City Hall Task Force

The Mayor plays a lead role setting the Council agenda, but the budget and many city-wide initiatives are often held up by local interests. The City needs a mechanism to encourage strategic, long-term decision making focused on the big picture, not ward-level grandstanding.

Local agencies, boards, corporations, and commissions (ABCs) make up a large and growing share of the city budget. Yet these bodies are not subject to the same level of Council oversight as general city departments. ABCs should be expected — and where warranted, compelled — to be more open, accessible, transparent, participatory, and accountable.

Too many matters make it to full Council for debate. Final decision-making authority on certain items should be delegated — the most common suggestion, to Community Councils — so that Council can properly debate the most important issues that affect the city as a whole.

City Council meetings frequently devolve into political theatre, which undermines public confidence. Items are too often amended “on-the-fly” without staff analysis, leading to hasty decisions and wasted time and resources. The rules of debate and voting procedures should be amended to encourage more intelligent deliberation.

The City’s primary mechanisms for public engagement — formal deputations to committee, budget consultations, and public consultations — need to be rethought, with a focus on encouraging proactive participation from a wider group of residents and stakeholders, and better integrating public input into staff reports and Council debates.

As a matter of transparency and accountability, the City should adopt enhanced information practices in the spirit of “open government.” The City should share more timely and useful data, both among city staff and with members of the public, to improve service delivery and stimulate more informed decision making.