Kincardine Council is considering recommendations regarding a review of the municipality’s governance structure.
Chris Loreto from StrategyCorp provided council with a number of recommendations that would streamline the way meetings are held.
Deputy Mayor Andrea Clarke was one of the members of council who supported the motion to refer the report to staff for consideration, saying “There’s many aspects that I think will, if adopted, help us in general as a council.”
There were questions raised by council about how the chance of temporary ad-hoc committees would work when it comes to bringing issues to council for consultation.
Loreto explained that “The purpose of it is really to manage scope-creep on behalf of the committee and make sure that council is always aware and endorses the work the committee is doing.”
StrategyCorp was engaged by the Municipality of Kincardine to conduct a review of the Municipality’s governance processes and structures.
The organization says that its main goals are to provide focused direction as well as an efficient use of resources and to emphasize transparent and accountable decision-making.
Council approved having the report passed off to municipal staff for their input and how the recommendations could be put to use, which would then be presented to the council at a later date.
The end goal is to ensure that the Municipality has an up-to-date governance framework that is not used to help staff have clear direction and is easy to understand, but also meets the needs of council, staff, and the community.
In Loreto’s presentation, a total of 27 recommendations were offered, including:
R1. Council and staff should immediately collaborate on a set of 3 to 5 focused priorities that will guide resource allocation for the remainder of the year based on councillors’ agendas, community needs, and municipal needs (as identified by staff)
R8. The Municipality should remove the Committee of the Whole (CoW) and have only ad-hoc committees and working groups struck by Council for specific matters aligned with priority areas
R11. The Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) and Mayor should include at their regular meetings council meeting agenda management and development in addition to strategic performance, operations challenges or risks, etc.
R24. The Municipality should either amend its policy on the use of social networks or revise its code of conduct to provide explicit direction on the appropriate use of social media for communicating with the public as a municipal representative and specify the limitations and cautions for Council, staff, and committee members when engaging with social media, even through personal accounts.