Council votes down OBM on workload review
By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on July 24, 2024.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com City council on Tuesday voted 7-2 in against an official business motion presented by councillor Jenn Schmidt-Rempel calling for a review of workload, expectations and resources for elected officials.Instead after a lengthy debate, council voted unanimously on a motion arising by deputy mayor Jeff Carlson that the Governance SPC have discussions on workload, expectations and resources for elected officials at the Oct. 24 meeting in co-ordination with discussions on council orientations.
The OBM asked council to direct city manager to engage an independent third-party review to provide recommendations with implementation options and costing to the Oct. 24 meeting of the Governance Standing Policy Committee on several items.
They include:
1. A survey of council members on the areas of work that each member considers essential to their role as an elected official, and the estimated time they each dedicate to these areas of work (e.g. ceremonial functions, meetings with residents and partner organizations in the city, answering correspondence, committee work, community events, community service, communication, etc.).
2. A complete analysis of the time and type of work councillors dedicate to their role as an elected official for municipal matters including but not limited to council meetings, Standing Policy Committee meetings, board and commission meetings, strategic planning sessions, operating and capital budget deliberations, orientation and training sessions, community meetings, conferences and intergovernmental meetings, professional development and certification, and public events.
3. A comparative analysis of Canadian municipalities with populations of 100,000 — 250,000 residents with an elected-at-large system for mayor and councillors or a ward system for councillors, examining:
a. The number of boards and committees (internal and external) requiring elected official appointments and the number of elected officials appointed to each;
b. Total compensation for elected officials, including per-diem purposes and structure;
c. Council budgets and staff resourcing to support elected officials.
4. Ensure that this information is provided to future candidates to provide a representation of the work necessary to effectively accomplish the role.
The cost of that third-party review, according to the motion, could have been about $90,000.
Councillor John Middleton-Hope pointed out Carlson’s motion was essentially the same as Schmidt-Rempel’s without the cost.
Councillor Rajko Dodic instead suggested that discussions could be done among members themselves to determine how many hours councillors are actually spending on their work. He pointed out he may spend fewer hours attending ceremonial functions as others and that his average number of hours would likely be in the 20 hours per week range. He said other councillors put in much more than 40 hours per week so he wanted to know if as a first way of dealing with the matter if the nine members of council could identify the number of hours that they think are important and then identify what the range is.
“At least you get a sort of baseline for what we’re doing,” Dodic added.
The Municipal Government Act doesn’t spell out a specific number of required hours, just noting “the demands on your time while being an elected official can be heavy.”
It also states that a councillor is disqualified if they are absent from all regular council meetings held during any period of eight weeks unless an absence is authorized by council prior to the end of the eight weeks or if there is not regular meeting during the eight-week period before the next regular meeting.
“Each of us know how much time we spend at council and the SPC that we’re appointed to and various other committees that we’re appointed to so we’ve got a disparate group of councillors who see their duties or their priority duties quite a bit different,” Dodic added.
Several council members said the 20-hours per week suggested to them isn’t accurate.
Carlson said the job has evolved considerably since his first term in 2007 when he was told by then colleague Barbara Lacey the work slows down but she pointed out to him six months later, it hadn’t.
When asked by councillor John Middleton-Hope if her motion is “an opportunity to have full-time council members, to examine that as a part of this process”, Schmidt-Rempel replied no, noting that discussion was addressed in 2016, repeating the motion was about workload.
“This is to take a look at what hours we’re actually spending on the work we’re doing so take a look at what that workload is. If it turns out that that workload is full-time then fine, we can have that full-time discussion but right now we’re just looking at is the workload 20 hours a week, is it 25 hours a week, is it 30? Let’s start there first and then move on to that discussion.”
Middleton-Hope asked if there’s an expectation that compensation, benefits and pensions would be on the table for discussion at some point.
Schmidt-Rempel said they could be on the table for discussion, repeating that her motion was focused on the workload study.
Council heard that different members have different styles, putting in a range of hours to do their work. Middleton-Hope pointed out mayor Blaine Hyggen will put in upwards of 70 hours a week, saying his office needs more support.
“I want us to start thinking beyond just the hours. It’s not just the hours we spend, it’s how we spend our time as well. It’s studying what we’re actually doing, too, workload as well as expectations and how we’re managing that workload. How are we governing? Are we too lean, are we too heavy, are we spending too much time on operations, not enough time on governance. Are residents getting the best representation out of council” in the current governance system, Schmidt-Rempel asked.
“How are we responding to our responsibilities… what are the resources we need, do we need assistance with independent research when it comes to developing OBMs?,” Schmidt-Rempel asked.
“It’s more than just the 20 hours or finding a baseline number of hours. It’s more than just the what we’re doing but also the how we’re doing, how we can find efficiencies,” she asked.
The councillor said the first place to set up good decision making is to help people understand the time commitment to do so.
“We also want to set future candidates up for future success. Do we want people fully committed to the position to run for council, do we want them to be able to afford the cost of living in our city, to be able access the services they may require and able to commit the time they need to do this work. It’s a strange occupation” with no advisor or mentors and council has an obligation to provide “that good transparent governance of our city. Are we doing that? …getting to a good decision is not just about showing up every two weeks and thinking an idea is good, it also takes preparation, research and engagement. We do that and we should be sharing our we do our jobs with residents in our city,” Schmidt-Rempel added. 3
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