Final Focus Group Report - Alberta Municipal Affairs · CAO Workshops: Report of Focus Group Feedback 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In conjunction with the 2004 CAO Survey conducted by Municipal

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY....................................................................................... 1

CONTEXT............................................................................................................ 7

ISSUES AND TRENDS......................................................................................... 8

CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT................................................................................................ 9 PUBLIC EXPECTATIONS ............................................................................................. 12 PROVINCIAL-MUNICIPAL DISCORD............................................................................... 14 GROWTH ISSUES..................................................................................................... 15 TIME RESTRAINTS ................................................................................................... 16 DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES .................................................................................. 17 REGIONALIZATION................................................................................................... 19 RECRUITMENT OF STAFF ........................................................................................... 20

INFORMATION SOURCES ................................................................................ 21

RELATIONSHIPS WITH NEIGHBOURING MUNICIPALITIES........................... 23

GRANTS............................................................................................................ 24

EDUCATION AND TRAINING ........................................................................... 26

MUNICIPAL INTERNSHIP PROGRAM .............................................................. 28

SUCCESSION PLANNING ................................................................................. 32

DEVELOPMENT OF SUCCESSION PLANS ......................................................................... 33 RECRUITMENT STRATEGIES ....................................................................................... 34 BARRIERS TO RECRUITMENT ...................................................................................... 37 DIFFICULT-TO-FILL POSITIONS .................................................................................. 37 SUGGESTED MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS ASSISTANCE................................................................ 39 CREATING A JOB POSTING FOR MUNICIPAL MANAGERS..................................................... 41

SURVEY ADVICE .............................................................................................. 43

COMMENTS FOR MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS ........................................................... 46

COMMENTS REGARDING THE WORKSHOPS ................................................... 49

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EEXXEECCUUTTIIVVEE SSUUMMMMAARRYY

In conjunction with the 2004 CAO Survey conducted by Municipal Affairs, a series of four focus group workshops were held with 23 CAOs between November 26th, 2003 and March 4th, 2004. The following executive summary highlights the most salient findings gleaned from these workshops.

Current Issues and Trends

CAOs are facing an array of challenges today and openly discussed these issues and possible solutions to address these situations. The following grid outlines the key issues raised by CAOs, along with suggested solutions to undertake when dealing with these matters. The focus groups explored some of the same issues explored in the survey and supported findings gleaned from the survey, providing additional insight into why CAOs responded in certain ways.

CHALLENGES SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS Citizen Engagement

• Present issues to council versus providing written memos or documentation

• Be accessible to residents even when time constraints exist • Know your local press and implement strategic media relations tactics • Hold annual or occasional town hall meetings or public consultations • Provide training to other staff members who deal with the public

Public Expectations

• Implement and adhere to municipal plans • Encourage council to lobby provincial elected officials • Dialogue with ratepayers • Create a community development committee

Provincial-Municipal Discord

• Municipal Affairs should provide an ombudsman service • Engage municipal elected officials to lobby the issue • Ensure regional provincial representatives are present to liaise with

municipalities Growth Issues • Additional funding is required Time Restraints • Prioritize efforts and acknowledge limitations Decision-Making Processes

• CAO recommendations are required line items in the agenda • Understand the personality traits of all decision makers • Spend time with the decision-making team outside of the office doors • Learn how to come to a consensus and support that decision • Consult with municipal staff members before making

recommendations to council • Allow citizens to sit on committees to study issues at hand

Regionalization • Develop regionalization models


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Information Sources

Given the array of issues facing CAOs today, municipal administrators are constantly seeking information and guidance on a variety of topics. CAOs commonly seek information from:

Other CAOs: Municipal administrators hold trust in other CAOs as reliable and valuable sources of information and advice, most commonly those within the same regional area or those whom they have developed a relationship with through other networking opportunities.

Associations: Many CAOs regularly consult with and rely upon information provided by associations.

Municipal Affairs Advisory Staff: Municipal Advisory staff is most commonly accessed to provide information regarding the interpretation of the Municipal Government Act. CAOs more commonly discuss other matters with CAOs or associations.

Municipal Excellence Network/Internet: CAOs are using the provincial government website a great deal, however, not all CAOs are yet aware of the information services provided via the Municipal Excellence Network. Among those aware of “MEnet”, this tool is proving to be valuable.

