The SICS Committee
Mayor McKay and Council:
I would like to thank you all for the discussion which took place on Monday afternoon on the subject of Committees. While I did not find the information which I had hoped for and requested, I heard you all raise interesting questions about the topic which helped me sort the issue in my own mind. Following your observations on the number of Committees and Commissions and their leadership structure, I was particularly taken by the information that there are municipalities which have very few or even no committees. This brought me back to the Community Charter which, while permitting committees, neither suggests nor encourages them.
This then led led me to the basic question of why we have them at all? The reasons I could come up with were as follows:
- We have always –or at least in living memory- had them.
- They take a load off the backs of Council.
- They provide a check on or back up for our professional staff.
- They offer a window on community opinion.
You may have other reasons and if so, I would be happy to hear them.
But for the above and after some consideration, I offer the following comment:
1. is no reason at all.
2. Relieves, or at best mitigates, Staff of their administrative responsibilities.
3. Similar to 2, they dilute the responsibilities of our highly paid professional Staff.
4. There are non institutionalized means for gathering public opinion on areas of community activity which are considerably less convoluted and expensive in Staff time.
If it is felt that a Committee is necessary, I would like to put forward the suggestion of a single committee dedicated to the capture and regular reporting on Suggestions for Improvements and Complaints about Service from the public. The SICS Committee would report monthly to Council, to Staff and to the public on input received and actions taken in response.
Ron Bolin
Posts and Comments on Nanaimo Governance 
I wholeheartedly support your suggestion Ron. The Ratepayers Association is considering producing a quarterly review report on Council decisions and staff activities as feedback to the Mayor & Council. The 9 person Committee of the Whole is a single committee isn’t it; why do we need more?
—–Original Message—– From: Mayor Bill McKay
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2015 9:06 PM
To: Ron Bolin
Cc: Mayor&Council ; Ted Swabey
Subject: Re: Committees
Mr. Bolin,
The issue of committees is a very complex subject to which I would like to address some of you concerns.
1) Committees allow interested members of the public to actively and positively contribute to the guidance and governance of their community.
2) Committees allow work to be distributed to others besides Council. Councillors work very hard, contribute a tremendous amount of time and effort, and very much appreciate the help and guidance they receive from committees.
3) Committee work allows more detailed discussion and in depth study of many areas of community work. To expect Council to take on the very detailed work would cause their work load to increase to a full time position. Would you suggest that we disband all our volunteer committees and create 8 full time Councillors to replace them?
I would love for you to get involved in one or two of our community committees. You, Fred Taylor, and Robert Fuller are very engaged members of the community. We would really appreciate your help on any committee you may have an interest in.
On a more serious note, I have to request that you refrain from comments that ridicule or mock our staff members. E-mail to Mayor and Council are also read by staff members, some junior members who are being completely demoralized by your comments. It is my intent to create respectful relationships within City Hall, within Council chambers, and our interaction with members of the public, but expect the same from the public.
We are having a meeting tomorrow morning which will be covering committee work. Would love to have you there.
Very warmest regards,
Bill McKay
___________________
On Jan 22, 2015, at 12:00 AM, Ron Bolin <rlbolin@telus.net wrote:
Mayor McKay:
Thank you for your response to my comments on the issue of Committees. I do wish, however to suggest that you may have misperceived some of my points.
As per your points:
1) There are a great many ways in which members of the public interested in various civic activities can contribute to the guidance and government of their community. Individuals or groups of such citizens, if they believe it worth while, can approach Staff or Council at any time, eg. The Chamber, the BIAs, various groups and Societies and such individuals as you mention do this all the time. I, for example, am doing so in this message.
2) Work can and is regularly distributed to others besides Council: to Staff in particular, and the public in general. It is my feeling that the efforts of our professional Staff may actually be hindered if they feel that they must compete with amateurs on issues at which they, by education and training, are experts. (Note my use of the word "must". Most professionals feel quite at home in requesting assistance where they feel it is needed.)
3) I most certainly would not suggest that Council involve itself in more detailed and in depth discussions of City Administration. In my mind this is a matter for Staff who are paid to provide their expertise to the administrative problems which may be posed by Councils direction on policy and procedure. I believe that Council is already involved in much more administrative detail than should be the case.
