Team-based approach to local governance at WL City Hall

In any local government, whether they be a municipal council, regional district board or board of education, there is a general expectation that there will be mutual sharing of information amongst its' members to ensure a high level of trust - regardless whether that information is confidential or public.

In addition, there is a "unspoken" rule that the Board Chair (regional district board or board of education) or a Mayor (municipal council) will go out of his/her way to defend decisions of their respective organizations', whether from members of the public or media. This rule also applies to anyone who questions whether a member of a regional district board, board of education or municipal council is in a conflict of interest

Case in point - Councillor Tom Barr. Mayor Cook at the May 27th "Town Hall' radio program was asked by Dale Taylor whether or not he was in a conflict when Council was considering the appeal of Nick Weekes (Boot Cabaret owner) and the suspension of his Business License. Mayor Cook's defence of one of her senior City Councillors' was timid at best. She should have stated unequivocally that if Tom Barr was in a conflict, he is wise enough to know what a conflict of interest constitutes and when he should leave a meeting.

Another case in point - in the on-going saga between Mayor Cook and Councillor Rathor whether or not the "confidential" information on the FCM ICSP (Intregrated Community Sustability Planning) Award was truly confidential - I would point my blog readers' to Section 116(2)(b) of the Community Charter, which says the Mayor's role is:

b) to communicate information to the council

If Mayor Cook truly believed that the information relating to the FCM ICSP Award presentation was truly public and I believe that information being publicly released would have the blessing of the City's Chief Administrator, then she should have let all members of Council know via email that this was the case. This would have been in compliance with both the spirit and intent of Section 116(2)(b) of the Community Charter.

This is why, in addition to previous reasons stated by me, that she does not deserve re-election on November 19th, 2011 and I would prefer to see either Councillor Surinder Rathor or Scott Nelson as Mayor as they both see the need for a team-based approach & information sharing to local governance at Williams Lake City Hall