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The Foundation

Chapter 1The Purpose of Municipal Government

2,145 words · Mike Seiler · Owen Sound, Ontario

In this chapter

• 1.1 The City Exists to Serve
• 1.2 The Resident Comes First
• 1.3 Public Office Is Held in Trust
• 1.4 Local Responsibility
• 1.5 The Owen Sound Standard

Owen Sound does not exist to serve government. Government exists to serve Owen Sound.

That distinction is the starting point for this entire business plan.

A municipality has practical responsibilities. It maintains roads and infrastructure, provides public services, manages public assets, establishes local rules, plans for growth and collects the money required to carry out those responsibilities. In Ontario, municipalities are created under provincial authority to act as responsible and accountable governments within the jurisdiction given to them by law. The Constitution places municipal institutions within provincial legislative authority, and the Municipal Act, 2001 provides much of the legal framework under which Ontario municipalities operate.

Those laws establish authority. They do not, by themselves, establish a culture of good government.

That is our responsibility.

The purpose of municipal government should be to protect the conditions in which people, families, neighbourhoods, businesses and voluntary organizations can flourish. It should provide the common infrastructure that individuals cannot reasonably provide for themselves, establish fair and understandable local rules, protect public assets, prepare for emergencies and carry out necessary services competently.

It should then have the discipline to know where its responsibility ends.

This plan begins with a simple belief:

The dignity of a person does not come from City Hall, and neither does the strength of a family, the value of a neighbour, the importance of faith, the creativity of an entrepreneur or the willingness of a community to help itself.

Municipal government should protect room for those things, not attempt to replace them.

The City should be strong where strength is required and restrained where restraint is wiser.

That is the standard by which this plan will be built.

1.1The City Exists to Serve

The City of Owen Sound is a public institution held in trust for the people who live here.

Residents are not customers of City Hall in the ordinary commercial sense because they cannot simply choose another municipal government when service is poor. That makes accountability more important, not less.

Taxpayers provide the resources.

Residents live with the decisions.

Municipal employees carry out the work.

Council establishes policy and makes public decisions.

The Mayor has a responsibility to provide leadership while remaining accountable to Council, the law and the people.

None of these roles is more important than the community they exist to serve.

This is why the City should be operated with much of the discipline expected of a well-run enterprise, while recognizing that municipal government has responsibilities a private business does not.

A business can abandon an unprofitable customer. A municipality cannot abandon a neighbourhood.

A business can discontinue a service because it produces no financial return. A municipality may need to maintain that service because it protects public safety, accessibility or the basic functioning of the community.

A business ultimately measures profit. A City must measure public value.

That public value can still be managed with discipline.

We can know:

• what something costs;
• who is responsible for it;
• how long it should take;
• whether it worked;
• whether there is a less expensive way to accomplish the same result;
• whether residents are satisfied;
• whether an asset is being properly maintained;
• whether a program should continue;
• whether a commitment was kept.

My original reason for proposing a City business plan was that I believe a small Canadian city can operate with open books, meaningful resident participation, disciplined operating costs and public measurement, then make the methods that work available for other municipalities to use freely.

That remains the objective.

We are not trying to make Owen Sound behave like a corporation.

We are trying to make it behave like a responsible steward.

1.2The Resident Comes First

Government becomes difficult to trust when people feel they are working for the system rather than the system working for them.

A resident should not need to understand the internal organization of City Hall to get a pothole reported, find out whether a permit is required, register for a community activity, understand a tax bill or learn who is responsible for a problem.

The City should organize itself around the person asking for help.

That means adopting a basic service principle:

One community. One City. No wrong door.

If someone contacts the wrong department, it should be our responsibility to route the question, not the resident's responsibility to start over.

Residents should be able to expect:

• clear information;
• understandable forms;
• reasonable response times;
• accessible service;
• a telephone option;
• an in-person option;
• a practical alternative when a digital service does not work for them;
• respectful treatment;
• an explanation when the answer is no;
• a way to question or appeal a decision where appropriate;
• protection of their personal information;
• acknowledgement when the City makes a mistake.

Government should not become more complicated simply because technology makes complexity possible.

Whenever we redesign a municipal service, the first question should be:

Does this make life easier for the resident?

If it only makes administration easier while transferring more work, expense or frustration onto the public, we should reconsider it.

This philosophy also applies to regulation.

A by-law should exist for an identifiable public reason. Residents should be able to understand that reason. Enforcement should be consistent. Penalties should be proportionate. The same standard should apply regardless of a person's political opinion, income, neighbourhood, profession, faith or relationship with City Hall.

The objective is not government without rules.

It is government in which the rules make sense.

1.3Public Office Is Held in Trust

A Mayor does not own the Mayor's office.

A councillor does not own a council seat.

A municipal employee does not own a department.

A government does not own the public purse simply because it has temporary authority to spend from it.

These things are entrusted to us for a period of time.

That understanding should change the way public office is approached.

Public authority should never become an extension of personal ambition, political resentment, commercial interest or ideology. The person holding office is temporary. The institution, the community and the consequences of its decisions continue.

Ontario law reflects part of this principle in a practical way. Municipal powers are generally exercised through council, and the Municipal Act expressly recognizes council as a continuing body, meaning the work of one council may continue beyond the people who temporarily occupied its seats.

I believe this idea is particularly important in a constitutional monarchy.

