PUBLIC MEETING: What sort of qualities do we need in a City Councillor?

By Adrian Barnes

So what’s the deal with Rossland City Councils? Why do they start out all starry eyed only to end up--in recent years at any rate--melanges of misery and dysfunction? We’ve even, famously, had the RCMP intervene in one of them! Surely we can do better this fall during what will inevitably be a watershed municipal election.

No one doubts that the citizens who run for office every three (now four!) years do so with the best of intentions--they’re all decent people trying to do the right thing. But why does it always go so very wrong?

As we look toward the fall municipal elections we can anticipate one of two dreadful outcomes: A) more of the same or B) everybody wising up and nobody bothering to run!

Clearly there’s need for a fundamental change in the dynamics of how our council operates.

It’s not difficult to decide WHAT a councillor should pledge to do. They should pledge to listen to all voices, communicate clearly with the public, and so on and so forth. And, of course, every election season our candidates dutifully pledge to do just that. Then, a month or so after the election...it all goes to hell.

Recently, I’ve spoken with several councillors--both past and present--who said that they pledged to themselves to be forces for cohesion and amicability when they ran but within a week or two of Election Day divisions and alliances were formed that determined the course of the next few years.

Clearly something has to change. This is a city filled with intelligent, engaged residents. Everything we need is here. We just have to access it.

With this in mind, the Telegraph, in conjunction with Foment West Kootenay, will be hosting a series of informal discussions around municipal governance in the Mountain Kingdom in the months leading up to the 2014 elections. The hope is to clarify exactly what we need in a mayor and council and to help foster an environment that might make qualified Rosslanders consider running for office, as opposed to, as most of us do, hiding beneath our beds during nomination season, clutching rosaries and cloves of garlic.

The first conversation will be centred around the theme of ‘what sort of person should consider running for council?’. The emphasis will be on positive qualities that will enable new councillors to function happily and healthily in their roles, not on any failings of current or previous elected officials. In other words, this isn’t intended to be a chance to get the knives out!

Future conversations in this informal series, depending on issues identified at his first one, will likely revolve around topics like ‘the systems council uses to operate’, ‘staff and council’, and ‘the need for innovation?’.

Rossland is, in so many ways, a teeny weeny rustic utopia. Looking at our intelligent, engaged population, it should be child’s play to rustle up a dozen or so bright, positive candidates who are capable of forming a cohesive body that will then administer our collective joy. Okay, that’s a little overly-optimistic, but I hope you take my point. Dare we posit the idea that being on council should be...fun?

This being a Foment event, the emphasis of the talk will be on fun and refreshments, not seriousness and angst. We’re absolutely certain that this auspicious evening will usher in a total rebirth of democracy--a Golden Age for the Golden City. How could it not? Will you be there? Of course you will….

We encourage all interested citizens and all local politicians, past and present and especially those considering running in the future, to attend.

This conversation will take place on Thursday, May 8 at 7pm in the Rossland Gallery. Be there or be square.