Municipal elections are only 8 months away, October 24 of this year. A few people have asked me if they should run. As a rookie city councilor, I thought I’d offer this short reflection on what the vocation entails.
The Job Fascinates
You will be hit with a fire hose of information, largely on topics you know nothing about - like waiving a development charge, negotiating with fire services, getting into the weeds of a police budget and whether you should vote for a reverse twin screw offsetting hydrafractor over at the water treatment plant (I made that last up but if Mr. Prentice delivered that line with a straight face, I assure you that you would nod knowingly).
For young people starting out in life and keen to learn, this position is for you. For those in midlife who have mastered his or her career some time ago, you will find renewed intellectual stimulation.
You will meet a core of dedicated senior managers who will impress you with their intelligence and affection for our place.
Time and Money
You will be paid $25,450, all of that taxable. The mayor makes double, $57,853, the Deputy Mayor $29,200; these last two earn every dime. By convention, His Worship gets a nice office overlooking the market square; all other councilors get access to a very nice coat rack. You have no support staff.
You also get some expense money to attend a few conventions. The Roads Convention is apparently quite popular.
I’d say I average 15-20 hours per week on council work. You can count on biweekly full council meetings and you must be on at least three committees or boards, each of which meet monthly. Preparation and attendance at meetings take a lot of time. Most agendas run hundreds of pages. They include extensive reports from staff on the issues of the day and the odd consultant’s paper. I consider it discourteous not to read the staff reports thoroughly. At rare times, I have been discourteous.
You are tied down for much of the year. We now allow members to ZOOM in for some meetings but there is an overall cap on that. So, if 4 months in Florida is important to you, that may be a real problem.
A Thick Skin
You should be a little thick skinned.
The angry emails I have received over the years as a lawyer (and there have been some nasty ones) pale in comparison to those sent by some of the electorate.
Pilots across Canada decried us as morons for imposing a $35.00 airport landing fee (you have not lived until you have read the entire comments section of a national petition). We have been called pedophiles for not opposing child vaccinations and promoters of genocide for our vaccine mandate policy. Some emails make for entertaining reading but they can be unsettling. (I ask all authors of rude emails to both restate their case in civil language and to meet with me for coffee. So far, no takers.).
You do not have the comfort of a “party line” on council. In fact, party politics are prohibited. As such, you are one of nine free floating votes all of the time. This can be disorienting. Some days a Thomas or a Hamley may enthusiastically vote with you, other days they will avoid eye contact as you go down to a crushing 8 to 1 defeat on some motion or other. You want to call after them in the parking lot “Hey , I thought you were my friend!”. But for a 59 year old man, that would be unseemly.
If you take such things personally, council is likely not for you.
Making Allies
Are you a crusader for one or two causes in particular? Nothing wrong with that but you need to get four other people to support your crusade. Without that, as I have discovered personally, you are whistling in the dark and the Montana’s booth is a little lonely after the meeting.
In your search for allies, you may be prohibited from taking four other councilors out for beers to sell them on your idea. That makes solid research critical, together with the ability to persuade others as you sit around the domed horseshoe. In other words, it’s best not to come with a canned, prepared speech on the issue of the day. The art of thinking on the fly will come in handy.
Keeping Secrets
If you have little or no discretion, don’t run.
Our closed meetings deal with very sensitive matters such as personnel disputes and litigation by and against the city. People will probe for information they cannot have. You have to be able to blow them off. If you leak, you ruin your credibility with staff and your peers.
Analysis and Courage
Do you have the ability to read and analyze a brief? The courage to challenge a conventional opinion?
Whether to permit a designated property to be demolished, to allow a park to be slightly truncated, to lift development charges, to sell an airport – anything of substance will be reduced to a staff memorandum, usually with recommendations. Staff recommends but you make the hard call.
If you don’t want to offend the staff member who authored the report or if you just cannot follow the math on this issue or that, this may be a problem. If you are quick to judge without having all the facts, again, this job may not be for you.
From what I have seen, we really could use an accountant or someone who knows the building industry or perhaps a retired manager of a company – people who have actually run something in their private lives. Those kinds of skill sets would complement the more predictable types (lawyers especially) who usually run for office.
An Honour and a Privilege
For years I have heard politicians of all levels say that it is incredibly humbling to serve in office. Until you sit around the horseshoe, you don’t really know what that means. I have not seen it gone to anyone’s head and indeed, you would look silly if you presumed you were a person of power.
We respond as a council to reconciliation with our indigenous peoples, we entertain an emotional presentation by the youth on climate change, we hear from those who work with the homeless and the addicted and we struggle to balance the levy hike with the fixed income of a pensioner.
Thinking of running? Come on in. As they say, the water is warm.
source: letter from Councillor John Tamming
