Show support when your constituents appear before council

What to expect when new members of council take office

Some advice for Peterborough’s new city councillors: Part II

Last week, I offered three suggestions to the three newly-elected members of Peterborough city council. They were: develop a good working relationship with your ward mate; don’t be captured by the advice of city staff to the exclusion of the values of your constituents; and don’t be afraid to propose new initiatives of your own. Today, I offer four more suggestions.

First, it is wise to show both deference and support to presenters who come to speak to you in the council chambers.

Many presenters are there for the first time; most have no knowledge of your council’s rules or protocols; and almost all are understandably nervous and apprehensive in front of a microphone and the media. Consider, for example, that there is no dedicated staff person to assist waiting presenters with explanations of council procedure or technology. Consider that the issues that have attracted people to attend and speak are called out by the chair not by their name, but by the name of the committee that dealt with the issue, which people can’t be expected to know. Consider that presenters have seven minutes to speak, but no countdown clock to guide or pace them; they are often flustered by a declaration that their time is up. Presenters deserve credit for trying to muddle their way through the city’s processes on their own.

As a matter of good customer service, they also deserve a review of the ways that the presentation process can be made easier to understand and navigate.

Second, you will observe that there is typically no direct debate between councillors at city council meetings. Even though the city’s procedure bylaw permits a councillor to question another in order to obtain information on the motion being debated, a culture has developed in which interaction between councillors – the stuff that makes for interesting and informative debate – rarely occurs. This is not the case in other cities and need not be the case in Peterborough. A respectful challenge to the information presented by another councillor is a legitimate expression of debate and can be a useful service to other councillors and the public.

Third, it would be worthwhile to have a look at the current practice of councillors sitting, rather than standing, when they speak at city council meetings.

Standing to speak has its western origins in the British parliamentary system, when politicians would rise to catch the attention of the Speaker. Our MPs and MPPs stand to speak; so do city councillors in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. A number of Peterborough city councillors stood to speak during the 2006 term, but the practice ended in 2010. While it may seem a minor concern, standing to speak demonstrates a meaningful level of respect for the attendees at council meetings, where sight lines from the gallery are poor, permitting them to clearly observe their representatives.

Finally, it would be helpful to take up the call for progress in terms of replacing paper with digital communications – an area in which city council remains decidedly old school. For example, a 2015 yearend Examiner survey revealed that only four of eleven councillors had used a laptop or mobile device at a council meeting.

The 2018 budget books delivered to each councillor comprised an astounding 1,015 pages of paper. The merits of having councillors adopt digital communications are obvious – environmental responsibility, cost savings and consistency with the city’s own sustainability plans being foremost among them. It was almost two years ago that council requested a staff report on the use of paperless agendas for city council meetings; no action has been taken.