Relationships With Neighbouring Municipalities and Council

In general, it appears that CAOs’ relationships with their neighbouring municipal administrators are quite strong. However, relations between CAOs’ own and neighbouring councils seems to be relatively weaker. Relations between urban and rural municipalities, especially with respect to land use planning issues, appears to be strained. To this end, CAOs encourage Municipal Affairs to assist with negotiations and promote cooperation.

Grants

In all workshops, CAOs raised the issue of not having enough funding. Grants are, therefore, an essential vehicle for municipal administrators to access additional monies to serve community needs.


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While most CAOs access grants at some level, certain barriers exist to accessing grants, especially among smaller municipalities, such as:

The inability to match the required funding for the grant;

The complexity of the application process;

The time required to prepare the application; and

The conditions applied to the grant application.

CAOs commonly suggest that Municipal Affairs allow for more flexibility with respect to the grant qualification application and disbursement process.

Education and Training

Although Municipal Affairs puts forth efforts to communicate to CAOs about upcoming seminars or workshops, not all CAOs are indeed aware of the educational services available to them from the ministry. In fact, awareness of the education and training programs available through associations appears to be more pronounced.

Future training needs were identified in the following areas:

Performance management;

Accountability issues;

Media training;

Conflict resolution/mediation;

Consensus building;

Leadership training;

Legislative changes; and

Municipal policies and procedures.

In addition, CAOs feel that it is important to continue to develop councillors and encourage Municipal Affairs to increase the education and training provided to elected officials. One CAO suggested that Municipal Affairs create a municipal councillor’s handbook to provide a clear definition of the roles and responsibilities of both councillors and municipal administrators.

Municipal Internship Program

While not all CAOs have had an opportunity to participate in the re-introduced Municipal Internship Program, municipal administrators appreciate this program to assist with recruitment and training strategies for municipal managers in the province.

The barriers facing CAOs, and particularly those in smaller municipalities, from participating in the Program include: lack of funding to pay the intern’s salary; lack of support from council; lack of resources to mentor an intern; and, the inability to offer employment to an intern following the Program.


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CAOs familiar with the Program’s workplan find it to be comprehensive. Differing views emerge, however, with respect to whether the workplan should focus an intern more directly on being well trained in specific areas, or more broadly exposed to all facets of municipal government.

Many CAOs suggest that Municipal Affairs could better communicate the benefits of the Municipal Internship Program to elected officials who ultimately decide whether they will participate in the Program. Further, some CAOs in smaller municipalities encourage the ministry to explore alternative means through which they could participate in the Program, either via sharing an intern with a neighbouring municipality, or via providing a subsidy to assist them with paying their portion of the intern’s salary.

Succession Planning

Recruitment issues and succession planning were also commonly identified by CAOs when discussing current issues and trends. When informed of the turnover statistics facing municipalities in the near future, CAOs raised the importance of this issue on their radar screen.

Despite the apparent need to have succession plans in place, very few CAOs currently have a formal succession strategy for their municipality. Certain CAOs have ‘informal” plans, a few are currently in development, and others are not planning to create such a plan. It appears that CAOs should be further reminded of the importance of this issue.

With respect to recruitment issues, CAOs shared their views regarding successful recruitment strategies, including:

Sell the location and work environment;

Look internally to retain potential management candidates;

Increase compensation strategies;

Find a position for the recruit’s significant other;

Create pride in the profession;

Provide state-of-the-art equipment;

Offer training opportunities;

Market at job fairs and high schools;

Offer job-shadowing and summer co-op positions; and

Hire young and promote job mobility.


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On the other hand, barriers to recruitment tend to focus on:

Lack of funding to offer competitive salaries;

Unwillingness to work with the public/deal with public demands;

Difficulty in attracting people to move to small communities;

Prohibitive cost of living/relocation in larger communities;

Inability to offer training/growth opportunities in smaller municipalities; and

Lack of support from council.

Recruitment has proven particularly difficult for CAOs when seeking assessors or safety code officers. Some smaller municipalities have joined forces to create regional alliances for these difficult-to-fill positions.

What can Municipal Affairs do to assist with succession planning/recruitment?

