The recommendation is…

Citizens’Assembly delivers its opinion on the size of council

The Prince Edward County Citizens’ Assembly (CA) has completed its deliberations. On September 24 it will recommend that council should be downsized to 10 councillors, plus the mayor. The CA is also recommending against an ‘at large’ voting system in which each elector votes for each councillor. The CA will also urge council to reconfigure electoral wards to ensure a better balance of voters per electoral district; to reflect in general terms the mix of urban and rural voters (25 per cent urban/75 per cent rural); and cautioned council not to default to the existing ward structure.

The CA considered urging council to deal with their recommendation and not punt it down the road. In the end they chose to withdraw that recommendation trusting the weight of the process will compel council to consider their recommendations sincerely.

GETTING TO A RECOMMENDATION
The CA’s recommendation came at the end of three long days of information gathering, hearing arguments and weighing alternatives. The CA was not unanimous in its support of the recommendation—four of its 23 members could not agree with the concensus. Two argued for leaving council size and wards alone, two other pushed for reduction of one councillor to 14 as a better means to resolve deadlocks. Currently an 8-8 tie results in a defeat of a motion or resolution. This was deemed by the Citizens’Assembly to be an unsatisfactory means to end thorny issues.

It was a bold and thinly precedented means to involve ordinary residents in local decision-making. The CA facilitator declared it the first time this method has been used on the municipal level.

Even those who could not agree with the recommendation praised the process. Wellington resident Ron Norton was persuaded over the course of the three days that the council should reduced by just one member due to the dispersed population of the County and diversity of issues that arise. He could not agree with the consensus view, yet he praised the process.

“I want to thank Jonathan and his team,” said Norton. “They were professional, approachable and ensured everyone had an opportunity to voice their opinions. And I want to thank everyone here who participated in this process. Even though I can’t agree with the recommendation, this has demonstrated to me once again that the people of the County care.”

THE NUMBERS
In the end, 81 per cent of the 23 members agreed that 10 councillors would be their recommendation to council, even though for some it wasn’t their first choice. Indeed they were lobbying for an even smaller cohort of eight councillors.

Coincidentally, 81 per cent of those who answered a ballot question about the size of council in the last municipal election also voted for a review.

About half of those voting with the consensus preferred an even smaller counciller but moved to 10 as a concession to holdouts insisting upon the status quo or a slightly reduced council.

The very high levels of support for change counter the argument made often by some, including this newspaper—that is that ordinary people don’t care about how many folks populate council or how wards are balanced. It turns out they do care and most don’t believe the current arrangement works as well as it could.

Many of the CA members said that the issue wasn’t necessarily whether 15 was too many but rather the widespread sense that council was inefficient in the way it conducted business.

Most of the voices late the in day Saturday argued in opposition to the concensus.

Peter Silverman, a retired journalist and child welfare advocate, argued against breaking the current arrangement until it was clear that it would be an improvement.

“I am not convinced chopping people on council will leave us with equal value,” argued Silverman.”

Silverman also warned about what he described as the tyranny of the cabal. He said rural areas are often vulnerable to small groups of people who tend to run and win over and over again, and that power distills into a small number of hands who answer only to themselves.

“Smaller councils can also be dominated by folks with the same ideological values,” said Silverman. “This can be tough to penetrate.”

Silverman suggested that council might better focus on fixing the imbalance in voters per ward.

Facilitator Jonathan Rose said it was expected and appropriate that dissenting voices would rise above the concensus particularly as the CA moved closer to a recommendation. It is vital, according to Rose, that all minority voices be heard clearly.

But he noted that a concensus of 81 per cent was a compelling result. He urged all 23 members to come to Shire Hall on September 24 when the recommendation is put to council.

“It will a great way for one assembly to meet another,” said Rose. “I hope you will be there.”

He noted too that this group was making history—that other communities are monitoring this process for suitability to solve tough issues elsewhere.

Rose said too that the process would have benefited from another day or two deliberation— particularly to flesh out the C A’s recommendations around ward representation.