There is a must attend set of meetings coming up next week - if a Candidate shows up at your door - ask why they aren't in the 'classroom'

By Pepper Parr

September 6th, 2022

BURLINGTON, ON

 

There are 24 people running for seats on Council. That includes Walter Tuck about whom we know nothing

Lisa Kearns ward 4 Councillor once took part in a meeting while driving her children home from school – THAT is multi-tasking.

Few have any real idea as to what they are getting themselves into. The five people who were new to council in December of 2018 must have felt they were thrown into the deep end of a swimming pool without a life jacket when they began sitting at meetings.

In looking back at their individual performances there is a lot to learn – something we will dig into as we work our way towards election day.

Next week there is an opportunity for the 19 people people running for council seats for the first time to get a first hand look at what they are getting into.

City Council makes the policy decisions and decides if they like and want what they see in a Staff report. The actual decision gets made at those Council meetings when the Mayor is in the Chair.

Councillor Sharman loves Council meetings – that is his playing field – the place where he can show off, have fun and get cranky – all within the same meeting.

The work, the debate and the discussion involving members of council and staff along with outside consultants who have been brought in is where the rubber hits the road. These are the Standing Committees that Council, with significant Staff and City Manager input created: the Chairs of these Standings Committees are determined by Council and they change every year.

This is where you get to see what individual council members have in the way of strengths and skills sets.

When they show up at your door – ask them – did you attend the Standing Committee meetings – and then ask what they learned.

Councillor Stolte has perhaps the best attendance record – she may have missed two meetings. She chose to attend those meetings for which she wasn’t paid.

The four Standing Committees that will meet next week are:

On the 12th – the Audit Standing Committee meets. This is the one Committee that does not have a council member as chair; it also has to citizen members. It audits – anything it wants to audit. The city auditor takes direction from the committee members. There are some audit functions that are mandated.
’s role it to look at number and determine if the

On the 13th, CPRM, the Community Planning, Regulation & Mobility Committee meets. Statutory Public Meetings are part of what this meeting covers.

On the 14th CSSRA: Corporate Services, Strategy, Risk and Accountability Committee meets. This is the committee that handles the budget meetings.

Councillor Galbraith would prefer to work from home all the time – but he attends council meetings most of the time.

And on the 15th EICS, the Environment, Infrastructure & Community Services Committee meets.

Councillor Nisan has worked from his home since the beginning of the pandemic

Traditionally the meetings start at 9:30, the br4eak for a one hour lunch and run until 4 pm. If the agenda is full the resume at 6:30 and run until 10 – they can add a half hour if they wish.

Those full day meetings are not the exception – it all depends on the agenda – Planning and the Budget take up a lot of the oxygen.

If any of the candidates running for the first time doesn’t log into these meetings – you know for sure that they are going to be lousy councillors if they are elected.

These are the seven people who want to be re-elected. every seat is at risk: some much more so than others.

 

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