January 28th, 2020
BURLINGTON, ON
How do people in Burlington, who want to be involved in the way the city is run, get to take part?
The city has a number of Citizen Advisory Committees that have in the past played an important role in bringing a detailed viewpoint to city council.
There was a time when the Heritage Advisory Committee basically took over a large part of the Heritage issue in the city and has continued to serve the city well.
There are others that don’t do a very good job – usually because of the committee leadership or committee members who were poor choices because they didn’t know how to behave and respect the views of other people.
Each committee has a Council member attached to it. In the past there have been council members who tended to direct and at times bully the committee. There is at least one from the current council who has yet to learn what his role on an Advisory Committee is.
Each committee has a Clerk. Burlington is fortunate in having Clerks who are very good at their jobs. A smart committee chair will stay close to the Clerk – they always bail the chair out when things get confusing.
The committees have a small budget to cover some of the costs.
Members of Advisory committees are not paid.
With every term of Council, the Clerk’s Department undertakes an Advisory Committee Review. This process began last year with Citizen Action Labs being held in the Spring and then a request for interest was sent out to those who attended the Action Labs to be a part of a “working group” to review the data received from the engagement process and prepare a report with recommendations regarding the Advisory Committees.
The criteria for how people are selected for advisory committees is based on each committee’s Terms of Reference under the heading “Committee Composition”. The Clerk’s office is holding off on recruiting new members to advisory committees until the review is complete.
The one thing the city has not done is publicly recognize the committees as a group. Several of those committees provide very valuable advice. The Mayor is currently re-thinking what the Burlington BEST awards could be in the future. Formal recognition of the Advisory Committee members has merit.
A significant number of people who serve on Advisory Committees go on to run for political office. Being able to say the you served on an Advisory Committee and then also being able to refer to a report you were part of is an important first step to developing a public profile; much needed if you want to serve the public.
THE case study on how to do that is the current Mayor; she made saving the water front her issue and took control of a committee (not a city hall committee) and turned it into a campaign organization.
Set out below are the current Advisory committees and when they plan to meet in February. The meetings are public – walk in, introduce yourself to the Clerk who will introduce you to the chair and the rest of the committee.