I’m not yet over my sadness at the loss of Councillor Faretis, but I am nonetheless happy that Brighton is in the process of choosing a new councillor to serve out the remainder of the 2022-2026 term. The details of the appointment process will be confirmed on a special meeting on December 24th at 9am, and staff have done a great job in researching what options are available to them for ensuring that this is a robust and transparent process. The deadline for filling the vacancy is set by the Municipal Act, so one way or another we will have a new councillor on February 3rd, 2025. Applications will be accepted (according to the staff proposal that council will discuss on the 24th) from January 2nd to 17th.
If you have any desire to serve your community in this way, please consider applying. As you consider, let’s look at a few of the common reasons people give for not wanting to step forward into leadership.
But I Don’t Know Enough
I often hear from people that they don’t know enough about something in order to participate in democratic processes, at least beyond voting in an election. Long before I was elected, people would come to me for advice on how to engage with governments because I (apparently!) had a reputation for knowing; my secret is that I would google it and then get back to them.
The truth is that you don’t need to know much in order to be on council. If there’s a matter that council needs to make a decision on that requires understanding of something technical, staff provide a report and often a presentation to help us understand it. If there are procedural matters to contend with, we have several Clerks to guide us through it, not to mention a very experienced Mayor and an excellent CAO. If there are concerns about what we should or shouldn’t be doing, we have an Integrity Commissioner and a Municipal Solicitor to guide us. Whoever is selected to join council will learn a lot, but there’s no pre-requisite knowledge.
I’ve already received comments from a few residents suggesting that the ideal candidate would be someone who has prior experience being on council. While I think that would be an asset, it’s absolutely not a requirement, and it’s not the only asset a successful candidate will have. In the past two years I’ve heard many times that this is one of the most functional councils in Brighton in many years; four of the seven members were brand new to council, and I think part of our success over the past two years has been because we didn’t take anything for granted and we didn’t carry any baggage from past terms. Our fresh faces have been an asset at least as much as our lack of experience has been a challenge.
But Politics is Gross
The most common objection I hear to running for public office is that politics is awful, full of mudslinging and partisan bickering. The good news is that at the municipal level there are no political parties, so the shameful behaviour of Question Period doesn’t happen here. And while municipal politics isn’t immune to mudslinging and scandals and toxic behaviour, most of that happens during elections; this appointment process is a rare opportunity to approach the office in a less competitive environment.
We have certainly had a few stressful moments over the past two years. I’ve put my foot in my mouth a few times, and successfully kept it shut a few more times. But one of the things I hear from residents most, especially in our first year, is that they appreciated how well we get along and focus on doing the job.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the ability to work well together, even when we disagree, is the most important part of any success that we’ve had. Byron and I disagreed about many things, and it was through our disagreements that we became friends. If we hadn’t been arguing about EVs and charging stations, we wouldn’t have had so many coffees at Tim Horton’s together. I entered municipal politics already deeply disillusioned about the political process at the federal and provincial levels, but hopeful that real collaboration for the common good was still possible at the municipal level; Byron more than anyone proved to me that my hope was well founded, and I’m so grateful to him for that.
Politics is only gross if we make it gross. Here more than any other level, it doesn’t have to be.
But I’m Too Busy
We could talk about the cult of “busy” all day, but I know that “good, busy” was my answer to “how are things?” long before I was elected.
That aside, the time commitments of council are an important factor to consider.
The minimum commitment is shockingly light: we cannot be removed from council unless we have more than three months’ unexcused absence, so technically if you show up once per quarter you can keep the job. If that’s all you can offer, please don’t apply!
Typically we meet every Monday evening, arriving at 6:00 to prepare for the 6:30 meeting, which is usually done around 8 or 8:30. We first get access to the draft agenda the previous Thursday, before it goes live to the public on Friday, so we have all weekend to read the staff reports that sometimes run into the hundreds of pages; I tend to spend 2-4 hours reading the reports, depending on their length and complexity. We have extra meetings at Budget time, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen more than 2 or 3 meetings in a week, almost all in the evenings.
Committee meetings are often during the work day, but committee participation is not mandatory for councillors.
A while back I wrote a post about A Week in the Life of a Councillor. It can give you a stronger sense of time commitment, but I’ll summarize here: while Byron and I both figured we put in 30+ hours/week, other members of council have said that they put in more like 10-ish hours. Only two of the remaining six council members are retired, so while none of us do shift work, we do manage to juggle work commitments with council commitments.
Also, I really appreciate how much the municipality allows us to attend via Zoom if needed. It has allowed me to have a perfect attendance record, despite times when I needed to be at home for the sake of childcare, or times when I would have otherwise missed meetings because of family vacations or even attending from a hotel room when I’m away at a municipal conference.
Think It Over
That’s enough buts for now. If you have any interest in serving your community by sitting on council, and you have questions or concerns, please reach out! I’m happy to get a coffee with you and talk it through. It’s been an incredibly rewarding term so far, and while we’ve had a few bumps in the road, it’s been the strength of our team that has made it successful and very much worthwhile. If you want to be part of a great team that’s addressing the challenges of today to build a better tomorrow, please consider applying to join council.