City Committee Application Deadline Approaches
Sunday, September 2, 2012 @ 4:04 AM
Prince George, B.C. – Here’s a reminder that time is running out to submit an application for a position on a Council Committee in the City of Prince George.
The City Manager’s office is accepting applications for membership on the Advisory Committee on Enhancing Prince George. Committees meet each month, conduct research and provide information and recommendations to Council and City staff. The City says Council Committees provide residents with the opportunity to participate in the development of our community.
The deadline for applying for membership on the Enhance PG committee is 5pm, Friday September 7th. Applications are to be submitted to the City Manager’s office.
Comments
So is this the committee we can
1. blame for the lousy roads and conditions of city roadside weeds?
2. thank for the additional dollars they found for paving some more roads this year than was panned.
3. Building an RCMP station that looks like a Performing Arts Centre?
BTW, I hear through the rumou mill that the RCMP are planning to use the galleria in the new building to display local art on a rotational basis.
Not only that but rumour also has it that they are planning to have 3 or 4 members of the PGSO fill the halls with some chamber music on the first Friday of each month.
“Committees meet each month, conduct research and provide information and recommendations to Council and City staff.”
So how does this differ from IPG, Planning, Parks, Recreation, Transportation, Real Estate and other functions of City Administration. Do they work in concert or separate from each other and Council has a contest of who comes up with the best suggestion?
It just dawned on me ….
Why are we paying KPMG $350,000 when we could have had a community based committee do the work for nothing but the cost of a few soup and sandwich lunches and a pizza here and there when they were working late into the evenings?
From the City’s web site
http://princegeorge.ca/cityhall/mayorcouncil/councilagendasminutes/agendas/2012/2012_02_06/documents/Rpt_Cmte_Enhancing_PG_MERGED.pdf
Mandate is:
1.Make recommendations regarding the awarding of the Community Enhancement Grants. ($16,000 in the 2012 budget)
-If these people were paid for this “work” and adding staff time to this to âliaiseâ and feed info to the Committee, the $16,000 would be spent on administering that amount of money. By the time we calculate the cost of each organization that may benefit from the funds applying to receive them, more money will have been spent than is being given out. So, what is the real cost of this âserviceâ?
2.Contribute to the long range strategies of the City of Prince George (myPG) by working with other agencies and community partners in support of Council priorities.
-This is the difficult one where people are often stepping on each otherâs shoes. Advisory committees have no actual authority and are thus in very uncertain positions to effect meaningful action.
3.Seek sponsorships and partnerships to complement the work of the committee.
-âfundraisingâ is a very special function that needs the right kind of people in place. Anyone who is good at this is normally already involved with large organizations that do this as their main function.
4.Promote the work of the committee.
-Forever important to make sure that the committee is sustained. If it fails to do this, it is gone, no matter how effective they are.
Can someone see a recommendation going to KPMG for their Core review from item number 1 above?
BTW, with respect to item 4, the Winter City Committee has been shut down and the most recent version of its work incorporated into this committee.
We will continue to take winter in stride here trying to figure out whether we should clear snow or not, whether to celebrate winter with special city wide events or not, and whether to put up a few strings of winter lights or not.
Câest la vie chez nous.
“community based committee do the work for nothing”
The problem with getting the information for free is that it never carries as much weight as the info that they pay for, whether it deserves it or not.
Similar thing is proven with HR departments giving more credit to resumes that they pay headhunting firms for than ones that people send in even if they are almost exactly the same.
I am a member of one of the other city advisory committees. Although I had ideals at the start, it is essentially a waste of my time, and the time of the staff liaison who assists us during meetings. We make recomeendations to council in our particular area and council routinely ignores them. We suggest the city actually follow aspects of its own mandate and we are overruled. Yet we are patted on the head for all the wonderful work we do.
I am choosing to continue on the committee for the moment, for my own reasons, not because it is particularly effective.
What is wrong with all of the existing people employed by our city to do these things? They are on full time to figure this stuff out. If they aren’t, what are they doing?
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