Beyond Council, Part 1: How Our Town Actually Works

Most of us probably have a fairly straightforward picture of municipal government.

We elect a Mayor and Council. Council meets. Administration carries out the decisions. Residents pay taxes and use municipal services.

That’s certainly part of the picture.

But recently, while looking into Family and Community Support Services (FCSS), I found myself wandering through the Town of Diamond Valley’s meeting and governance information.

I went looking for one thing and discovered something much larger.

There was Regular Council and Committee of the Whole, which were familiar. But there was also FCSS, the Municipal Planning Commission, Emergency Advisory Committee, Municipal Policing Committee, Intermunicipal Committee and other committees and special-purpose bodies.

Then the picture expanded again.

Some of the services we rely upon don’t stop at Diamond Valley’s municipal boundary. Water, wastewater, solid waste and other services involve regional organizations, neighbouring municipalities and partnerships.

And behind all of that is municipal Administration—the people responsible for planning, finance, roads, utilities, parks, protective services, legislative work and the many other jobs required to keep a community functioning.

Suddenly, a Council meeting looked like only one window into a much larger system.

Why look Beyond Council?

That seemed worth exploring.

Not because this work is being hidden. Quite the opposite. Much of the information is publicly available in agendas, minutes, bylaws, plans and municipal webpages.

The problem is simpler than that.

Most of us have little reason to go looking for it.

Until we need FCSS.

Or have a planning question.

Or wonder where our drinking water comes from.

Or what happens to wastewater after it disappears down the drain.

Or who prepares for an emergency.

Or why Diamond Valley works with neighbouring municipalities to provide certain services.

Then we begin following the trail.

And those trails often lead well beyond the Council table.

A new Sustainable Life series

So that’s what we’re going to do.

Beyond Council will explore the parts of local government and community governance that don’t always appear in the regular Council conversation.

We’ll look at committees and what they actually do. We’ll explore regional organizations and why small communities cooperate to provide services. We’ll follow some municipal services from beginning to end and see how many different people and organizations are involved along the way.

We’ll also look at where residents fit.

Because residents aren’t simply customers of municipal government.

We serve on committees and boards. We volunteer. We participate in public engagement. We ask questions. We operate businesses and community organizations. We develop projects of our own. And sometimes we see connections between things that might otherwise appear unrelated.

That last part interests me particularly.

Everything is connected

Anyone who has followed Sustainable Life for a while has probably noticed a recurring theme here:

Everything is connected.

Water is a good example.

Turn on a tap and water appears.

Simple enough.

But follow that drop of water backwards and the picture becomes much larger: watershed, river, provincial water allocation, regional treatment, municipal infrastructure and finally our homes.

Follow it forward and another system appears: household use, sewer infrastructure, wastewater treatment and eventually a return to the watershed.

Now add growth, infrastructure capacity, drought, household conservation, rainwater harvesting and the cost of maintaining all of those systems.

One drop of water can introduce us to a surprisingly large part of how a community works.

We’ll follow that drop in a future article.

Council is still important

None of this diminishes the role of Council.

Council establishes policy, approves budgets, adopts bylaws and plans, and makes decisions on behalf of the community.

But those decisions exist within a much larger network of people, organizations, infrastructure and responsibilities.

Understanding that network can also help us understand the decisions appearing on a Council agenda.

That’s where this series fits alongside two other Sustainable Life streams.

Council Watch asks: What is Council considering and deciding?

Civic Tools asks: How can residents understand and participate in that process?

And now:

Beyond Council asks: How does the larger system actually work?

Let’s follow the connections

I don’t know exactly where this series will take us.

That’s part of the point.

We’re going to follow the evidence, learn what different organizations and committees actually do, and gradually build a better picture of how our community functions.

Some trails will probably be short.

Others may take us well outside Diamond Valley.

And I suspect we’ll occasionally discover that something we thought was fairly simple is actually connected to half a dozen other things.

That’s usually where things become interesting.

So we’ll begin where this whole exploration started:

What exactly happens beyond the Council table?

Over the next several articles, we’ll find out.

Sustainability grows when we share it.