1. Assist smaller municipalities to access training.

2. Facilitate regional approaches/alliances.

3. Educate elected officials.

4. Promote the value of municipal government.

5. Continue the Municipal Internship Program.

6. Set standard qualifications for CAOs.

7. Establish a recruitment network for municipalities.

8. Develop a secondment program.

When recruiting new municipal managers, CAOs indicate that the two most important skill sets relate to communication and leadership. When promoting the rewards and benefits of the position, CAOs would focus on making the community a better place to be in and the interesting and challenging scope of work.


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Comments for Municipal Affairs

Throughout the course of the workshops, CAOs provided comments and advice to Municipal Affairs to help municipal administrators better perform in their roles. Several themes emerged when commenting on the ministry’s actions, including:

Become more involved with municipalities;

Market your services;

Advocate on behalf of municipalities to the provincial government;

Create regional bodies to address regional and urban-rural issues;

Expand your scope of advisory expertise beyond municipal issues;

Follow up with CAOs; and

Promote the benefits of working in the public sector.

Overall, CAOs seem to appreciate having an opportunity to dialogue with each other, with Municipal Affairs representatives, and to express their concerns in an open objective forum.

“What we have done today has been very worthwhile. I hope Municipal Affairs can take to heart these comments and will come back to dialogue with

us on these issues.”

***

The detailed report of CAO feedback is attached.


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CCOONNTTEEXXTT

Alberta Municipal Affairs undertakes research projects to remain responsive to stakeholders’ needs. The CAO survey is one example of the ministry’s research efforts.

Prior to finalizing the design of the 2004 CAO survey, Municipal Affairs sought input from municipal administrators via focus group workshops regarding current issues and trends, education and training, information needs, relationships, grants and general survey advice. Subsequent to the launch of the 2004 CAO survey in January 2004, three additional workshops were held among Alberta CAOs, again focusing on current issues and trends, as well as on the Municipal Internship Program and succession planning.

Municipal Affairs invited CAOs of Alberta municipalities to participate in a series of four workshops held:

November 26, 2003 in Edmonton;

February 13, 2004 in Calgary;

February 27, 2004 in Edmonton; and

March 4, 2004 in Calgary.

A total of 23 CAOs participated in the workshops.

A professional Ipsos-Reid moderator conducted the sessions and this report summarizes the feedback gleaned from the workshops. Municipal administrators appreciated the opportunity to participate in these workshops, to express their views in an open forum, to interact directly with Municipal Affairs representatives, and to network with colleagues.


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IISSSSUUEESS AANNDD TTRREENNDDSS

The main objective of these workshops among Alberta CAOs was to better understand the current and emerging issues and trends facing municipal administrators. CAOs were asked to identify the current and emerging issues faced in their respective municipal environments outside of the scope of financial challenges and restraints.

The objective was to move beyond addressing revenue issues that are known to impact all municipalities, to discuss additional issues that may not yet be known to Municipal Affairs and other CAOs alike. While many of the issues raised in the workshop are linked to financial issues, CAOs responded energetically to the task and outlined an array of challenges they face in their municipalities, such as:

Citizen engagement;

Public expectations;

Provincial-municipal discord;

Growth issues;

Time restraints;

Decision-making processes;

Regionalization; and

Recruitment of staff.

Potential strategies to manage and address these issues and challenges were also discussed in the workshops.


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CCiittiizzeenn EEnnggaaggeemmeenntt

CAOs observe a growing level of citizen engagement in municipal issues. Interest in council decisions appears to be increasing based on residents questioning rationales behind rulings and/or motions made by council.

“I think that there is some doubt now as to whether the people elected are making the right decisions.”

CAOs often feel caught between council and the communities served in the sense that they provide recommendations to council that they feel best serve residents, yet council does not always adopt these recommendations. The impact of this growing issue upon CAO responsibilities appears to result in additional efforts required for each decision, such as more in-depth information gathering processes, increased liaising with both residents and council members, further documentation on each issue and a growing number of public hearings.

“The government had a better place in the eyes of the people years ago. Now everything is a challenge that people are not willing to accept authority and decisions

that we make. That makes every decision harder. We now have to research, sell it and enforce it. Every decision that comes up has a lot more work to it than use to be.

Twenty years ago a one-page memo to cancel a large item like canceling decisions on a bylaw would have been enough. Now you have to write reports and you have to

sanction reports. We have to sell this to the public and endure long public hearings. It is a lot more work to get anything done.”

