How does
Council work? What do I do if I have questions and concerns? What are my
expectations and responsibilities?
Those of us
who have been newly elected have had a number of workshops since the election
to have the first question answered. The first workshop was with a lawyer
who was very clear about what we can and can't do. He pointed out that we
each get one vote and that individually we can do nothing. Individually
we can't make promises to get you better snow removal or garbage pick up.
In fact, as councillors, we should only speak to one person, the Chief
Administrative Officer or CAO. Council directs the CAO and tells him what
to do. The CAO is the boss for all the employees who work for the Town of
Sundre. He tells all of them what to do. If you call a Councillor or the Mayor,
we will call the CAO to do follow up because that is all we can do. I
just can't call the grader operator and tell him to get snow off a street.
We have had
an orientation from all departments so we have a better idea of the scope and
parameters of those departments. It is a steep learning curve for me
filled with many "I had no idea" moments (and I had the job before).
We are trying to learn about the implications and consequences of the upcoming
budget decisions we have to make. I would love to have no increase in
taxes (wouldn't we all) but there are consequences. We have to plan 10,
20 and 30 years out rather than make decisions that will have to be corrected
next year - or by the next Council - or by the one after that. It is
complicated - and very exciting. Your Council will work behind the scenes with
staff to deal with all the details to continually improve programs services and
facilities for our community.
As
residents, you probably have better access to individual departments than
Council because we cannot influence the work of staff members in different
departments. If you have a question or a concern, everyone on staff wants
you to call the Town Office at 403-638-3551. Every department of the Town
has priorities as to how they operate. The first priority in every
department is customer service. They rely on you to let them know if you
have questions about service or if you have concerns about when something will
be done. If you don't call, nobody knows what to do to help you or answer
your questions.
The Mayor
and Councillors want to hear about your questions and concerns also. We
follow up with the CAO to see how things get handled and it helps us to know if
there are common questions. Council can change policy, change budgets,
and direct the CAO to tell staff to do things differently - if the majority of
Council wants that.
In the lead
up to the election, we heard from many residents. I took notes and so did
your Councillors. What I found was that many of the questions or concerns
just needed an explanation. There is misinformation out there and we want
to correct it. The vast majority of programs, services and facilities operated
by the Town sail smoothly along. There are very good people doing very good
work in very complex circumstances. People are generally OK with things.
Again, as your Council, we want what you want - to continually improve.
I want to
close with a few thoughts. If you are healthy, and you live in Canada,
there are millions of people around the world that would give everything to
trade places - for the opportunities that would be available for their children
and grand children. We live in Alberta - the best province in Canada.
We live in rural Alberta - so very closely connected to the outdoors.
Is there a better place to live? Let us be sure we temper our
expectations with the appreciation of all the blessings we take for granted
each and every day.
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