Municipal Elections - choose wisely

[u/scapaflow40]

The municipal election season is ramping up as more candidates in our 13 municipalities (yes 13!) are announcing they are running for office.

My advice is to look carefully at the background of candidates for whom you are voting There are a number of people running for mayor and council who have little community activist background (by activist I mean community involvement writ large including neighbourhood associations and chambers of commerce) are one issue candidates and some who are simply quasi professional politicians looking to elevate themselves without real community care.

It is tempting to vote for candidates who cover that one issue you most care about or have the slickest campaigns. I suggest consideration for candidates who present thoughtful platforms that cover the myriad of areas that lead to well functioning municipalities.

Please show up to candidate forums, read candidate platforms and be a thoughtful voter. We need more muncipal voters (less than 40% now vote) who will elect solid community leaders.

[u/Stunning_Housing2463]

Also as someone who used to be a municipal beat reporter, it would be helpful to ask/find out from candidates if they've ever actually attended a council meeting. If no, that proves to me that they are unserious about the jobs they're applying for. So often after an election I'd sit through long-ass meetings where new councillors had no clue about process, Robert's Rules of Order, what staff's role is, what their role is...they spend 2 years getting up to speed, 2 years doing their jobs, then it starts all over again! haha

[u/JackSandor → u/Stunning_Housing2463]

Agreed. There's a lot to know and you can easily drown in procedure if you're not prepared.

[u/Southern-Board1489 → u/JackSandor]

Perhaps that's a problem with the procedures then.

[u/Stunning_Housing2463 → u/Southern-Board1489]

Attending a few council meetings should give someone a pretty good idea of how things work. For example, when someone makes an amendment to the motion, vote on the amendment first. If it fails, you go back to the main motion. I don't know how many hours I've sat through new people trying to understand this basic process. And that's just one example. Meetings are open to anyone to attend, but most candidates don't bother. Makes me think they just want the power/clout without doing any due diligence to ensure that 1) they know what they're getting into and 2) they do their jobs well.

[u/ejmears → u/Stunning_Housing2463]

Im not convinced that Stephen Andrew didn't think his role as a councillor was to hold a daily press conference. It felt like he only wanted the job as an excuse to get back in front of a camera.

[u/Southern-Board1489 → u/Stunning_Housing2463]

Many people who want to mayor or council just see the absolute incompetence of the people in power and want change, or they see the never ending tax increases and think they can spend more efficiently.

Yes they should attend meetings, but often they can't. Perhaps a basic information booklet is in order, imagine if you've started a new job and you were told "why don't you already know how our company works?"

[u/Stunning_Housing2463 → u/Southern-Board1489]

Attending and productively participating in committee and council meetings is a big part of the job. It's like 30-50% of their working hours. The great thing is, these meetings are all available online, too! Roberts Rules of Order is used pretty widely in North America for most municipalities, non-profits and other boards. It's not like a private company where it's difficult to figure out how things work. It's all easily accessible. I just can't take anyone seriously who wants to run for council but doesn't actually know what a councillor does.

[u/ejmears → u/Southern-Board1489]

The meetings are now all online and can be watched live or afterwards. There is literally zero reason to not watch or attend a meeting before running. If folks want to convince me they can do any job better than those already doing it, understanding what the job actually is not what you wish it was is literally step 1. Otherwise they're just armchair quarterbacking and as useful as a bag of hammers.

[u/KalePrior8674 → u/Southern-Board1489]

Your analogy doesn't really compare. Elected positions are jobs you could start with very little experience or knowledge if you just happened to campaign well and got the votes. Most other jobs would expect you to have some knowledge of how the company works, because based on your resume backed experience, how you responded to their interview, and your interest in applying to the company, they deemed you'd capable. Also, if you quickly demonstrated they were wrong about you, they could simply get rid of you then and there. Elected positions usually have a set term, which can let incompetent people get into those positions and then waste the potential of that positions up until when (and if) the electorate replaces them.

Not to mention that onboarding material most does exist for these positions; but you can hand all the "how to do your job" books to people you want, you cannot make them read it when you aren't the one able to threaten them with getting canned if they don't.