When I got here, city council was not something that we covered.
Since we have started covering council the past 10 months, we have discovered much about how a city is run.
Having to sit through council meetings, some reaching 3 hours long, here is some advice for upcoming council and mayoral candidates.
It is not that exciting:
Talking about lagoon upgrades, road closures, and water main breaks is not the most exciting discussions in the world.
Discussing these things with fellow councillors and the mayor, some of whom you are not going to agree with 100 per cent of the time, these meetings can reach an hour long just on their own.
But guess what, these are important issues.
A lot can come from deciding when to build or upgrade the lagoon system. How much will it cost if council waits another year? Will the system break down if council waits another year? Is it going to become an environmental disaster if council waits another year?
These are decisions that have to be made.
Everyone will have a different opinion:
Especially when it comes to multimillion dollar projects, everyone is going to have a different opinion on when or how these things need to be done.
Can an auditorium wait another five years? Can major infrastructure upgrades wait another two years?
Majority vote means that council members will have to convince fellow members why they should vote a certain way.
This is not forcing them to vote but you do have come up with a convincing argument on why they should vote.
There are many things candidates have been promising but really that can only be put into place if they can convince their fellow councillors and the mayor that it is a good idea.
Working together is the key to making council work.
It is a thankless job:
Whether someone disagrees with a bylaw enforcement, or does not like that boil water advisory that just went out, there is little that can be done to convince people that council is working to do a good job.
Again, it is a matter of convincing people that these things are necessary to keep the city running smoothly or that the new bylaw will keep everyone safer or that a new theatre and auditorium space is needed.
Some people just won’t be convinced and councillors and the mayor will just have to learn to live with the fact that not everyone will be pleased or think they are doing a good job.
It is a lot of hardwork:
For council alone there are packages and background information to read, research to do, and people to talk to about issues that will be voted on or discussed.
However, council meetings are not the only thing involved is this job.
Along with four committees, the city is also represented on boards and organizations all across Humboldt and area, which means more than just one meeting a week that councillors and the mayor have to go to.
Special meetings of council, public hearings, standing committees and board and agency meetings, conferences, conventions, seminars, and workshops, as well as public appearances are all on the list of commitments for new councillors and the mayor.
Team effort:
Because decisions are made as a group, one person has little power involved with a municipal council. There may be a misconception that the mayor has the majority of the power. Well that is not true in this instance.
I have heard this many times from current City Manager, Roy Hardy: the council steers the ship, the staff power the ship.
Humboldt is supposedly going to grow:
Projections see Humboldt growing with the new Jansen Potash Project and city staff are preparing for that.
Over the next 10 years, Humboldt will see a significant increase in housing and infrastructure needs.
Again, not everyone is going to have the same ideas on how to handle this issue of growth but the current council has been diligent in acting to plan for the growth with the Our Humboldt Community Plan, the new zoning bylaws, and the Priority Based Budgeting System.
No matter what people think about how the current council did, current candidates included, do not discount everything that was done in the name of progress just because someone is giving them a low performance rating. And on that note:
Go in ready to learn:
I will admit I am guilty of this.
We watch and read and listen to political stories on the news and think, ‘I could to better than that person.’
That does not mean that anyone can step into a position such as this and know everything about municipal politics.
Be open to learning about the system and learning how to use the system.
Work on better understanding the system.
Especially to current candidates that are up for re-election, use your experience but going in with the attitude of knowing everything can be very detrimental.
To all the candidates, good luck and I cannot wait to see what the new council has in store.
