ARTSCAPE re SPACES AND PLACES - AUMA.ca · 2019-12-03 · Leadership Qualities: Elected Most Important Biggest Challenge • Ethics 46% 16% • Vision 44 37 • Respect 40 29 •

“COUNCIL/STAFF RELATIONS”

Gord Hume AUMA Oct. 5, 2016

Municipal Cultural Planning

Voters usually judge a

Council before they

judge a Councillor

Municipal Cultural Planning

D YSfUncTionable

Municipal Cultural Planning

Why do people run for office?

Most people sincerely want to improve

their community…

What happens is, reality sets in…

Leadership Qualities: Elected

Most Important Biggest Challenge

• Ethics 46% 16%

• Vision 44 37

• Respect 40 29

• Honesty 38 12

• Communication 35 34

• Consensus Building 17 26

• Decisiveness 16 35

• Character 11 6

• Confidence 5 10

• Humility 4 14

• Organization 3 13

• Creativity 2 18

• Charisma 1 5

Leadership Qualities: Administration

Most Important Biggest Challenge

• Communication 63% 52%

• Respect 38 19

• Organization 30 8

• Vision 30 27

• Ethics 26 10

• Honesty 25 12

• Open mindedness 20 30

• Decisiveness 19 25

• Consensus building 13 23

• Confidence 13 18

• Creativity 11 25

• Character 9 6

• Humility 4 9

• Charisma 1 8

Effectiveness of Council:

Issue Avg. Rank

• “The Council in my municipality perform their role effectively” 6.08

• “I respect the Council in my municipality” 6.59

• “I trust the Council in my municipality” 6.11

• “The Council makes good decisions based on the information

provided by senior municipal staff” 6.25

• “The Council is my municipality clearly understands its role” 5.44

Staff/Council working relationship:

Clear understanding of roles 64

Mutual trust 64

Respect 37

Shared vision 36

Communication 34

Professionalism 31

Shared priorities 18

Cooperation 17

RESPONSIBILITIES

COUNCIL:

1. VISION

2. POLICY AND STRATEGIC DIRECTION

ADMINISTRATION:

1. SERVICE DELIVERY

2. MANAGE DAILY OPERATIONS

Getting in Trouble…

1. Dysfunctional Council

2. Mayor off-centre

3. Lousy CAO

4. Mayor-CAO battling…

Council’s Characters…

• Ego

• Personal problems

• Dumb

• Dislikable

• Leakers

• Weak mayor

Administration characters:

• Weak leadership

• Poor relationships

• Failing to build strong team

• CAO playing politics

• Lack of staff development

• Falling behind technologically

Building a Better Relationship:

1. Respect the roles

2. Play nice

3. Collective vision

4. Mayor-CAO in sync

5. Communications

6. Quidnuncs

7. Right question, right debate

8. Resolving conflict

9. Open government

10. Innovation and creativity

Municipal Cultural Planning

1. Respect the Roles:

• Clearly understand the role of Council

and the role of Administration

• Share a common vision

• Don’t cross the boundaries (eg. Staff

don’t report to Councillors…)

• Hire a great City Manager

Municipal Cultural Planning

2. Play Nice

• Earn each other’s trust

• Share information

• Respect each other

• Praise in public, criticize in private

Municipal Cultural Planning

3. Collective Vision

• Council needs to set a strong vision

• Brief, clear, simple, achievable

strategic plan

• Clarity of goals and objectives

• Staff in-put is valuable, but it is

Council’s decision…

Municipal Cultural Planning

4. Mayor/CAO/City Manager

• Key relationship

• Must have effective, respectful working

relationship

• A council’s achievements can be

scuttled by a bad relationship

• Staff are deeply impacted by this

relationship

Municipal Cultural Planning

5. Communications

• Communication is a city hall priority

• Internal communications are the most

critical staff concern

• Traditional and social media are two

different animals (either can scar you!)

• Local media are being diminished

• Getting harder to get a message out…

Municipal Cultural Planning

QUIDNUNCS

Municipal Cultural Planning

7. Right Questions, debates…

• Don’t waste council or staff time

• Focus on the real issue

• Understand the larger questions and

concerns

• Anticipate future developments…

• Understand the context of your

community and its place in the world

• Look ahead, not back

Municipal Cultural Planning

8. Handling Conflict

• Resolve it quickly

• Get past the personality conflicts

• Bring in outside educator/mediator if

needed

• Mayor/CAO must show leadership, but

Council must intervene if necessary

• “Help Council to be successful”

• A “FREE PASS” for the CAO—twice

Municipal Cultural Planning

9. Open Government

• Public is demanding open government

• Staff and elected officials must

understand and support this practice

• Share information, data…

• Community engagement

• Cooperative policies and procedures

Municipal Cultural Planning

10. Innovation and Creativity

• Support innovation!!!

• Don’t throw staff or an idea ‘under the

bus’

• Increase risk tolerance at Council

• Expand training/education

• Adopt best practices

• Insist on creative solutions

Municipal Cultural Planning

Courage

• Public service today is very hard

• Administration is under constant

pressure

• Council is under constant scrutiny

• Need people with tenacity in gov’t.

• Develop stronger Council/Staff

relationships—work at them!

Changing the Model:In Canada, provinces and territories need to change the

traditional relationship with their municipalities:

1. Modern partnership between provinces and municipalities

2. New Revenue sharing, likely through consumption taxes

3. A change in local tax authority—and then full

accountability for local leaders

4. A broader governance mandate for municipalities

5. New protocols for each order of government to do what it

can do best

Municipal Cultural Planning

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Questions and Discussion:

• [email protected]

• www.gordhume.com

• To order any of Gord’s books:

books.municipalworld.com