Talky councillors their own worst enemies

City politicians are still trying to get a handle on gabfests at ‘ever-expanding’ meetings that can drag on for hours

It took a lot of blather to get there, but Hamilton councillors have concluded they’re the reason why some of their meetings are dragging on forever.

And, yes, one of the problems is they talk too much.

A frustrated Mayor Fred Eisenberger raised the issue during a recent marathon general issues committee (GIC).

They were more than eight hours into what turned out to be another 11-hour test of endurance when Eisenberger floated the idea of having the governance committee take a gander at why GICs are gobbling up so much time.

The mayor complained that while other committee meetings seem to be shrinking in duration, GIC’s were “ever expanding,” which, he said, doesn’t make for “well-informed and focused” decision-making.

Well, councillors had no shortage of things to say about that.

Jason Farr wondered if it was possible to split up long meetings over a couple of days.

And Matthew Green wanted to study the feasibility of “scheduled lunches” so they can catch some fresh air and come back in a better frame of mine.

“Eight hours straight, you get squirrelly, there’s no way around it,” said Green.

(When councillors meet over the lunch hour, they normally grab a bite to eat in a side room where they can follow discussions on audio.)

It was Terry Whitehead, however, who began to unearth some of the root causes of the

problem.

No, the loquacious Whitehead didn’t finger himself or others for being speechifying time vampires.

But he did note GICs are taking longer because other standing committees are passing on items that they should be dealing with themselves.

That brought GIC legislative co-ordinator Stephanie Paparella into the fray.

Paparella pointed out the main reason GIC agendas are developing beer guts is because of councillors and senior staffers being political.

She said they’re directing items to GIC because they want all members of council to hear them.

(Of the six standing committees that report to council, the board of health and GIC are the only ones all 16 council members sit on.)

Sam Merulla drew the correct conclusion from that. “So, we’re really to blame. We need to huddle and take some corrective action.” But there was still other stuff to chew on. Green suggested they look at following the anti-windbag, five-minute speaking rule to move meetings along more efficiently.

Chad Collins tripped lightly down the same lane, noting it doesn’t help speed things up when councillors speak to the same issue three or four times.

Eisenberger withdrew his motion with the hope everyone would try to do better.

“I just know there’s a problem and we have to fix it one way or another.”

But they still couldn’t stop pulling on the jug until Merulla, who was chairing the meeting, put a cork in it.

“OK, folks,” he said “we’re spending a lot of time determining why we spend so much time. Let’s just land the plane now.”

There’s an amusing irony about all this, of course.

But there’s also an underlying seriousness.

Eisenberger is right. People do get fuzzyheaded dealing with multiple complicated issues over a long period of time. It doesn’t make for good productivity or decisionmaking.

But ultimately this is about time management, or the lack of it. It never ceases to amaze that when faced with a bulging agenda, some councillors, oblivious to the clock, ponderously insist on having their say again and again.

Eisenberger raised the prospect of sticking to the five-minute speaking rule exactly a year ago. It had a positive short-term effect but, as feared, soon expired in a whirlwind of hot air.

The stern reality is, unless the committee chairs who run the meetings consistently crack the whip, councillors will always be their own worst enemies when it comes to efficiently managing their discussion and decision time.

Andrew Dreschel’s commentary appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. adreschel@thespec.com 905-526-3495 @AndrewDreschel

Chad Collins tripped lightly down the same lane, noting it doesn’t help ... when councillors speak to the same issue three or four times.