Almost a year after their election, two new members of town council will receive their orientation session. And two others, first elected in 2007, will also receive the training for the first time next month.
The idea for the session, which will be held on Sept. 21, came up at last week’s Erin council meeting after Mayor Lou Maieron proposed moving to a committee system similar to that used at the county level.
“I’m not trying to spend more money, I’m just looking for an opportunity to sit with [staff],” Maieron said.
He suggested hosting two meetings per month during which five or six committees will discuss issues, before bringing items back to council during the last meeting of the month.
But that idea was shot down fairly quickly by other councillors.
John Brennan said there are “logistical barriers” to such a system with just five councillors and he has difficulty limiting general council duties to just one meeting per month. The rest of council agreed.
Councillor Barb Tocher said a committee structure would be “very divisive,” and if three members of council are on a committee it means any decisions made at the committee are “a done deal” at council.
“I totally disagree with … getting more involved with staff decisions,” Tocher said. “That’s micro-managing. We’re not here to tell staff what to recommend to us; that’s their job.”
She added part of the problem is the town has not had a proper orientation session for council since the last two municipal elections.
“We really have done ourselves a disservice by not having an orientation,” she said.
Councillors and staff agreed to schedule the session for next month, but most argued more needs to be done to improve communication.
“I just feel stuff comes to you at the last minute,” said councillor Josie Wintersinger. “I’m getting a little fed up.”
As an example, she noted council receives an update from the recreation department just once a year, and there are no regular committees “where the money’s being spent.”
Maieron stressed he is not trying to micro-manage staff. He said he just wants to institute a system with a better flow of information. It appears the rest of council agrees at least on that much, he added, so the details could be negotiated later.
Brennan offered a scenario in which department heads would provide quarterly updates to council, translating into one update per meeting. Councillor Deb Callaghan said that format may work, while Tocher suggested the alternative of devoting one whole meeting per month to staff reports.
Town manager Lisa Hass said she could bring back a report on the matter in October, after the orientation session.
“Staff feel the same,” she said. “We would like more of an opportunity to discuss things with council.”
