What is the definition of Burlington's BEST? Should nominations come from family or should they come from a community that wants to recognize exemplary service?

SwP thumbnail graphicBy Pepper Parr

November 28, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Many a political career has been started with a citizen serving on a city board or committee.

There are hundreds of people as well who have served on a board and found immense satisfaction in being able to make a difference.

Burlington citizen advisory committees provide Council and staff with input about a wide variety of subjects through discussions, presentations and recommendations. Some committees also organize and participate in community events.

Burlington welcomes citizens who represent the diverse backgrounds of the community to participate on these committees. Becoming a member offers residents a unique chance to volunteer their highly valued skills and to strengthen our shared sense of community.
One of the key groups is the Burlington’s BEST Awards Committee. It is made up of 10 voting members, including: six citizens from the community, and four representatives from media and information agencies.

BEST Awards Committee. It is made up of 10 voting members, including: six citizens from the community, and four representatives from media and information agencies. The committee was established in and is seen as a Planning Committee reporting to City Council through the Community Services Committee.

Their mandate is to recognize citizens of Burlington who have brought favourable publicity and honour to the City of Burlington, to increase awareness of the committee so all citizens of Burlington have the chance to be recognized for their achievements.

The recognition is provided through Burlington’s Best Awards an annual event at which Burlington recognizes the Citizen of the Year; a Junior Citizen of the Year; an Arts Person of the Year, and a Seniors Person of the Year;. The city also gives a Community Service Award, an Environmental Award and a Heritage Award.

These awards are important – but there is a problem. In 2014 the nominations or recommendations did not come from the Planning committee – their task was to vote on the nominations they had before them.The result was we had wives nominating husbands, Mothers nominating their children and girlfriends nominating their boyfriends, which, while admirable, is surely not Burlington’s definition of the BEST we have?

Those nominations came from anyone who wanted to send in a nomination. The result was we had wives nominating husbands, Mothers nominating their children and girlfriends nominating their boyfriends, which, while admirable, is surely not Burlington’s definition of the BEST we have?

In the next few weeks the Clerks department will go through the applications for people who would like to be on the Planning Committee. Let us hope that the committee that chooses the people who will vote for the BEST that Burlington has are people who get to vote on merit.

There are some people in this city who have in the past year served us exceptionally well. They deserve to be recognized for what they have done – not for who they are or what their Mother, Father, husband, wife or girlfriend thinks of them.

Friends and family should be applauding the choice the committee makes – they shouldn’t be sending in nominations – nor should the committee be accepting them.

 

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10 comments to What is the definition of Burlington’s BEST? Should nominations come from family or should they come from a community that wants to recognize exemplary service?

  • Donald

    I agree with Lyn.

  • lyn holton

    “The recognition is provided through Burlington’s Best Awards an annual event at which Burlington recognizes the Citizen of the Year; a Junior Citizen of the Year; an Arts Person of the Year, and a Seniors Person of the Year;. The city also gives a Community Service Award, an Environmental Award and a Heritage Award.” – This is a ‘feel good’ initiative created by the Corporation of the City of Burlington, with 6 ‘citizens’ and 4 media reps casting their vote based on the nominations received. It’s a largely cast net that is actively boosting active and engaged citizens in the overall community. Frankly, I see no problem with the present format. ‘Tenni’ (aka J.R.) apparently does, specifically from the artist’s point of view. Point 1: There are less then 200,000 people in this community, and of that whole, some are more likely to ‘give back’ more then others. Artist or not. All in all, it’s a pretty small pool to draw from on an annual basis. Point 2: Just because someone has ‘served’ on a community board or whatever shouldn’t make their commitment any more valid then someone who hasn’t had that ‘formal connection’. A number of people do great things in Burlington without asking for recognition or broader commitment from others. Finally, I see no problem with nominations coming from friends, family or business associates as they are the most likely to actually understand and appreciate the ‘non-committee’ efforts that some individuals have put into the community at large. In any case, once nominated, the Voting Committee DECIDES who goes forward. In that sense, it is not a ‘shoe in’ for any nominee. (Of course, it doesn’t hurt if said individual is actually KNOWN to the 10 Voting Committee members. And it also doesn’t hurt if said nominee is thick with City Hall. Realistically, that’s the nature of both politics and humanity …) City is going to naturally choose those who best exemplify the ‘feel good’ objectives of City Hall and the broader ‘branding’ vision that City Hall is chasing. Personally, I don’t see anything intrinsically wrong with that. Regardless of who is or is not nominated, there will still be those who many will know SHOULD be nominated in some capacity or other. Not everyone needs or even wants any kind of ‘award’ from the City of Burlington to keep on doing what they are going to be doing anyway. As a good example, I nominated a wonderful 78 year old woman who heroically stood against the 11th hour transformation of City View Park by City Hall a few years ago. She didn’t get the ‘award’ from City, but that does not diminish one iota the stellar example she set of community engagement on environmental matters. Those who KNOW her, KNOW this. Award or not.

