors and the mayor face the electorate every four years, and they need to respect the political give and take that is part of democratic governments and governance.

Negotiations and respectful disagreements are bound to be part of any council decision.

Neither staff, nor council own any municipal assets, policies, property tax revenue or infrastructure. The taxpayers do and they have entrusted the elected council to take care of those items for them. Staff and council can never forget that.

Tomorrow will be my last post on this series and I will leave you with final thoughts.

Don Ferguson
Supervisor SYSRC