Ward 5 incumbent Robert Kirwan had some words of advice for his fellow candidates in a recent media release: Your election platform is basically meaningless once you get elected.
Saying council comes together for the first time after the election to set its priorities and develop a “council platform,” Kirwan said the learning curve is steep and he hopes candidates stop “raising false expectations.”
The number of candidates who are making unrealistic promises and raising false expectations are so obvious to residents who have heard the same story election after election,” he said. “All candidates will tell you that their personal “platform” is to listen to the people, improve our roads, stimulate the economy, fix our downtown, take care of our aging infrastructure, be open and transparent, find efficiencies, and my favourite, keep tax increases below the rate of inflation.”
Read the full text of Kirwan’s release below.
After spending four years in a very steep learning curve as councillor of Ward 5, it is so easy to identify the candidates who have no experience with running a municipality. The number of candidates who are making unrealistic promises and raising false expectations are so obvious to residents who have heard the same story election after election. All candidates will tell you that their personal “platform” is to listen to the people, improve our roads, stimulate the economy, fix our downtown, take care of our aging infrastructure, be open and transparent, find efficiencies, and my favourite, keep tax increases below the rate of inflation.
The fact that most candidates are even professing to have a personal “platform” is evidence that they don’t understand much about municipal government. Platforms are for the federal and provincial levels where the “party” has a platform and all candidates for that party espouse to the same “platform elements”. Everyone in the party must toe the party line and this is what they use when they form their government if elected.
But at the municipal level, there are no parties, only 13 individuals who have been elected to represent the interests of their particular ward, and in the case of the mayor, to act as the chairperson of council meetings and the spokesperson for council in between meetings.
If 13 elected representatives all come in with different personal “platforms,” it would be the most dysfunctional governing body one could imagine. You may come into office with a “platform” but it breaks up soon afterwards.
In fact, it is the whole of council that actually establishes a collective “platform” when they come together shortly after being elected to develop their Corporate Strategic Plan for their term of office. That Strategic Plan considers where the previous council has brought the city and then lays out the path for moving the city forward. Individual councillors then spend the next four years developing and approving policies which are designed to accomplish the goals and objectives contained in the strategic plan. That is the Council Platform which guides and informs decisions of staff and council for the term of office.
The current city council has been following our Strategic Plan in ways that will pay dividends in the future. We have a new strategy for determining capital priorities that is ready to be implemented with the 2019 budget. We have introduced a new procedure for accepting unsolicited proposals from the private sector which should encourage more private public collaborative partnerships. We have also developed affordable housing, community hub, population health, age friendly and other social service strategies that will serve our residents well in the coming years. The foundation has been laid and now I am looking forward to moving these forward in the next term of Council to implement these new strategies that have take years to formulate.
We are also working to streamline our development approvals process in the new world of LPAT. Developers can now take part in a new SPART (Sudbury Planning Application Review Team) meeting procedure whereby they meet with all of the city departments in advance of submitting an application in order to make the planning and approval process more of a collaborative exercise.
But most of all, we are experiencing a major culture shift that is moving us from being a city that is known for avoiding risk at all costs, to one that is learning how to manage risk so that we take advantage of situations when they present themselves instead of timidly watching those opportunities pass us by. And we are learning to make decisions and progress at the “speed of business”, enabling us to be in a better position to stimulate much needed growth in all sectors of our city.
During the final days before the voting period of October 15 to 22, I hope that candidates avoid raising false expectations with promises and “platforms” that have no chance of success. We need a new City Council that is prepared to face our challenges with a realistic approach that will result in decisions that have a better chance of moving this city forward as we strive to take our place as the unofficial capital of Northern Ontario. Now is the time for us to shine in the province. The groundwork has been set. We just need to make sure we select the right team that is prepared to work towards the common “platform” we will establish together after the election.
Learn more about Robert Kirwan’s candidacy by visiting his election page on Sudbury.com.