  • Donald

    Also, it seems that the arts community are most creative, but also the biggest complainers…you guys need to support your community – instead of competing. And yet you wonder why you experience hard times as starving artists.

  • Donald

    Hope this will WARM your heart a little bit, stop being a Grinch:

  • Donald

    The fact that one is nominated is an honour in itself. Last year saw the highest nomination numbers and probably the best attended event yet. Let’s not get caught up in the weeds and start thinking: wow, its great that the city actually does this; it’s nice to know there are so many great volunteers out there. I watch the Burlington’s Best very closely and can say that no one nominated family last year. There was one person however who I heard petitioned to try and get people to nominate her. And this person just keeps coming back every year – seen it in the program for so many years. This is more of a problem! Stop the complaining and start the doing.

  • DB

    Well said, Helene!

  • tenni

    Helene
    I think that your interpretation works for some of the categories. I do not think that pure and only volunteerism to help the elderly, infirm or care for family qualifies you for the Arts Person of the Year. Regardless of the arts discipline (artisan/craft, dance, literary, visual, media arts, music, theatre), there is the candidates actual qualifications performance, exhibition track record to factor in to serving the arts community in particular and therefore the community of Burlington. One arts person seems insufficient by many neighbouring neighbouring communities. It is long over due to re examine the “Arts person of the year” category and make it several.

  • Helene

    Burlington’s “best” or the best from any town or city, are those who care for other family members, the elderly, the infirm, those who face daily challenges. This is a very time-consuming job and most of them do it quietly and without fuss without any expectation of an award. For the most part these people do not enjoy the luxury of time to serve on boards and committees or to volunteer. Some rarely get out of the house. Many volunteers enjoy the luxury of time to do the things they want or the luxury of money to pay others to do domestic work for them while they enjoy the company of others. There is nothing wrong with this. They volunteer because they are gregarious and enjoy it not because they feel driven to “give back to the community”, a greatly overworked phrase! They do not need an award.

  • Donald

    Can you give an example of friends/family who nominated friends/family? There were none last year, to my knowledge as a past recipient. Provide the facts, not the assumptions Pepper. Receipt and review of nominations by a committee is standard process for all awards ceremonies.

    Editor’s note: We deliberately chose not to single out any one person. Our objective was not to embarrass anyone but rather to point out to the committee that perhaps the rules could be made clearer and make it specific that people cannot nominate relatives.

  • tenni

    think that it is a good idea for nominations to come from citizens of Burlington. The iissue is CONFLICT OF INTEREST and not a democratic nomination. I understand that council doesn’t have a conflict of interest policy and so it is not surprising that they have overlooked conflict of interest for nominations.

    Nominations should not come from those close to the nominee and that includes family, business partners and close friends. Nominations should come from peers or those non relatives who have worked with the nominee on committees etc.

    Placing a conflict of interest paragraph on the nomination application and stating that the nominator must not be a close friend, family member or business partner should suffice.

    I have been curious as to the criteria for the committee to vote a person as the “Best” and in particular the Best in the Arts. Someone who is doing something for the first time versus someone who has years experience as an artist and /or leader through service on art boards should be clear as to who should get the award. If the ‘benchmarks” are not there for making this difficult decision then there is need to revamp the benchmarks for making the award. The benchmarks for Citizen of the Year may not be exactly the same as Best Artist etc. but there should be some similarities.

    I can not see a Planning Committee nominating the “Best” candidates if I understand this article. How do these ten people know what is Best in all these categories? No, nominations from the citizens is “best” with the committee making decisions as to which candidate should be given the award. This process may involve interviewing the candidates.