Keating wants random seating plan for council

Councillor says first- timers should not sit next to each other, if possible

Leave it to the councillor who used to be a school principal to propose new rules on where councillors sit, to keep the new kids apart from each other.

Coun. Shane Keating, formerly of Our Lady of Wisdom School in Chestermere, will urge council Monday to generate new random seating assignments in council chambers every two years, and that first- term councillors shouldn’t sit next to each other, if possible.

It’s a topic the mayor and councillors have bandied about for a while, Keating said. Some members like veteran Ray Jones have been in the same seat for 20 years and seating plans, and change within a term offers “networking” opportunities, he reasoned.

But two newcomers sitting next to each other will lack an experienced colleague to help them navigate the sometimes arcane process of meetings, and quietly help find them answers to basic questions that council doesn’t have to waste meeting time with. “We do have a lot of questions asked that don’t need to be asked,” said Keating, a second- term councillor.

In his rookie years, Keating sat alongside fellow newcomer Richard Pootmans on one side, but each also sat next to an alderman who knew the system. In October 2013, when council adopted the same seating plan as the past group, the rookies wound up seatmates at the ends: Evan Woolley and Ward Sutherland in the corner next to Mayor Naheed Nenshi’s central desk, and Joe Magliocca and the ever- inquisitive Sean Chu a pair on the mayor’s far right ( geographically speaking).

Councillors have grown wary of how long meetings have often run when chaired by Nenshi, who regularly comments and encourages much debate. They recently learned that each evening session costs about $ 10,000 in staff overtime.

Keating doubts this unusually fussy motion will pass at Monday’s council meeting. But if councillors are restless like they were at his school, he may succeed.

“The kids do like to shake up their seating,” he said.

GAVIN YOUNG/ CALGARY HERALD Councillors Sean Chu, left, Joe Magliocca and Richard Pootmans are seen during a city council meeting. Coun. Shane Keating is proposing a seating shakeup every two years.