At last night's Committee of the Whole meeting -- WL City Councillor (and WL Mayoralty Candidate) SPS Rathor raised three items of concern in regard to Staff action on the following:
a) 3rd Avenue Traffic Calming devices
b) Road Patching on City Streets
c) Dutch Point Rd - No Parking Signs
In addressing the Committee - Councillor Rathor complained that it was taking too long for Staff to move on the aforementioned 3 items. This led to a public discussion about how Council members should be interacting with their Staff (talking with Staff about City business vs talking with the CAO - Chief Administrative Officer) and where the line should be drawn
Certainly as an Cariboo RD Alternate Director (and hopefully Director later on this year) - I've always understood that you may request 'technical information' on a matter from an individual manager but if it relates to an actionable item or relates to a Staff member directly- then you need to go to the local government Administrator (CAO, City Manager, etc) and discuss your concern/action item with them and leave the matter there
Criticizing Staff on how long it is taking to implement an item in public, even indirectly, is not appropriate and should be discussed with the CAO one on one and left there and hence I profoundly disagree with how Councillor Rathor brought up this matter at last night's Committee of the Whole meeting. Once he raised his concerns with Williams Lake's City Manager (CAO), Darrell Garceau, he should have stopped it there and not re-raised his concerns in a public meeting...
In my humble opinion- this discussion needed to be an In-Camera item (Labour or Staff items are always discussed behind closed doors) rather than a public discussion
The general rule is that the local government (municipal council/regional board) approves Staff time for an item and the CAO role's is to get that item completed, subject to the task deadline (next meeting, etc). If a member of that local government has a concern about the length of time it is taking to complete a task - that member needs to go to their CAO and discuss it with him/her and not "micro-manage" Staff at a public meeting and I agree with two recent blog comments left on this blog that Williams Lake Council needs to stop "micro-managing" its' CAO and to resume its' role as Policy/Decision Maker and leave the CAO and his staff to do the "day to day" items...
~SF
5 comments:
They just spent a lot of money,time and effort on the Dougald Smith Report and it is obvious that it has fallen on deaf ears.Surinder wants to be Mayor..nothing will ever change at the City of WilliamsLake until the entire Council has been replaced.Deja Vu all over again.how long before the CAO resigns in frustration?
Wow, as a tax payer of WL I would expect results. Surinderpal is the only one on council actually holding anyone accountable. If something needs to be repaired, fixed, etc there is an expectation it will get done in a timely manner especially when it’s a safety concern. Regardless if you agree or not with Surinderpal, he is the only one delivering any sort of results on this council!
No that's just what he wants you to believe. You're one of the people he's fooled. None of them deliver results. Surinder is just better than the others at convincing you otherwise.
I think every member of council will be in the biggest battle of their political careers should they choose to run this year,but there is so much information out there,more than ever before,and the animosity so great because of the mess they have created they should realize that the WRITING ON THE WALL is for them.Surinders tried and true methods of the past are wearing very thin with the voters.
What Surinder is doing is called pre-election politicking! Remember, he was part of this council for the past three years (er, 21 years) and was part of all the decisions made. Yes, he was one vote, but there were many times in the past three years when he could have voted against but voted with. It's only when he wants to make an impression on the public that he starts voting against things. So stop putting out your "poor me" face, Surinder. You are just as bad as everyone else on council for covering things up and not being transparent with the public. (Remember how Mayor Cook used to use "open and transparent"; don't hear that any more! It's fine to use the buzz words; just must more difficult to actually follow through) In the case of this council, it hasn't happened ... with ANY of the Councillors.
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