New Roles & Opportunities at City Hall!

Each November, an Organizational Meeting of Winnipeg City Council is held.  The governance model of the City of Winnipeg currently enables the Mayor to appoint and select  members of Council to the Mayor’s Executive Policy Committee (EPC).  The Committee’s duties can be found in section 61 of the City of Winnipeg Charter.

It’s an interesting governance model in my opinion, in that it doesn’t really balance the work load, or maximize input among elected officials. I’ve supported a motion for a governance review – in part for these reasons – as well as the fact that a review is long overdue. We should always be looking to improve our governance.  See my Governance Review Speech presented to the Mayor and EPC members.

I was honoured to be appointed a member of the Mayor’s Executive Policy Committee during my first two years of office (2014-2016). It was a tremendous learning experience and opportunity to provide some input into running our City. The role was time demanding – I allocated about 75% of my work time to EPC meetings, related issues and budget planning, with the remaining 25% to ward priorities.  This breakdown of time was over a 60-hour week, and striving to read the reports, attend meetings, research/collect information to make informed decisions, and deal with multiple time sensitive issues in a very condensed time frame was an interesting experience. My hope is that in a governance review, we can enable a more balanced approached to decision making and information sharing.

For 2017, I will not be on EPC and will be able to allocate more of my time to South Winnipeg – St. Norbert Ward Priorities, and also to important City-wide initiatives.  I am extremely pleased with this new opportunity and look forward to focusing on the following:

PERSONALLY RESPONDING TO ENQUIRIES:   Bev, our Operations Manager & Community Liaison, has been working diligently to respond to the high volume of E-Mails/phone calls our office receives each day (South Winnipeg-St. Norbert is Winnipeg’s largest ward with nearly 70,000 residents!).   Bev is also responsible to manage complex case work; maintain my schedule of internal/external meetings; organize and attend community events in the ward; update my website; prepare and distribute E-Newsletters; prepare financial reports; research, organize and coordinate project files; and much more!  She’s very organized and efficient, but at times, it’s been challenging to respond to constituents as quickly as she would like.  Now with more available time, I’m looking forward to continuing my work on Ward initiatives, which includes speaking personally with more constituents!  If we have not yet responded to your request, we will do so shortly – please be patient.  We receive upwards of 50 e-mails and phone calls on a daily basis, and will respond as soon as we can.

SOUTH WINNIPEG-ST. NORBERT WARD INITIATIVES: I will be working on key ward issues which include the South Winnipeg Recreation Centre; illegal rental properties; parks and transportation initiatives; and community outreach.

CITY-WIDE INITIATIVES: I will be working on enhancing the value which Winnipeggers receive for tax dollars; improving customer service; overseeing the implementation of Impact Fees; transportation improvements;  governance improvements; and building on the foundation to grow and enable our City and residents to prosper.

I am honoured to serve as your South Winnipeg St-Norbert City Councillor, and welcome any comments you may have.

Twitter:  https://janicelukes.ca/?p=7553