I have had experience serving on a City Committee and can only report that I found the experience to be an inefficient use of time with the Committee fairly frequently unable to raise a quorum and with too much time spent either on Staff trying to educate the Committee or in the Committee trying to direct Staff in areas which they were perfectly capable of managing without the Committee given their knowledge of the situation in both its practical and theoretical aspects and of the people in the community who they could call upon if needs be for additional expertise or guidance.
I must humbly apologize if my comments are felt by Staff to be ridiculing or mocking. While I cannot claim to have been a Councillor, I have served on staff in a municipal environment and on contract to provincial, national and international organizations. While I do feel that some efforts of Staff are less than their best, I do not believe that such efforts are the best that they can do. I would further suggest that there are reasons for this. I feel that the basis of the problem lies in a general misunderstanding of the roles of Council and Staff by both parties, accentuated by our committee structures. As mentioned previously, I suggest that Council and its committees are too often too much into detail and that for this reason Staff may give less than their best figuring that their recommendations will be frustrated in any event as the policy or procedure on which the work is to be done is unclear. Please note that I do not mean to imply that Staff reports are unassailable: quite the contrary. But that they, at least in my perception, too often provide less than thoroughly documented and well reasoned reports as they count on Council or its Committees to provide operations guidance or criticism. And so the situation turns and churns.
The last thing that I would like to see is demoralized Staff as, from experience, I know that most Staff in a government organization are there for the purpose of service to the public and to their own ideals. I believe that our atmosphere is tainted by the lack of clarity in civic roles. If we want eager and innovative Staff they must be given the opportunity to display their talents in an environment which, while fully professional is not overly political.
I am afraid I am unable for personal reasons to be unable to attend most morning meetings and so will not be there again tomorrow.
I would be happy to meet with you to discuss my thoughts further.
Ron Bolin
____________________________
Hi Ron,
Many of Mayor McKay’s point I have to agree with. That been said I don’t want to argue for the Mayor, but I think the role some committees have value in general if they are relevant, informed and respected.
As a channel for public discussion and debate committees serve a valued role filtering information that is relevant to either staff or council. Both staff and council can be constrained by time so that a decision that has multi-layered implications and/or complex associations and/or extensive research associated with it might require a review by a group of people to effectively “digest” an issue and produce a comprehensive report.
Your view that committees are staffed by appointed “amateurs” is a propagation of a stereotype. Hopefully, committees are composed of people interested enough in the purpose of the committee to keep themselves informed on the relevant topics of discussion. Some on the committee would have very specific backgrounds related to a topic that other committee members can rely on. Also, we can not expect staff to know all things relevant to an issue they are confronted with, but a committee member or two with experience related to that issue would be an invaluable resource.
I think, with respect, Ron, that relying too much on staff to be all things to council while not permitting staff to access the skills and experience available from committees leaves the city vulnerable, burdens council with much more than is reasonable, and requires of the public expectations well beyond the abilities of even the most gifted of staff and council.
Dan (Appell)
Dan:
I must take umbrage at your suggestion that I do not consider the role of elders and experts among the public in the governance of our City. I have repeatedly noted that professional Staff will avail themselves of these resources by way of conversations or ad hoc meetings as needed –or of the contracted services of an expert where required. My objection is to making Committees a formal part of the equation between 1) an elected Council responsible for policy and procedure (along with their only employee, a City Manager); 2) the City Manager and those employed by him/her to operationalize the administration; and 3) the public. In my mind formalizing committees onto those 3 stable legs adds a fourth which can bring instability to decision making: too many cooks spoil the broth. Council is elected: Staff are hired: Committees are appointed. There is a difference. My use of the term “amateurs” was based on this perception, and was not meant as derogatory of those among the public with knowledge and experience in various areas of municipal interests. Their skills should be utilized. It is only with the manner in which they are used that I disagree. If my intention of the use of the term “amateur” was misunderstood, please accept my apology.
As for the matter of time, using it wisely is the best time saver. Committees take up an inordinate amount of time and effort for both Councillors and for Staff. It is my opinion that the administrative engine would be better served by each performing their respective functions monitored by the broader civic environment rather than trying to build another engine to govern them both.
