CAMPAIGN PROMISES COUNCIL REALITY
How quickly can a city councillor expect to make a significant change?
Andrew Knack made change look easy last winter.
He took his first vacation in Europe, was floored by how easy it was to get around as a tourist, then returned to start Edmonton working on a new intermodal transportation hub in this city.
It looks like a sitting councillor can do anything — promise the moon and take action.
That’s a myth, says Coun. Bryan Anderson, watching the election from afar this time as he cleans out his office to retire.
Knack’s motion succeeded because he took three years to build a reputation and now knows the game. “He focuses on doable things,” said Anderson, taking it step by step, with most of his requests focused on simply getting the next level of information in front of council to set up a future decision.
Administration is still evaluating sites and partnerships for the intermodal hub.
Every election, candidates are full of promises. Some seem to understand the constraints of city government, others don’t. They’re in for a rude awakening if elected.
That’s why Ken Cantor, a Journal reader and developer, pitched his question for the Journal’s election survey during a Facebook discussion. He wanted a sense of how realistic a candidate was.
We asked each ward council candidate: Name one issue you would work on — as an individual and with council — where you feel you could make significant improvements in a single term. What will you aim to achieve?
“They all have good intentions,” said Cantor. “(But) I’m looking for someone who understands the issues and how we got here.”
They also can’t assume they can push through an agenda on their own, he said. “They’re only one voice out of 13. They need at least six others to do anything.”
IT’S A MARATHON, NOT A SPRINT
At city hall, council only can make change through making a motion at a formal meeting.
That means the first step to accomplish something is to get it on the agenda. The easiest way is to submit an inquiry at a meeting — a request for information that city officials already have. If they don’t have the information, it takes a majority vote to send them looking.
Either way, the report comes back in eight to 12 weeks as a report to a committee. The councillor can work the hallway in the councillors’ wing, lobbying at each office for support to take an action. They can also invite community members to speak publicly at committee make a case.
But it’s still up to all members of that committee if they want to accept a recommendation. If money will be spent, the decision has to go up to council.
Anderson said the best way to be effective is to read all the reports, gather the data and convince each councillor one by one. That’s how he got funding for twinning Rabbit Hill Road during a budget update, he said. “It’s finding the appropriate information to back up what you want to do.”
This term, some councillors have been more effective than others, Anderson said. It was Knack’s first term but “he reads his brains out” and brought examples from other cities to discussions.
You build that reputation over years, trying not to look ultra-political or be repetitive, Anderson said. “You have to be aware of how what you’re doing is perceived by others.”