Some CAOs comment that “accountability” is a driver of the increased level of citizen engagement in municipal government. With accessible tools such as the Internet, society in general appears to be more self-empowered to research issues and make judgments based on their own information gathering processes than they were even a decade ago. Knowledge is power, for some, and this knowledge in turn drives a desire for an increased level of accountability from taxpayers at all levels of government.

“We are living in an information evolution. You look at the Internet and all of the different availability. You look at the education of the general public versus what it was twenty five to thirty years ago. You are dealing with more knowledgeable residents. It is a societal change where they want answers. The whole idea of, you can’t fight City Hall, doesn’t exist anymore. They don’t just accept and they aren’t complacent. Maybe they need more information whether they are going to support a decision or not. They

need that input.”


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In addition to council decisions, CAOs agree that citizens are now more engaged with issues regarding service levels, such as snow removal or water and sewer rates.

“Service levels are huge and they want some input on what those service levels are going to be because their tax dollars are paying for it.”

Addressing Citizen Engagement

Present issues to council versus providing written memos or documentation.

Many CAOs state that it is difficult to actually get council members to read materials they have prepared for review in advance of decision-making voting processes. To this end, certain CAOs have adopted an approach to encourage and allow for a presentation of the information gathered on the issue. The intent is to ensure that council members actively participate in the review of the pertinent information required to make an informed decision on matters. These particular CAOs believe that this approach has at the very least improved the involvement of municipal administrators in attempting to inform council members of the facts and of citizens’ views on issues being debated. In turn, CAOs can respond to citizens’ concerns about council members having been informed about citizen concerns on matters.

Be accessible to residents even when time constraints exist.

Given the increased level of citizen engagement, CAOs increasingly have to deal with citizens arriving at their offices to ask questions or express concerns about issues. While CAOs explain that they have little time in the course of their daily routines to spend with citizens to respond to these requests, community relations are built upon being flexible to lend an ear for at least five minutes to a citizen who takes the time to go to the CAO’s office to voice a concern about an issue.

“You have to be ready to make your office open. Don’t say that you have a meeting at 2:00 and can’t see them until 3:25 and you’ll have five minutes at that time. You have

to be open and accessible. Keep your citizens happy.”

Know your local press and implement strategic media relations tactics.

Some CAOs have invested a great deal of time in learning strategies to use media to assist with issues. Strategies used include having the press report on issues being debated to inform residents of how and why decisions were reached. As well, CAOs note that they have the local newspaper annually report the financial statements of the municipality to ensure public accountability so long as the financial data is presented in a simple readable format that is easily understood by residents.


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Other media strategies are to have local reporters remind citizens of upcoming issues of importance such as land fill uses, property maintenance or tax issues. Certain CAOs caution others not to present too many issues in the same message in any coverage produced by local media so as to concentrate on only a few issues at any one time. These CAOs also comment that using media to remind residents of their responsibilities, such as tax payment dates, serves to save costs versus having to pay postage to send reminder notices to citizens. Helping to keep citizens informed of issues also assists in offsetting potential citizen coalitions by being pro-active in providing information about issues taking place.

Hold annual or occasional town hall meetings or public consultations.

Some municipalities use town hall meetings or public consultations to provide citizens with an opportunity for input on matters of public importance. CAOs believe that residents at least have an opportunity to vent their frustrations or to ask questions related to the matter at hand. This process ensures that citizens have a voice in decision-making processes – an issue of growing importance for many CAOs present in the workshops.

Some CAOs mention, however, that even when such meetings were arranged, few citizens actually showed up to participate in the discussions. One CAO mentioned that allowing for phone-in or even e-mail questions or comments can assist with the level of accessibility to these public forums in rural municipalities when families have other responsibilities that may prohibit them from traveling a distance to the meeting place.

Provide training to other staff members who deal with the public.

For larger municipalities who have more staff dealing directly with public concerns, training is provided to teach them how to deal with difficult customers.


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PPuubblliicc EExxppeeccttaattiioonnss

Overall, CAOs agree that public expectations of municipal government have grown, particularly with respect to the public expecting municipal government to respond to provincial issues. Citizens may not always be aware of which government body is responsible for specific services. In these workshops, several CAOs mention that along with an increased level of citizen engagement comes an increased demand from citizens on matters that are or have traditionally been outside of the scope of municipal government. For example, CAOs explain that citizens believe that their municipal administrations are responsible for police services or other social service issues (i.e. health care and education).