The institution is larger than the individual occupying the office.

That principle is worth bringing all the way down to local government.

A Mayor should therefore be willing to:

• exercise restraint;
• hear an opposing argument fully;
• distinguish personal conviction from municipal authority;
• explain decisions publicly;
• disclose conflicts;
• accept lawful limits on power;
• correct mistakes;
• give credit to others;
• preserve good work begun by a previous council;
• leave useful work for a future council;
• accept that no election result grants unlimited authority.

Leadership still matters.

There will be circumstances in which a Mayor must take a position, recommend a direction and ask Council or the community to make a difficult decision.

The difference is in how that authority is understood.

The office is not a possession.

It is a trust.

1.4Local Responsibility

One of the central principles of this plan is local responsibility.

Where a community is capable of solving a problem responsibly, higher levels of government should not automatically be the first answer.

Where a neighbourhood can organize something safely, the City should consider helping rather than taking it over.

Where a family can make a lawful decision for itself, government should be very cautious about substituting its judgment.

Where a local business can provide a service competitively, the City should consider whether it needs to build another permanent bureaucracy.

Where Owen Sound can solve an Owen Sound problem, our first instinct should be to determine what we can do ourselves.

This principle is sometimes called subsidiarity.

In this plan it means:

Responsibility should rest as close as reasonably possible to the people affected by the decision, provided that level has the authority, competence and resources to carry it out properly.

That final qualification matters.

Local government should not pretend it possesses powers that legally belong somewhere else. The Constitution currently places municipal institutions under provincial legislative authority.

There will therefore be matters where Owen Sound must work with Grey County, Ontario, Canada, Saugeen Ojibway Nation or another public institution.

But partnership should not become passivity.

A grant application is not a municipal strategy.

Waiting for another level of government is not automatically leadership.

If Owen Sound has the authority and practical ability to act, this plan will first ask what we can accomplish ourselves.

When another government is required, we will identify exactly:

1. what Owen Sound can do;
2. what the other government controls;
3. what decision or funding we are requesting;
4. what Owen Sound is prepared to contribute;
5. what happens if the request is refused.

Residents deserve to know who is responsible.

They should not be sent back and forth between governments while each points at another.

1.5The Owen Sound Standard

Every major proposal in this business plan will ultimately have to pass the same test.

Is it lawful?

Does the City have the authority to act?

If not, what government or institution does?

Is it necessary?

What specific problem are we trying to solve?

A new program should not exist simply because government has the ability to create one.

Is it local?

Could the problem be addressed more effectively by a person, family, neighbourhood, community organization, local business or another existing institution?

If so, the City's role may be to support rather than control.

Is it affordable?

What is the complete cost?

That includes staffing, equipment, insurance, maintenance, administration, replacement and eventual closure, not merely the attractive first-year number.

Is it sustainable?

Can we maintain what we build?

There is little value in announcing a new asset while existing roads, buildings, parks, pipes or equipment are deteriorating.

Is it fair?

Are the rules understandable and applied equally?

Who benefits?

Who carries the cost?

Who may unintentionally be excluded?

Does it respect individual freedom?

Does the proposal unnecessarily restrict a lawful personal choice?

Does it collect information that the City does not genuinely need?

Is there a less intrusive way to accomplish the same public objective?

Does it respect families and communities?

Does the proposal strengthen people's ability to look after themselves and one another, or does it unnecessarily replace something families and community organizations already do well?

Is it accessible?

Can a senior use it?

Can someone with a disability use it?

Can someone without a smartphone use it?

Can someone who is uncomfortable online still deal with their City?

Is it understandable?

Could we explain the proposal, its cost and its purpose to a resident in plain language?

If government cannot clearly explain what it is doing, that is often a warning that the proposal itself needs more work.

Is it measurable?

What evidence will tell us whether it succeeded?

Every significant initiative should identify its measure before money is committed, not invent a measure afterwards to make the result appear successful.

Is it reversible?

Where uncertainty exists, can we test the idea first?

A seasonal program, neighbourhood pilot or limited trial can often answer a question more honestly than years of debate.

Can we admit if it fails?

This may be the most important test.

A public plan should not create political pressure to defend every idea forever.

Some initiatives will work better than expected.

Some will need adjustment.

Some will fail.

If an initiative does not work, we should publish the result, learn from it and stop spending money on it.

There should be no embarrassment in ending an unsuccessful experiment.

The embarrassment should come from knowing something is not working and continuing it because nobody wants to admit it.

The Commitment

The purpose of this business plan is not to promise that municipal government can solve every problem facing Owen Sound.

It cannot.

The purpose is to establish a government that knows its responsibilities, performs them well, respects the responsibilities of others and tells residents the truth about the results.

A well-governed city should leave room for citizens to be citizens.

It should allow families to be families.

It should allow businesses to build.

It should allow congregations, charities, clubs and neighbours to serve.

It should allow municipal employees to take pride in useful work.

It should allow disagreement without turning neighbours into enemies.

It should maintain the things previous generations built.

It should prepare the things the next generation will need.

And when municipal government must act, it should act competently, openly and with the understanding that every dollar, every authority and every public asset has been entrusted to it for a time.

That is the purpose of municipal government in this plan.

Serve well. Spend carefully. Explain clearly. Measure honestly. Leave people room to live.