Guest Blogger - Session 3: How City Council Makes Decisions

~ Guest Bloggers can submit posts to this site. The opinions of the authors are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the position of the City of Toronto, Civic Engagement Toronto or Toronto Civics 101. ~

The following post comes to us from Adil Dhalla:

There were two competing feelings I had following Session 3 of Toronto Civics 101 – How City Council Makes Decisions – and I’m still not sure if I’ve reconciled between the two.

The first feeling was motivated by realizing the sheer dearth of information the city shares online with its citizens. For example, we are the first municipality in Ontario to provide all of our councilor’s expenses online. It turns out; Mayor Miller’s use of a broom during his first Mayoral campaign was indeed representative of his desire for accountability and not some bizarre attempt to appeal to the Harry Potter obsessed voters (we know you’re out there). Joking aside, you really get the sense that the city goes to extreme lengths to share their activities online and for this act of ongoing transparency they must be lauded.

Tour by Toronto's Ombudsman October 20

From Toronto Civics 101 participant Bill Gaw comes this note:

Blog thought for anyone interested (but it is time-critical)... Following Fiona Murray's introduction to the City of Toronto Accountability Officers on Thursday, I noticed this tiny newspaper announcement in Friday's Scarborough Mirror:

"What should I know about Toronto's Ombudsman?

Find out Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 7-9 p.m. at the Scarborough Civic Centre"

An accompanying article by David Nickle reports:

"Toronto Ombudsman Fiona Crean is coming to Scarborough next week to find out from residents what's working, and what could be working better, at the City of Toronto.
The visit marks the first time that Toronto's new ombudsman has met with residents beyond the downtown confines of Toronto City Hall. The meeting will be sort of a get-to-know-each other session. Crean is hoping that she'll be able to explain the purpose of her office..."

You can read the whole article on line here

Governance Quiz

At last night's session on governance and decision-making we did a short quiz and we've reproduced it here. The quiz results are below as well - try it out, see how many you get right!

Session 3: How City Council Makes Decisions – Quiz

1. The authority and power that the City of Toronto has is granted by:

a) Federal legislation
b) Provincial legislation
c) A municipal by-law
d) The Canadian Constitution

2. Community Councils are:

a) Local neighbourhood organizations
b) City Committees run by members of the public
c) A type of municipal court
d) Geographically-based committees of Council made up of City Councillors

3. Can the Mayor override City Council decisions?

a) Yes, in emergency situations
b) Yes, if the issue impacts the Ward where he or she lives
c) No, the Mayor does not have this power
d) Yes, anytime he or she wants to

4. Meetings of City Council:

a) Are always open to the public
b) Can be held in private only under strict rules
c) Can be held in private at the request of any Councillor
d) Are never held in public unless the majority of Council makes that request

5. What is the relationship between the Toronto Public Library and the City of Toronto?

a) The Library is governed by a Board made up of City Councillors and members of the public appointed by City Council
b) There is no formal relationship between the Library and the City
c) The Library is funded and run by the Provincial government
d) The Library is overseen by a Board made up of senior librarians

6. Who are the members of a Standing Committee of Council?

a) Volunteer members of the public
b) Staff with expertise in various subject areas
c) Special appointees similar to Senators in Federal Parliament
d) City Councillors

Guest Blogger – More Questions on Planning

~ Guest Bloggers can submit posts to this site. The opinions of the authors are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the position of the City of Toronto, Civic Engagement Toronto or Toronto Civics 101. ~

Toronto Civics 101 participant Bill Gaw writes: During the Local Planning session we ran out of question time before I could raise these items with Paul or Jane. If there is space and time available perhaps they could comment through the blog spot.

Paul Bain and Jane Welsh of Toronto's City Planning Division respond to Bill’s questions below.

Question 1.

Bill asks: The Toronto Official Plan indicates that we want to reduce the need for automobile trips and increase cycling and walking as replacements. With that goal in mind, why do planners concentrate employment areas in segregated places instead of integrating them with other roles, similar to the way we integrate residential and commercial roles into mixed-use zones.

Paul answers: The Official Plan does call for reducing auto dependency. A majority of jobs in Toronto are actually in 'Mixed Use Areas' such as Downtown and the Centres that allow both commercial and residential uses. We are finding condominiums going up on the same block as office buildings downtown and in the Centres allowing people to walk to work. The Employment Districts, although they have about a third of Toronto's jobs, are different because they allow a fairly full range of industrial uses which are not a good idea to mix with residential because of truck traffic, noise, odours etc.

Follow-up from Session 2 - exercises and feedback

The commitment of participants at both of the first two sessions has been great. We've tabulated some of the inputs from the opening and break-time exercises as well as reviewed all of the evaluation forms we've received so far.

Demystifying Local Planning

At last night's session - session 2 - cover a great deal of information about urban planning - design, legislation, Acts, who-does-what, policies and trends. For those of you who want to see the presentation from Paul Bain and Jane Welsh, we'll be posting it early next week - in the meantime here's the first 9 to whet your appetite! You can click on the images to see them in a larger format.