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My thoughts also Glen. Running a municipal government has to be looked at like running a business.
I would add that like any good business a bit of variety of expertise would be a good thing. I was truly amazed when I moved to the Township to watch council meetings on Shaw and see the dearth of scientific/engineering knowledge on the board. Watching presentations that were full of inaccuracies and bad science and not seeing anyone on council either able or willing to challenge presenter after presenter who came up with thoroughly debunked theories and bad science.
My view is that part of the reason council gets led around by its engineers and planners is that no one on council feels comfortable enough to call them on anything.
prince albert and his tax and spend galleryslate in action God help us
Hey Blair: Sounds like your planning to run?
Tomblin...another sour grapes red neck loser. I think the precious Langley city ( the hole in the doughnut) should be made to carry a more expensive membership card for the Langley Township pools, and be made to show a card with their address on for a cash entrance, and they should be charged more. Then we should pull our support of the police serviing langley city.
Connie,
I'd love to run, sadly it isn't going to happen for a long time. One of the major problems with building a solid multi-disciplinary council is that the combination of limited pay and awkward hours (you have to liaise with staff who work 9-5 so really need to be free during the day) really means that only people with very flexible schedules (like self-employed types or the retired) can afford to run. What I was hoping for is that a retired engineer or scientist (anyone with a critical mind and the training/experience to see through the bunk would do) would come out of the woodwork and run next election.
This really begs the question of how much renumeration you are willing to offer to get high-quality candidates to run you community. We've decided that we want to run a multi-million dollar operation but with the exception of the Mayor we pay our managers (councillors) less than they pay the kid who serves us our burgers at the drive-through. Not surprisingly the pool of candidates is limited and a slate of dedicated people can pretty much hold onto power until they retire and hand off their seats. Think of the money we'd have saved on the Grandstand alone if council had a builder or architect to actually lead the the staff. It would be enough to pay the entire council a decent (not great but decent) wage.
As for me I'm willing to offer my advice, efforts and time in the evenings, weekends etc.. to help out but as a youngish professional with a mortgage and hoping to start a family soon I am not in the position to take the financial hit that a term on council would require.
Cheers,
Blair
It's bloody boring all too often as well Blair.
Blair: I'm really puzzled as to why you'd think you need to be "free during the day" to liase with Township staff in order to get to be a politician. What ever happened to cell phones and internet? It almost sounds like you've been sold a 'bill of goods' by some underemployed smuck who's currently on council. Don't be fooled. This is not a tough job. Can you get off work early on Mondays (Like 3 pm)? Look at some of the current councillors who can't even get to meetings because of babysitting. You said it, and you're right - we need a balanced perspective - not a bunch of self-employed losers (They don't paythe property taxes that we do). If you've got ideas, you should run - damn the torpedos and damn the naysayers!
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