Ideas for Winnipeg’s City Hall (5 of 5)

All week we have discussed ideas on how Winnipeg’s City Hall could be improved. Those ideas included increasing the number of civic wards, accepting party politics in City Hall and eliminating the Executive Policy Committee.

Today we’re going to float an idea that would be much more radical; what if we scrapped the current system and adopted something completely different?

Winnipeg currently operates under a variation of a Mayor-council government model where citizens vote citywide for a mayor as well as a local councillor. This group then hires, on the advisement of the EPC, professional managers to carry out many day-to-day administrative operations.  What if Winnipeg tried something different?

What if instead of electing councillors and a mayor at election time people were asked to vote for a commissioner responsible for a portfolio? A hybrid approach similar to Portland, Oregon where they elect commissioners who are responsible for managing specific job duties. Having positions with a direct correlation to services could attract innovative and highly qualified candidates to the field who could provide Winnipeg with vision and purpose.

Consider this idea like a public job interview for all the important functions of civic leadership. Rather than having an elected official hiring someone to manage the city’s waste management program, the public elects the individual with best credentials and ideas on how that portfolio should be administered. Imagine someone with an ecology background managing the water and waste management portfolio, or an ambitious architect overseeing planning and property development.

Now is the time to start imagining how our city could be better. Some changes could be implemented quickly and with little difficulty. Eliminating the Executive Policy Committee which in it’s current design is prone to corruption and cronyism or embracing a party platform format could see significant improvements on how decision are made at City Hall. Other ideas like adding, and inherently shrinking, electoral wards would provide a better representation of the views of the electorate on civic matters. There are also more radical approaches like scrapping the current system altogether and trying to implement something new and innovative.

Regardless of the type of changes people want to see at City Hall, now is the time to start discussing and planning. For me, I believe it is time for the City of Winnipeg to stop operating like it is a private business burdened by bothersome communities and starts running like a large and diverse community that conducts and supports progressive and responsible business.

Ideas for Winnipeg’s City Hall (2 of 5)

Yesterday’s piece introduced some ideas on how we might be able to improve Winnipeg’s City Hall. Among the ideas was to increase the number of councillors, and thereby decreasing the size of wards.

Everyone in Winnipeg is currently represented by 15 city councillors. That is one representative for every 44,241 people according to recent census data. That is an incredible amount of people with diverse needs and views. When coupled with a relatively low population density in Winnipeg, the geographic area covered by each councillor is quite large. How can a councillor be expected to effectively advocate for their ward?

For comparison, at the provincial level, the City of Winnipeg has 31 Members of the Legislative Assembly to represent citizens. That comes to 21,407 constituents per MLA, a much more manageable number. A chart depicting cities of similar size to Winnipeg shows the number of constituents per councillor:

City	Population*	Councilors	Constituents/Councilor
Winnipeg	663,617	15	44,241
Ottawa	883,391	23	38,408
Edmonton	812,201	12	67,683
Hamilton	519,949	15	34,663
Quebec City	516,622	27	19,134
Halifax	413,710	16	25,856
Regina	193,100	10	19,310

*2011 Statistics Canada Census Data

Of cities with similar population, only Edmonton has a larger discrepancy of voters to elected civic representatives than Winnipeg. If we were to compare ourselves to our neighbouring capital in Saskatchewan, we see that we have more than double the ratio of Regina.

When Winnipeg was amalgamated under the City of Winnipeg act in 1972, city council consisted of 50 wards. This was reduced to 29 in 1977 and 15 in 1992.

Year	Population*	Councilors	Constituents/Councilor
1976	560,874	50	11,217
1981	564,373	29	19,461
1991	616,790	29	21,268
2001	619,544	15	41,302
2011	663,617	15	44,241

*Historical Statistics Canada Census Data

If Winnipeg were to return to a pre-1992 ratio of about 20-25,000 citizens per councillor it would provide citizens with a greater opportunity to access their local civic representative, better representation of issues important to them and more diversity at City Hall to debate policy issues.

Another advantage to shrinking the physical size of wards would be more inherent accountability. Concerns like the recent boiled water advisory only directly affected a small portion of a ward. If the sitting politician does enough to appease voters in another section of their ward, they won’t be held accountable for inaction and poor management in other areas. Currently it is next to impossible to defeat an incumbent councillor as their constituency is so huge. It is also nearly impossible to canvass an entire ward during an election campaign. As a challenger to the sitting councillor it is very difficult, and expensive, to get your name an views out to voters.

Of course adding wards would be an expensive alteration to city politics. It is estimated that each new ward would cost in upwards of $175,000 annually. No one ever claimed democracy would be cheap. What do you think, would adding more councillors improve City Hall? Share your thoughts and come back tomorrow and Thursday as we’ll explore some inexpensive changes that could transform Winnipeg’s civic political landscape.

PolitiX Brain Storm #1 – May 2012

PolitiX Brain Storm #1
May 30th @ 6pm
United Way of Winnipeg – 580 Main Street
Attendance: Michael C, Michael S, Tyson C, Madelaine D, Angel M, Ashley G, Iain B, Holly P, Chris C, Ross E

Introductions
All individuals introduced themselves and why PolitiX was important to them on a personal level.

History
MC provided a 10 minute presentation on the History of PolitiX, the GET REAL forums and the GET INFORMED information sessions.

Brain Storm
We then held a brainstorming session centred around the question: “What does PolitiX have to be next?”

Answers include:

• We could hold current event meetings at coffee shops
• We must react quickly to current events and changing circumstances/political landscapes
• Important to be NON PARTISAN (not in support of political parties)
• We must be a voice for young people (and encourage them to get involved)
• A-Corn (a USA example – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Community_Organizations_for_Reform_Now)
• We could have a Booth @ the Red River Ex!
o Also a Street Team
o We could have a booth downtown as well
o Complete with Carnival Games – “Jump through the political hoops”, Fun and educationalWe should create an active and useful blog

• We could create a format for others to follow (provincially, national, internationally etc)
• We could be a voice to community centres that are receiving cutbacks
• We could have a ROAD TRIP to educate others!
• We could create a tool kit to use as a resource for others to see how we work and how they can connect with us
• EI has not matched inflation (possible issue to provide focus?)
• WE MUST BE ETHICAL (open minded, conscious of biases)
• We would like to reach out to smaller communities and share learning/knowledge with them
• We could connect with Times Chang’d (Bobby S)??
• “What do YOU believe” – a question we could use to engage people at events
• We should educate people on the difference between Elected official and bureaucrat
• We could even create a quarterly Zine!
• We could also experiment with online meetings – ex Google Hangout
• Possible to fundraise for a political space during campaigns
o 5 weeks, centrally located
o Like a campaign office but strictly for youth education
• We must remember the colonial focus – and emphasize that we can use politics and the corresponding systems as a tool for decolonization
• We should hold a monthly BRAIN STORM meeting where we revisit what we are doing and how it is working
• If we are meeting somewhere it should be in the same place to create familiarity

NEXT STEPS

1. Let us have Coffee House every Wednesday at 5pm at Paressa Restaurant for the month of June
2. At the end of June, lets meet again as a larger Bran Storm Group and discuss how the format of one month has worked/Not worked/plan next steps
3. Facebook event for first coffee house: http://www.facebook.com/events/416502415057426/