Municipal leaders focus of networking program
Imagine waking up one day to find yourself responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars and making decisions for your entire community.
For many newly elected municipal leaders, this is their reality, said Randy Donauer, a Saskatoon city councillor and member of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association’s (SUMA) board of directors.
“Most people run to serve their community and to make their community better, but the day after the election you find yourself responsible for a budget of hundreds of thousands — or in the case of Regina and Saskatoon, hundreds of millions of dollars — but there isn’t really a training program for it,” he said. “You’re just elected and then away you go.”
A new peer networking program for the province’s municipal leaders is hoping to change all that.
Nine volunteer mentors, all with years of experience in local governance, are now available to municipal leaders who need a little advice. The volunteers include mayors, reeves, councillors and administrators, who are all “trained in coaching, communication, facilitation and dispute resolution,” said a press release.
Donauer is one of the mentors and said this is an opportunity for people new to their leadership roles to reach out to those who have been there before.
“I don’t always get it right and I don’t always have the right answers, but I’m sure willing to talk to people. And that’s more of our role,” said Donauer. “We’re not really telling people what to do, but just to be a sounding board.”
Ray Orb, president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM), said he has been seeing a need for this type of educational program for years.
“Particularly with new, could be young administrators, maybe administrators that are just starting in their career, they could use some extra help from people that have experience,” he said.
The need for this type of program has increased over the past decade or two as municipal issues become more complex, with more money involved and a higher potential for legal issues, said Donauer.
He expects the most common questions he’ll receive will be on governance — issues like resolving conflicts and how to run meetings properly. He also thinks the majority of questions will come from smaller or rural communities that may not have access to the same resources as larger centres.
Donauer and Orb said this program is a good educational resource, but agree further education is needed for municipal leaders across the province.
“This is a problem right across Canada, that there’s not a lot of deliberate training for municipal leaders from a governance level.”
Orb said he’s not sure why the province hasn’t had this type of program before and sees it as “a good first step,” but he’d like to see more done in the future.
In an emailed statement, a provincial government official said, “The network has been developed as a resource for municipal leaders who are often faced with diverse challenges.”
The network is a voluntary and confidential resource. Municipal leaders seeking advice can pick who they want to call or email from the list of mentors.
For information and a list of mentors, visit saskpeernetwork.org.