It’s a rare and fairly gutsy move for a municipal council to conduct a satisfaction survey on its own performance. Given the average citizen’s fondness for parting with their cash for tax purposes, the results are likely to be akin to putting a “Kick Me” sign on your backside. It’s a well understood principal of polling that more contributions come from those with a complaint than a compliment. Also, any poll relying on the voluntary return of a written survey is probably going to suffer from sample size issues.
Still, Mapleton councillors expressed surprisingly little shock over a poll, the first ever Mapleton Council Report Card, that indicated only 33 per cent of respondents consider council to be operating in “transparent” fashion.
“Transparency” after all, has become one of those buzzwords that gets uttered at least once or twice at most municipal council meetings, and councillors and administrators everywhere give at least lip service to the importance of openness.
Using council’s own report card analogy, the percentage mark would be a D – “The student has not demonstrated the required knowledge and skills. Extensive remediation is required.”
Councillors earned slightly higher, but hardly sterling, marks on accessibility. Only Mayor Neil Driscoll, at 67% pulled off a C, with the rest scoring under 40%. And yet, as a frequent and impartial observer, we would be comfortable suggesting these council members are all accessible and greatly concerned with ensuring the public’s point of view is considered during debate.
Judging from the accompanying comments, much of the concern about transparency can be traced to council’s handling of personnel issues, and most specifically the recent dismissal of long-time CAO Patty Sinnamon. Clearly citizens would like to know why council made the decision and feel they have some right to the information given they are paying the presumably substantial severance costs, which have also been kept secret.
In many ways, it’s a fair expectation. Did council make a good and fair decision, one worth the financial price? How are their constituents to know? The Ontario government has already ruled through its Sunshine Law that the province’s top paid civil servants forgo the right to privacy about their salary in return for a generous one. Some jurisdictions, notably Alberta, have made disclosure of severances packages part of that same trade off. It’s time Ontario followed suit. It’s the “transparent” thing to do.
Patrick Raftis
