Meeting attendance wanes, councillors blame workload
It doesn’t tell the whole story but hints of a problem.
Attendance records show city councillors appointed to the Calgary police commission have missed a surprising number of scheduled meetings, in some years more than half.
And at least one councillor has, apparently, been too busy to attend the commissioners’ annual group photo shoot, preferring her image be imposed into the picture over the past four years.
On the surface, it looks bad. After all, commissioners are “responsible for the general supervision” of the Calgary Police Service — besieged by allegations of officer misconduct in recent months — and should “endeavour to attend all meetings.”
But councillors maintain they’re not shirking their duties but that the absenteeism points to a larger problem: They’re required to sit on too many boards and committees. They have finite time and missing meetings is inevitable.
And the workload isn’t fairly distributed.
“Unfortunately, there’s just a smaller portion of councillors doing a large percentage of the work,” said Coun. Ward Sutherland, who in a recent blog post recalled attending more than 700 meetings in the past year.
His concern over the unfair workload is borne out by numbers.
In addition to council meetings, municipal leaders must sit on at least two standing policy committees and, once a year — during a lengthy closed-door session known as Organizational Day — appoint each other to dozens of other boards, committees, subcommittees, task forces and commissions.
Some sit on as many as 12. Others, as few as six. And not every committee carries the same gravitas as others. And that has some on council suggesting changes are needed to create a more equitable workload and manageable meeting schedule.
“I’ve said over and over that we should be reducing (that number),” said Coun. Shane Keating. “On the police commission, for example, you could get by with one councillor instead of two.”
Keating sat on the police commission for three years (20122014). In that time, he missed more than half of the regular meetings. He blames his absenteeism, in part, on an overcrowded and overlapping meeting schedule.
“At the time … I was sitting on 12 committees,” he said. “It was hugely difficult to get to absolutely everything.
“I did feel a little guilty because I wasn’t able to put in 100 per cent all the time because of my other duties and, unfortunately, council comes first automatically,” Keating said.
Coun. Diane Colley-Urquhart was appointed to the police commission in 2008. She maintained a strong attendance record (85 per cent) during her first four years as a commissioner. But she’s missed half of the meetings since 2012.
The attendance average for regular commission meetings has been 86 per cent since 2008.
Col le y-Urquhart down played the issue of missed meetings as a “red herring” because councillors can, and do, keep on top of the issues by following up with colleagues.
“Meetings aren’t the end all and be all,” she said.
“I know damn well that none of my colleagues could be accused of not working hard,” Colley-Urquhart added. “When you look at the boards, committees, commissions and subcommittees we sit on, we wear two hats, I know, but first and foremost we’re elected officials for our wards.”
It appears she’s also regularly missed the police commission’s annual photo shoot. Her image, possibly from the original 2011 picture, has been digitally stitched into the four subsequent group shots. At least one other commissioner has been imposed at least once as well.
“It’s one way to stay looking young, in my view, that you can use the same picture for 20 years,” Colley-Urquhart joked.
The issue of absenteeism — and, more broadly, workload distribution — comes as the Calgary Police Service and its commission are under greater scrutiny following months of stories detailing serious allegations of officer misconduct and criminal behaviour on the streets and within the workplace.
Those reports prompted the mayor, police chief and top commission members to repeatedly offer public assurances that issues on the force were being addressed and that oversight would improve.
Lori Williams, associate professor of policy studies at Mount Royal University, said absenteeism poses a problem for councillors who are bound politically and morally to ensure they are dutifully exercising their authority as elected officials.
“If it’s important to have governance and oversight by city council, then they ought to be scheduling to make it possible for councillors to attend without hardship,” Williams said.
“It really makes it difficult to … make comments, recommendations or criticism when they’re vulnerable of being accused of not being fully committed, not taking it seriously or just not knowing things because they weren’t (in attendance),” she said. “That’s a problem.”
To that end, Keating and Sutherland suggest the police commission move its Tuesday afternoon meeting time to another day to accommodate council members.
But Sutherland wants to see a more sweeping change that would more evenly distribute the workload of committee meetings in general on council.
He suggests establishing a weighted point system for committees that would require each councillor to fall within a predetermined target.
“That would make it fair. Right now, that doesn’t exist,” Sutherland said.
“I’m proposing that for the new council next year to divide the work up properly.”
I know damn well that none of my colleagues could be accused of not working hard … first and foremost we’re elected officials for our wards.