Councillor wants better access to city directors

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This article was published 24/04/2017 (2558 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

St. Norbert Coun. Janice Lukes is pushing for city administration to be more accountable to elected officials.

Lukes is bringing a motion to today’s council meeting to require senior officials comply with requests for meetings with councillors who have questions about administrative reports before a committee meeting.

“If people understood how we get information, how we’re restricted from asking questions, then they’d understand why some of the questionable decisions were made in the past,” Lukes (South Winnipeg-St. Norbert) said.

Council’s current policy is to release administrative reports and committee agendas 96 hours before a committee meeting occurs, but that window includes weekends and holidays. Lukes said that doesn’t provide enough time for councillors to study the many reports released on the same day and get answers to questions.

Compounding the short timeframe of the 96-hour window, Lukes said councillors are prohibited from meeting with directors and senior managers about any issue during that time, adding councillors are only allowed to telephone a director to ask questions about a report on a committee agenda.

“I personally don’t believe this process makes for good decision-making abilities. How am I going to make an informed decision when I can’t get answers to my questions?” Lukes said.

Lukes’ motion calls for council to direct CAO Doug McNeil, civic directors and senior managers to meet with councillors when requested to discuss administrative reports during the 96-hour period and at any other time as well.

Lukes said she was recently told by McNeil councillors can only telephone civic directors during the 96-hour window to discuss an administrative report that is on a committee agenda. No personal meetings are allowed, and she’s prohibited from trying to book a phone interview for that period, she said.

“These directors are busy, and heaven help me if they’re in a committee meeting during that 96-hour window. There’s no guarantee I’ll get through to them and no way for me to get the answers I need.”

A spokeswoman for McNeil would not disclose when the prohibition against meeting with directors was put in place, but said McNeil believes committee meetings are the most transparent and appropriate setting where questions can be put to the administration.

Lukes, first elected in 2014, said having spent her first two years on council as a member of Mayor Brian Bowman’s executive policy committee, she now shares the frustration of non-EPC councillors who complain about information being withheld from them by senior administrators and better understands how controlling information can determine the outcome of a council vote.

“The last thing they really want is for councillors to come (to committee) and ask questions of directors. Those committees make policy, but I can’t get the information I need to make input into how that policy is determined,” she said, noting EPC members would get to see important or controversial administrative reports as early as two weeks before they were made available to non-EPC members and posted on the city’s website. In addition, EPC councillors spend every Wednesday grilling senior administrators about those reports and receive detailed background briefings.

“This is all about governance and the current model here is totally dysfunctional,” Lukes said, adding she supports Coun. Russ Wyatt’s proposal for a comprehensive review of the civic governance model and the reporting relationship between senior administrators and elected officials.

“Governance is not selfie material, it’s not ribbon cutting, but it’s the foundation of how city hall operates, it’s how we form the basis of the decisions we make,” Lukes said. “People will say, ‘It’s been this way forever,’ and I would respond maybe that’s why some of the decisions that were made were made that way because people aren’t informed. They’re not given a chance to ask questions. They’re not given the opportunity to do their work.”

 

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca