THREE KINDS OF REFORMS

1
THREE KINDS OF REFORMS

• Undemocratic by any standard
• Give advantage to money and power
• Apply weak government principles

2
UNDEMOCRATIC BY ANY STANDARD THE FRANCHISE

• Property qualifications for plebiscites on money
  bylaws
• Property qualifications for standing for office
• Franchise expansions

• Multiple votes
• Votes for organizations

3
ADVANTAGE FOR MONEY POWER ABOLITION OF THE
WARD SYSTEM

• Argument in favour Get rid of parochialism
• Arguments against

• Income and voter turn-outs
• Long voting lists
• Cost of campaigns
• Who represents whom?

4
ADVANTAGE FOR MONEY AND POWER (contd)

• Multi-member wards
• Strip or pie-shaped wards
• Reductions in the size of council
• Reduction of representation by population growth

• Ignored communities
• Incoherence of representation

5
ADVANTAGE FOR MONEY AND POWER SUMMARY OF REFORMS

• At-large elections
• Multi-member wards
• Strip or pie-shaped wards
• Small councils
• Large wards

6
WEAK GOVERNMENT SPECIAL-PURPOSE BODIES

• Separate boards and commissions
• Fragmentation of political power
• Degrees of independence determined by

• Means of appointment
• Length of term
• Source of authority
• Ability to determine own resources

7
TYPES OF SPECIAL-PURPOSE BODIES

• Municipal
• Independent
• Connected with another level of government

8
SPECIAL-PURPOSE BODIES

• Arguments in favour

• Turn the job over to experts
• Fragmentation is good

• Arguments against

• Council is weakened
• Decisions are dominated by special interests
• Council gets to dodge responsibility

9
SPECIAL-PURPOSE BODIES

• Argument in favour Turn the job over to experts
• Arguments against

• Council is weakened
• Decisions are dominated by special interests
• Council gets to dodge responsibilit

10
FRAGMENTATION, LONG LISTS A VANCOUVER ELECTION

• One vote for Mayor
• Ten for councillors
• Nine for school trustee
• Seven for parks commissioners
• Total 27 votes
• Length of ballot 54

11
WEAK GOVERNMENT NON-PARTISANSHIP

• The British model strong government
• Party in power controls legislature and
  administration
• Parties are voluntary
• Accountability

12
IF WE HAD STRONG LOCAL GOVERNMENT

• Mayor elected from within council
• Automatic incentive to form parties
• Majority party would control the agenda
• Accountability
• Best case scenario Different local parties

13
HOW TO SELL ANTI-DEMOCRATIC REFORMS

• Play up corruption
• Play on prejudice
• Advocate running government like a business

• Draw on business prestige
• Paint politics with the corruption and
  incompetence brush
• Advocate getting politics out of city government

14
NO NEED FOR POLITICS IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

• Purpose of local government service delivery
• Politics is about issues, disagreements
• Issues are part of provincial and federal
  politics, but
• Only one way to deliver services effectively and
  efficiently
• No need for issues, therefore no need for parties

15
POLITICS OUT OF CITY GOVERNMENT EXAMPLES

• Theres no political way to build a road
• Non-political associations
• To get something done take it out of politics
• Non-political forum constructive and honest
• Lets not drag politics into this.
• Someone is above politics

16
WEAK GOVERNMENT SUMMARY

• Undermines democratic representation
• Enhances power of administrators
• Advantages people with power and money
• Disadvantages the poor

17
UNDEMOCRATIC LOCAL GOVERNMENT SUMMARY

• Provincial dominance legalistic rigidity
• Presidential mayors
• Non-partisanship
• At-large elections for council
• Special-purpose bodies
• Small councils, large wards
• Vicious cycle