By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON May 5, 2011 – Expect to see your Council members with boxes of files and Rolodexes in their arms sometime soon as they all troop from their current ground floor office to space on the seventh floor of city Hall.
Right now your Council members and their assistants are in some of the grungiest office space you have ever seen. Mayor Goldring commented that he hated the space he was in while a Council member. The meeting room available to the Council members looked and felt like some kind of an underground bunker with assistants tucked away in corners.
The move came about when senior staff decided that it was better administration to have all the Clerk’s department staff and the communications people in the one place and that brought into play the idea that Council members could be put somewhere else – which didn’t go down all that well with Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman who said at the time that Council members are the leaders and are entitled to space befitting the job they do.
An interesting part of the political culture in Burlington is the way we treat our politicians; sort of like poor cousins who are given “hand me downs” and always fearful of taking what they are entitled to in terms of remuneration and perks. Council members have not had a pay increase for two years and there is no plan to re-instate the Citizen’s Advisory Committee recommendation that put the pay scale plan we have now (but don’t follow) in place so that Council members never had to find themselves setting their own pay scale.
Ward 1 Councillor Rick Craven felt that Council and the Mayor should be on the ground floor where they were visible and more accessible. If you are meeting with the Mayor, one of his staff` has to take the elevator to the ground floor and escort you to the eighth floor. General Manager of Corporate Services, Kim Phillips thought that Council members were out of the office much of the time and that the space on the ground floor could be put to better use in terms of public access to different departments. A better understanding of both the role and the perception of the role played by elected officials might have led to a different comment.
The discussion surrounding the move revealed some of the tension between members of the Executive arm of city hall staff and members of Council. This Council is quite a bit more cohesive and has a better sense of itself and the role it plays in the running of the city than previous Council’s and there are people who have served in senior executive roles and expect their accommodation to reflect the role they play. There are senior staff members who get paid more than Council members who have forgotten that Council leads and gives directions.
The cost of renovating the space came in at just over $28,000. The move will keep the elected officials and their staff in the one location where they have all but immediate access to each other as well as being close to the City Manager who is also on the eighth floor.
Longer term, Council may spruce up the Council Chamber, put in a better microphone system; upgrade the audio visual system and install an electronic voting system so that all votes are captured and made part of the public record. Then move the Council members to the ground floor where they belong.
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