City council will try writing a column in the local newspaper every second month in an effort to communicate more directly with citizens.
After debating some of the details Monday evening, council unanimously supported the idea of purchasing newspaper space to share council’s message, an idea promoted by Coun. Cathy Heron.
Her background report stated that her intended purpose was to “provide yet another avenue for individual council members to express their views, reasoning, opinions etc. to the public at large.”
This will allow for information to be made public when it’s not picked up by the newspaper, her report stated.
The responsibility of writing the column will rotate among councillors, who will each have a turn while serving as deputy mayor.
Mayor Nolan Crouse is the only one who won’t have a crack at writing the column.
“In reviewing around the province, there are many councils that write these,” Crouse said. “I think it is worth a try.”
The idea of a column has been on council’s radar since early in the year. It’s part of a larger push to improve communication between the city, council and residents and businesses. One of council’s identified priorities is to enhance the city’s public engagement and consultation processes.
Council will revisit the initiative after a 12-month trial period to see if it’s meeting objectives.
Coun. Cam MacKay, who has often expressed skepticism about the merits of the column as an effective communication tool, suggested a six-month trial period would be long enough.
“If the first three are real flops, do you really want to soldier on [and do] another three?” he said.
“We’ll know well before 12 [months] whether this is going to work or not.”
Coun. Cathy Heron was convinced of the idea’s merits.
“I strongly believe this won’t flop,” she said. “I think that other municipalities have council columns and are very successful so I’m not really worried about that.”
A 12-month trial will allow each councillor to write one column, which will give each of them a true sense of the work that’s required, she said.
Earlier this year when the idea of a column first surfaced, it was thought that city council should hire a professional writer to polish its message. Council jettisoned that idea on Monday in favour of a purely self-penned work. It also turfed the option of seeking input from senior management and a final edit by the city’s communications director.
“If councillors are responsible for writing this, why would we go to the senior leadership team for input?” said Coun. Malcolm Parker prior to successfully moving to strike any reference to the senior administration from the terms of reference.
Publishing the column will cost $3,000 a year, which will come out of the corporate communications budget.
Columns will appear once every two months on the last Saturday of that month, starting in September.
Heron will be the first author. She anticipates that the topics of the columns may include, but not be limited to: current council agenda items, local community events, Capital Region matters, council governance, goals and priorities, emerging municipal trends and reports on conferences or courses attended.
