Elected to Collingwood Council -- One Year Later

It was a year ago this week I took my oath of office. A year ago this week I started a job I would have vowed, years ago, I would never sign up for and wasn't cut out for, couldn't do because of my past, my career choices, my early bed-time, my curling career, my...you name it.

And yet, here we are.

For the first few months after the swearing-in, I didn't have time to write because I was reading provincial laws, municipal bylaws, budgets, agendas, minutes, staff reports, supporting and ancillary information, emails and booklets, books about municipal governance, treatises on good planning and so on; all the stuff that I felt I should learn, being a rookie municipal politician.

Of course, I knew there would be a ton of reading if I were going to earn a spot on council, and I was prepared for it with about a dozen new pairs of reading glasses. But hooo, boy, it's a LOT of reading. For instance, the budget book I got on Tuesday afternoon is more than 250 pages, with 47 pages of supplementary content. In October, I attended the County's budget meetings, with about 380 pages of reading in advance. Easter weekend was spent with a County document which contained more than 500 pages.

This isn't ordinary, everyday reading: I want to truly understand what's being conveyed and develop an opinion on it. I wasn't hired by voters simply to know stuff. I am on council to help make good decisions on behalf of citizens, so I have to absorb and also react to the information in front of me. It's a whole different kind of reading from Outlander or any other fiction, that's for sure.

To get through the work, I do what my sweetheart calls, 'The Agenda Olympics': start at the dining table and read there for about 45 minutes, until my butt gets sore, then move to the squishier, more comfortable chairs at the kitchen island for another 45, then get antsy and move to my desk in the upstairs hall for the half hour it takes for the stool to get too uncomfortable.

The final place in the circuit is a chaise lounge that one of my friends insists on calling a 'fainting couch'. That's where the dog cuddles up and I generally give in to a reading-induced nap.


I'm not complaining; it's just that some things have to fall by the wayside when you take on a new job, and this blog, this particular form of self-expression was what I chose to jettison. But, sometime in the spring, Sweetie started to talk to me about blogging and being more active in social media. He thought I should make sure the people who elected me, heard from me, and not just from yelling, "Sweep! Please!" at the curling club. Even with the procedural bylaw under my belt and several months of council meetings behind me, I became -afraid- to write in this space. OK, terrified, to be honest. I thought I would put my big foot in my big mouth, get looked at askance, get...embarrassed, get...in trouble. Plus, town hall procedures are pretty clear about who speaks for council, and it ain't me.

But then, testimony from the Judicial Inquiry wrapped up, and I had a good hard think about what I had read and watched in the testimony over the last several months, and my fear started to melt a bit. Ultimately, I'm doing this job to be of some use. I'm not lining my own pockets, I'm not looking for my next political job; I ran because I thought I could be of some help. Explaining how things work for me might be of some service. Shining a light on the process behind town hall decision-making may be useful. So, I'm going to start sharing.

Quite likely oversharing.