Money

Let us have a new conversation to begin 2018. Let us imagine ways we can make local government work better. Let us consider ideas that might change the current trajectory. Let us promote a better way of governing.

For there is no use in hoping Shire Hall will finally tackle the issues weighing on this community without first recognizing that local government must be reformed in Prince Edward County.

We have this opportunity in 2018.

Whether the issue is affordable housing, the lack of new homebuilding in general or the steady decay and escalating cost of maintaining our roads and waterworks, our challenges are big.

They are too big for our current council. That is why we need radical reform in our municipal leadership.

Since it fired its reconstructivist manager in year one of the current term, council has been adrift. Spinning aimlessly without agenda. Without focus. Its accomplishments have been slight. Its ambitions puny—or preposterously extravagant (e.g. County Road 49).

The chasm between management and council has grown wider. Too many around the council table lack a fundamental understanding of the concepts and principles required to govern a business of this size and complexity. At times, it is as though they speak different languages. It’s not their fault. Many learned the craft of governance decades ago in the township hall, where the numbers were smaller. The working bits more transparent.

The scale of our challenges now inspires futility. Unable, or unwilling, to grasp the scale and complexity of the municipality’s issues, many council members are too eager to accept incrementalism as a substitute for fixing the problems.

Just last month, council—prodded by Mayor Robert Quaiff—rammed through a complex package of spending worth more than $80 million in three short days. It is ludicrous. Very near abdication of duty. The machinery is too big, too complex, too daunting. It has gotten away from them.

In this context, we are wholly reliant on the good faith and competence of Shire Hall staff—that they will tend to the best interest of residents. For they are driving the agenda. They are deciding priorities. They are determining the pace of activity and who does what, when and how.

Don’t misread this. Personally, I believe we are in capable hands in the short term. There is no imminent crisis in this situation. But it can’t endure. It is unhealthy, and ultimately undemocratic.

What to do?

Over the next few weeks, I will offer some suggestions and recommendations, gleaned from 15 years of observing, reflecting and writing about our local government.

We start with the money. Council members make less than $20,000 per year. Even as a part-time job, it makes no sense. A council member who spends 30 hours per week on council business will earn less than they could flipping Quarter Pounders at McDonalds.

The message is terrible. Either we accord so little value to the job of our council representative or we ask them to spend less time and energy digging into this $80 million business. Neither is satisfactory.

The result is our council comprises mostly retirees. The amount we pay for this job effectively narrows the field to those with time to kill and a pension income. If they did anything else we would call it a hobby or volunteer work. But we ask these folks to tackle some big issues and govern a complex business. It is an arrangement that ensures our governance challenges will grow rather than diminish.

To attract a more representative council, we must radically reform council compensation. It might have been an easier sell, had we managed to reduce the size of council, but it doesn’t alter the necessity for proper compensation. If for no other reason than common decency.

This brings me to Reform #1: Double the rate of council member compensation to $40,000 per year. We currently spend about $350,000 each year, doubling it would cost us $700,000 per year. A big number—but it’s peanuts next to the $80 million in taxpayer money Shire Hall spends each year. The difference amounts to less than the cost of a storm pond for Hospital Creek or a salt dome replacement in Picton.

We must attract younger and more capable people. Folks in the middle of their working life—able to give four years to their community without going broke in the process. Folks with experience in large- and medium-sized enterprises, who come equipped to ask tough questions about the County’s spending and priorities. And folks with the stamina to keep asking until their questions are answered fully and satisfactorily.

Reforming council begins with paying these folks properly.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca