Municipal Decision-Making.
How do decisions get made at City Hall? The processes leading up to a vote at a Municipal Council meeting are complex and include influences from within the municipal bureaucracy as well as influences from external stakeholders and groups. This assignment requires you to attend a meeting of a municipal decision-making body in Canada. This could include a meeting of Municipal Council, a Standing Committee of Council, or a special purpose body such as the Board of Health, Library Services Board, the Police Services Board or the Transit Commission. Please note that municipal advisory committees, task forces, town hall and constituency meetings are not decision-making bodies. Please check with the Instructor if you are not sure if the meeting is decision-making. You need to plan in advance for this assignment: • You will need to contact the Clerks Department of your municipality or look on the municipal website to get details on the meeting dates and times. Some of the meetings are at night; others will be in the day. • You will need to get a copy of the meeting agency from the website or from the Clerks Department before the meeting. These are usually available a few days before the meeting. The agenda will include all the issues to be discussed at the meeting as well as some of the background reports on the agenda items. You should plan to spend several hours at the meeting. Observe the proceedings. Take notes. Chat with others at the meeting. Some meetings, like Toronto City Council meetings, last a day or two, while others are a couple of hours long. You do not need to attend the entire meeting if it is longer than a couple of hours. City of Toronto has prepared a number of Learning Guides to help residents understand how the city works, how decisions get made and what is the role of residents and voters. You may be interested in the About Your Local Government guide produced by the City of Toronto, it includes some information that may be helpful for the assignment regardless of municipality – https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/council/my-local-government-its-for-me/about-your-local- government/ Some other municipalities also have similar guides to decision-making – check your local municipality. Here are links to some other resources that may helpful to you: Park, N. (2015, September 30). Your glossary of city council terms. Torontoist. https://torontoist.com/2015/09/your-glossary-of-city-council-terms/ Park, N. (2015, November 2). Torontoist explains: How city council procedure works. Torontoist. ://torontoist.com/2015/11/torontoist-explains-how-city-council-procedure-works/ Neptis. (n.d.) Upper-tier/single-tier/lower municipalites. http://www.neptis.org/geoweb/data- catalogue/upper-tiersingle-tierlower-municipalities Please write a report on the meeting you attend. Your report should address the following questions: • Describe your local municipality – is it a single-tier or two tier (is it upper or lower) and are councillors direct or indirectly elected. Describe the decision-making structure in your local municipality with reference to the main elements described in the course text (Chapter 8) including the committee structure, head of Council and/or committee, other Council designated positions (i.e. Speaker), coordinating officers (senior staff). • Who were the participants in the discussion(s)? How would you describe the roles they played? Did the elected members play a trustee or delegate role? What role did staff play? How did the participants interact? • Describe the decision making process – how was the meeting structured and managed? • Does your municipality have formal political parties? If so, did this affect the decision making process? • What were the most interesting issue(s) discussed? Why? • Briefly describe the process for the issue (or agenda item) to get to this stage – what happened regarding the issue(s) before it came for a decision to the meeting you attended. Is the decision made at your meeting final and binding or are there further decision-making steps. If so, please describe briefly. • What decision was made on the issue(s) you followed? Do you agree with the decision? Why, why not? • What were your impressions of the meeting and the municipal decision-making process? Has it changed your impression of local government? Why? Were there any surprises at the meeting? Why were you surprised? • If you could recommend one change in how local government operates based on the meeting you attended, what would it be and why? Please do not list the assignment questions and your answers. You are expected to prepare a report on the meeting that includes an introduction and conclusion and the required content related to structure, process, issue and your reflections and recommendation. You are strongly encouraged to use the text (including Chapter 8) and course materials to help with this assignment. The assignment should be about 6 – 8 pages long or up to 2,100 words. It does not have to be in formal essay style – you can use headings, tables, bullets, etc., if appropriate. Make sure you properly cite and reference any sources. This assignment is worth 25% of your final course grade. It will be graded based on the following breakdown: 7 marks Description and discussion of your municipality including the structure, decision- making process and participants. 7 marks Discussion of the issue you observed and the decision made as well as an overview of the earlier stages of the decision-making process and the next steps.