Food for Thought

• Date: 01 May 2018
• Published date: 01 May 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/bl.30106

4 BOARD LEADERSHIP

News

(continued from front page) Governance Systems and

Municipal Governing—

One City’s Experience

By Rob Lewis

Rob Lewis currently serves as program coordinator with the City of Red Deer,

Alberta, Canada. He has a diploma in theology from Vanguard College, Edmonton,

Alberta, and is certied in Policy Governance prociency. In this article, he looks at

the unique challenges and solutions related to implementing Policy Governance

in a municipal council environment in Red Deer. It gives the history of the city’s

municipal governance and talks about why it looked to do something different,

why it landed on Policy Governance, and the results the city has seen thus far.

Almost a decade ago, Red Deer’s City

Council, always looking for better,

more effective ways to govern in a man-

ner truly representative of Red Deer’s

citizens, endeavored to address two

pressing and yet fundamental leadership

questions: “What does the City Coun-

cil need in order to govern well?” and

“What role does the administration play

in the council’s governance success?”

In 2010, the City of Red Deer

embarked on a journey that would

cause a profound shift in its decision-

making and governance mindset and

processes. Traditionally, city councils

have a very hands-on approach to

providing direction to the administrative

side of the organization. There are

many reasons for this, not the least of

which is the thought that, in order to

truly represent its citizens, the council

needs to be part of the administrative

processes used to address the issues

the council brings to the administration.

While this is a reality the council needs

to own, the underlying question is:

Where is the most effective point at

which the council should intersect

with the administration to be part of

the process, while not hindering that

very process at the same time? This was

one of the many considerations the City

Council wrestled with when deciding to

review the way Red Deer was governed.

The Search for a Model

Municipal governance doesn’t

happen in isolation. Therefore, the

council’s search for a more effective

governance model needed to consider

several critical contributing factors. The

council operates in a broader context,

with several levels of government above

them as well as horizontal relationships

with other municipalities. Various pieces

of legislation and regulations govern

what a municipal council is solely

responsible for (that which cannot be

delegated to the administration) and

specific parameters in which it needs

to operate. Add to this the very public

nature of the council’s work and the

need to ensure the decisions made

are truly reflective of the values of the

community, and Red Deer’s council

was facing a formidable task in looking

to adopt a new governance model.

Change is never easy, and this

undertaking was no exception. The

Red Deer City Council had used

essentially the same typical method

of governing for decades. In order to

help ensure success in this significant

change in direction, the council moved

forward guided by solid, predetermined

criteria. Strong governance would need

to define role clarity by articulating

what decisions are to be made and

by whom. It should rely on reporting

outcome attainment as opposed to

methodological detail. And finally,

it would have to consider decisions

through the lens of how they reflect and

uphold the values of those who own

the organization—the citizens. The city

reviewed an abundance of literature

related to governance models, including

the works of George Cuff and John

Carver. In the end, the council moved

forward with a “hybrid model” that

follows Carver’s Policy Governance

structure, influenced by Cuff’s work.

Implementation Challenges

The implementation of the Policy

Governance model was not without

its challenges. Time itself would

prove to be an adversary during its

implementation and the first few years

of use. In order to avoid governing

under two models—the “old” model

they had governed under to this point

and the “new Policy Governance model”

with potentially conflicting ideologies

and operational methodologies—the

council wanted to make sure its primary

set of policies was established and

any key “old” policies were migrated

to the Policy Governance model as

quickly as possible. That said, it also

had to be certain Policy Governance

was implemented correctly and in such

a fashion to promote the longevity of

the model. To do this, administrative

personnel were trained in Policy

Governance at the Policy Governance

Academy, creating “in-house” expertise.

External consultants were also

employed to ensure a necessary breadth

of experience and understanding

in the implementation process. The

first and most important phase of the

implementation process was completed

over the course of about three years,

wherein the council and administration

worked to develop the council’s core

set of policies. This core set of policies

continues to evolve, with new policies

being added to it as required.

The other time-related challenge the

council faces on a perpetual basis is the

fact that every four years the make-up

of the City Council changes due to the

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

“Management is doing

things right; leadership is

doing the right things.”

Peter Drucker