I also wish to repeat my call for one Committee: the SICS Committee which deals with suggestions for improving Nanaimo and with complaints about its operation. There is currently no coordinated gathering of information on these vital areas for assessing the pulse of our City. Suggestions or complaints which come to the City are diluted over the system, uncoordinated and unreported and easily lost in the hurly burly of administrative routine. There is a reason why corporate organizations maintain units which deal with customer relations. We should emulate them.
Ron
Maybe some folks should attend this course?
http://www.sfu.ca/continuing-studies/courses/city/writing-reports-that-work.html?utm_source=mailoutinteractive&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20course:%20How%20to%20write%20policy%20reports%20for%20council
Ron: Mayor McKay stated above: “You, Fred Taylor, and Robert Fuller are very engaged members of the community. We would really appreciate your help on any committee you may have an interest in.”
The Mayor also says: “It is my intent to create respectful relationships within City Hall, within Council chambers, and our interaction with members of the public, but expect the same from the public.”
If that is truly your intent, Mr. Mayor, then I would respectfully suggest that you may wish to speak to City Staffer, Mr. Chris Scholberg, about the conduct of one of the said ‘gentlemen’, (that you have mentioned), at public meetings. Thank you.
Respectfully submitted.
Taylor & Fuller missed the boat.
Full of good intentions their obviously partisan political leanings spoilt the day.
YES, we do need a core review; but not a purge of unions or well founded checks & balances that “red tape” safeguards the public interest that they seem to dislike.
At the end of the day we have to work with Council & Staff to effect change.
In your face dissent is fine for blogs but not for direct communication with Council & Staff.
Trailblazer: I have presented in another venue the view that what we speak of as a Core Review needs to be broken into two discrete parts. The first part is to define the services which we, as a municipal community, either must perform by legislation or wish to perform for the health of the community and whether there is to be anything beyond these functions -and if so, what: and how much are we prepared to devote to them. These areas, aside from the legislated functions, are political and must be defined by us as a community as best we can.
Having done this, the matter becomes one of how well those identified services are performed. At this stage outside expertise may come into play in determining the efficiency with which these functions are performed. Efficiency is not a political process, but it is made so if we do not draw the distinctions between functions and the efficiency with which they are carried out.
Certainly this process should not be a purge of either union or non union Staff, but may lead to either more or less personnel in the mandated and desired areas of municipal activity depending on the efficient use of human resources as defined by experts in the various areas.
This raises a subsidiary question regarding the position of the HR (Human Resource) function in the City. For whom and how does this function operate? For the efficiency and effectiveness of the corporation and its constituents as a concern? Or for the benefit of the constituency in which it is embedded, i.e. Staff? Or for some blend of both? I believe that this question is, at least in part, related to the Core Review discussion. If we believed that the functions which the City has taken on were the correct ones and that they were being performed efficiently and effectively, there would still, no doubt, remain dissenters, but it is unlikely that they would be either numerous or so well attended.
Hi Ron: I wish to thank you in advance for letting me clarify something that I said in my post of January 22. As you know, in his written response to you, Mayor McKay specifically referred to “You, Fred Taylor, and Robert Fuller”.
And I posted here on Jan. 22, that perhaps the Mayor may wish to speak to City Staffer, Mr. Chris Scholberg, about the conduct at public meetings, of one of the aforesaid gentlemen ….. so I wish to now confirm that I was not referring to you, of course, Ron, nor to Robert Fuller. I was prompted to comment here on Jan. 22, due to personal experience of being the target of bullying and intimidation in a City hall boardroom some time ago.
Also, for your info, Ron – I attended the “Respectful Workplace” orientation session for the new council on January 8, 2015, (which was a presentation by two lawyers). After the session, I spoke to the H.R. Manager, who was in attendance … and also to Mayor McKay, about the subject matter … public meetings not only encompass council meetings, committee meetings … but also includes meetings such as those that the Nanaimo Neighbourhood Network, (a loose-knit group, which liaises with City staff) … meetings that are held in a City of Nanaimo boardroom.
We need a study to decide upon a study?
No joke intended .
Great care has to be taken before jumping in; but in we must go!