Kamloops This Week article on City Hall staff salaries.

The question, in my mind, is not why do you make so much money? The question is how will citizens actually believe you are worth it. I know city staffers are worth the money. I've had first hand experience. Council members often contort themselves every which way, vying for the opportunity to compliment city staff in meetings. But, I am not sure that works in inspiring public confidence in city staff. It seems too cozy to me when I watch on tv or am sitting in the public gallery of council chambers.

Councillors often feel sheepish asking tough questions of senior city staff at council meetings. I know I often did when I was on council. But, this may be the best opportunity for city staff to really show their stuff. 

I also think part of the role of a councillor is to ask tough questions on behalf of the public. Early on in my council term, we were given the opportunity to choose a piece of City of Kamloops clothing. A rationale given by one staffer was that we were now representing city hall in the community. I think it's the other way around.

creative commons photo credit - thank you:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yooperann/4687070480/

The Federal Government has decided not to require some Canadians to fill out what is called the "long form questionnaire" for the 2011 Census. The government says many Canadians had complained to their MPs of the intrusiveness of the long form questionnaire  - so the Tories have decided on a voluntary replacement. On the flip side, however, a lot of reputable organizations and people are questioning this move. First, no formal consultation was done to inform the decision. Second, a lot of government decisions, such as those made at city hall, are informed by good census data. David Eaves has a lot more on his blog.

I'd rather err on the side of having more information and for making the case to Canadians that the requirement to fill out these forms when chosen will help the country as a whole. 

Venture Kamloops' Manager of Economic Development, Anita Grover, takes notes during a rountable with Kamloops Technology Industry, in conjunction with the Interior Tech Insdustry Association.

Venture Kamloops is the economic development agency for the City of Kamloops. Although it is an arm of City Hall, it is managed at arms length from the rest of City Hall operations. Venture Kamloops' CEO reports to an independently appointed board of directors (City Hall does have some representation on this board). City taxpayers pick up $465 000 of the Venture Kamloops budget.

I follow Venture Kamloops with some interest. I see a positive role for such an economic development agency in Kamloops. Entrepreneurship is a huge part of the lifeblood of any community. We should be trying to assist the business community grow and prosper. I've struggled, however, to figure out what results Venture Kamloops has brought to our community.  I know Venture Kamloops has generated a lot of activity in the past years, and I may be missing something, but when I have heard past presentations or read past reports, measuring success has been a challenge.

Venture Kamloops has new leadership, both at the staff and at the board level, and this undoubtedly can be an exciting time for the organization. In this spirit, here are three things I would watch for in the next months:

1) Setting out some really measurable targets and sticking to them:
   Initiatives Prince George, Venture Kamloops' counterpart in PG, sets out some really tangible targets in it's annual report. An example:

 leverage the value of our budget by partnerships five times as measured through new capital investment in transportation, logistics, manufacturing and heavy industrial development

2) Focusing on a small set of key industries in which Kamloops could have a real niche:
 We can't be all things to all people, especially with limited economic development resources. What kind of businesses work the best with the priorities and characteristics of our community? There is some evidence that Venture Kamloops is starting to ask this question. I attended a round table with the technology sector a month or so ago, for example. Maybe, we have to pass on assisting certain types of businesses based on community prioirities. Perhaps, pass the businesses Venture Kamloops is unable to assist on to other organizations who are able to help.

3) Focusing on the knowledge based, clean, green businesses of the future.
The world is going through quite an economic transition. Many jurisdictions are looking to what are economies might look like in the future and building towards that. We have an amazing resource in Thompson Rivers University. The Kamloops Energy Fair showcases as growing green industry sector. Kamloops has a large and growing number of green buildings. What if we had a green building construcution material industry? If Venture Kamloops is to help build a long term viable economy for Kamloops, perhaps we need to make strategic bets on the future.

 
creative commons credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/imfphoto/4551538226/

Last week, City Council approved various changes and additions to the council committee structure. Notably, and this is a good thing in my view, sub-committees were added for youth, children, and families and for seniors.  These groups, as well as present city committees on race relations (now called diversity) and disability issues, will now be sub-committees of the Social Planning Council.

A really interesting debate was had around the terms of references for these sub-committees. Councillor Nancy Bepple felt that some important groups might feel left out in that their concerns or issues were not explicitly mentioned in the committee responsibilities. Other, like Mayor Pat Wallace, seemed to suggest that this was too much wordsmithing.

There seemed to be exasperation by some, most notably Radio NL reporter Angelo Iacobucci, that this debate was even happening. But, I felt talking about the wording was pretty important. There is a fine line between being too general and being too specific. It just seems like a good thing to spend some time to determine where that line should be. At the end of the discussion, it was re-affirmed that the Social Planning Council is still open for presentations and discussions on the whole range of issues, and Councillor Denis Walsh made a motion to tweak the Diversity sub committee's terms of reference that was unanimously supported by the rest of Council.