COUNCILLOR ROLE

SO WAS ANSWERING A QUESTION FOR NANAIMO NEWS NOW CANDIDATE THINGY.

Question was what we thought our role as a Councillor was.  While I have my personal ideas thought I would do a quick research of such.  One of the big concerns I have always had was the lack of clarity of the BC Community Charter not just on this but other items as well.  Here is the link to; have a peruse of it. See 114.
http://www.bclaws.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/03026_00

In doing my Google thing I ran across the Alberta definition which I find quite clear and alloigning with my personal beliefs. http://www.municipalaffairs.alberta.ca/am_roles_and_responsibilites_of_municipal_officals

Council roles and responsibilities

The council is the governing body of the municipal corporation and the custodian of its powers, both legislative and administrative. The Municipal Government Act provides that councils can only exercise the powers of the municipal corporation in the proper form, either by bylaw or resolution.

A councillor's job is to work with other council members to set the overall direction of the municipality through their role as a policy maker. The policies that council sets are the guidelines for administration to follow as it does the job of running a municipality. A councillor will spend a lot of time while on council creating new policies and programs or reviewing the current ones to make sure they are working as they should.

The Councillors

Under the Municipal Government Act, councillors have the following duties:

• To consider the welfare and interests of the municipality as a whole and, to bring to council's attention anything that would promote the welfare or interests of the municipality
• To participate generally in developing and evaluating the policies and programs of the municipality
• To participate in council meetings and council committee meetings and meetings of other bodies to which they are appointed by the council
• To obtain information about the operation or administration of the municipality from the chief administrative officer
• To keep in confidence matters discussed in private at a council meeting until discussed at a meeting held in public
• To perform any other duty or function imposed on councillors by this or any other enactment or by the council.”

THOUGHTS FOLKS?