By Cecilia Nasmith

Cobourg council voted at this week's committee-of-the-whole meeting to approve the draft of the procedural bylaw establishing the framework for the shift to a standing-committee governance structure from a committee-of-the-whole structure.

This draft will now become the subject of an Engage Cobourg consultation process, with all input brought back to council for a special meeting to come up with a final draft for approval.

The current committee-of-the-whole structure relies on committee-of-the-whole meetings to consider and debate matters and a subsequent regular meeting to confirm and finalize these matters.

A standing-committee structure would have a small number of specialized committees that meet on their own, with the resulting business then coming before a regular meeting of council.

This is the structure Northumberland County council adopted a couple of years ago. Three councillors each sit on six standing committees that meet early in the month (Community Health, Corporate Support, Finance and Audit, Public Works, Social Services, and Economic Development, Tourism and Planning), prior to a regular council meeting later in the month.

Cobourg council held a special meeting on just this topic last week and, at this week's meeting, decided to approve the bylaw in draft form only, and to take advantage of the committee-of-the-whole meeting to share comments.

Councillor Aaron Burchat liked the idea of two specialized standing committees meeting at the beginning of the month, then – following “a week for reflection” - holding a regular meeting, as well as a more flexible structure under which members of the public can address the committees.

“I figure I'll be attending twice as many meetings per month as I am now,” Councillor Miriam Mutton complained - “and I will have to pursue information to keep informed. It's a bit of a concern for me.”

On the other hand, she liked the idea of the town hall meetings that have been mentioned. She would even like to see input from what she termed “community councils” that can address municipal council on the issues in their neighbourhoods. This is especially important, she added, as she feels council has been “disabled” by the loss of its citizen advisory councils.

Her prediction is that the new model will require an increase in staff (“more budget, more decorating”).

Councillor Randy Barber had his own experiences to share of working on a municipal council in another community that used the standing-committee format.

“I remember it working very well,” Barber stated.
“I'm not going to suggest one is better than the other, but it was very effective and a lot of hard work was done.

“I think the simple fact that you are focusing your work has tremendous benefit for the staff time and their workload. I would hope we don't lose sight of that fact,” he said.

“You will work very closely with staff, perhaps in a more focused way.”

In any event, Barber said, he sees the bylaw as a living document.

“We will have the power to tweak where necessary, and make it the very best practice that we possibly can find.”

Councillor Nicole Beatty saw the move to Wednesday meetings from Monday as a positive thing for both staff and councillors, “so there's more time to digest information.”

She also like the shift to task forces as opposed to advisory committees, describing them as more of a working group.

Mayor Lucas Cleveland – who, as Cobourg's representative to county council, sits on two standing committees at that level of government – also had some experience with the other format.

Addressing Mutton's concerns, he noted that he is allowed to sit in on meetings of any of the other four standing committees if he wants (though he does not get voting privileges), so there's no need to scramble to gather information.

As for advisory committees, he continued, many of them have expressed the concern that their advice was not being followed with the result that their members felt ignored.

“This idea of working groups will be formed around issues council decides with a mandate from council to provide information, making council mores responsible to the committees they struck.”

Finally, Cleveland pointed out that an effective and efficient council is one that is more concerned with staff time than with the time they themselves are required to put in.

“When you are making massive changes, you are not aiming for perfection – you are aiming for improvement,” he said.

“Once we have seen those improvements, we will understand what is and isn't working and modify further. What we are striving for is good governance for the future, and we are going to get there piece by piece, statute by statute, bylaw by bylaw, and no decision we make is final until the end of time.”

The date for the special council meeting to finalize the governance bylaw will be called by the mayor after the public has had a chance to offer its input.