In order to be responsive to citizens, municipal administrators feel a sense of responsibility to at the very least act as a referral conduit, if not being able to answer questions directly.

“We have to get involved with provincial issues on top of municipal issues and it’s not our role.”

“The public is getting more demanding and less tolerant.”

“We have to become stewards of everything in the community.”

For some municipalities that are in close proximity to large urban centres, public expectations appear to be even greater. These CAOs comment that ratepayers expect the same extent of services they observe in the neighbouring urban municipality, without realizing that their relatively smaller municipality must provide services within their own infrastructure.

“People’s expectations are growing faster than our ability to deliver.”

Addressing Public Expectations

Implement and adhere to municipal plans.

CAOs who have formal strategic municipal plans in place indicate that these plans serve both council and administrators well to maintain focus on the priority issues identified by the municipality. When citizens raise issues outside of the scope of the plan and budget, referring back to the original plan assists in retaining priority issues at the forefront and, in turn, being able to put secondary issues on the sidelines for a time.


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“We have quarterly reviews to bring everyone back to focus on the goals. It’s always about refocusing them on priorities and strategic policies.”

Encourage council to lobby provincial elected officials.

On matters outside of the scope of their municipal mandate, CAOs encourage council to actively discuss and/or lobby MLAs to address the provincial issues of concern to citizens. CAOs feel this can help alleviate public demands on municipal government on these external issues, while raising the profile and respect of elected municipal officials at the same time.

Dialogue with ratepayers.

Similar to strategies used to address citizen engagement, CAOs state that proactive communication to listen and respond to public expectations is essential. For some CAOs, the dialogue is direct: face-to-face. For others, dialogue may take the form of public hearings or valid survey tools to acknowledge and identify public expectations in the municipality.

“We use community bulletin boards to ask for feedback on issues. We don’t hide anything. We started to do more mail-outs to educate people on the issues and what

we’re doing to address the matters, and to ask for feedback on other suggested approaches.”

Create a community development committee.

One CAO participating in the workshops explained that their efforts to dialogue with citizens have resulted in the creation of a community development committee to listen and learn from citizens.

“We set up a Community Development Committee whose purpose is to provide input and provide feedback from the community. They meet with community groups to get input on issues. These are volunteers. They will be doing a questionnaire later this

summer. This will ultimately educate them [public] on what we do so their expectations will be reduced and thus, reduce our workload a little.”


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PPrroovviinncciiaall--MMuunniicciippaall DDiissccoorrdd

For many CAOs, overlap between provincial and municipal mandates that impact decisions, responsibilities or community development create discord between provincial and municipal governments. Such examples include:

Alberta Transportation: “We have access issues impeding land and economic development in our community. Municipal Affairs needs to step forward to represent our interests.”

Alberta Environment: “We can’t afford to deal with the regulations prescribed.”

Occupational Health and Safety: “There are so many new codes and requirements we now have to deal with. The amount of paperwork and reading is overwhelming and some municipalities have had to hire people just to deal with these new issues. Municipal Affairs should be a Champion for us – we can’t do it all within the existing funding framework.”

Addressing Provincial-Municipal Discord

Municipal Affairs should provide an ombudsman service.

Several CAOs agree that it would be useful to have the ministry create an ombudsman position to react to and deal with provincial-municipal discord issues. At this time, CAOs believe they have limited paths to follow to address such conflicts.

“Maybe there is a need for an ombudsman role for Municipal Affairs to hear these issues.”

Engage municipal elected officials to lobby the issue.

Should administration-to-administration approaches not prove successful, some CAOs indicate they engage local elected officials to lobby directly with provincial elected officials on matters affecting the communities they dually serve. CAOs are not convinced, however, that municipal elected officials carry enough weight over MLAs to achieve the goal at hand.

“You call the Mayor and the Mayor calls the MLA, but you always wonder if these efforts will net you anything.”


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GGrroowwtthh IIssssuueess

Another common issue presently facing CAOs is growth - real estate development. Alberta is experiencing record growth in many regions of the province and subsequently, development is extensive in some communities. While zoning and construction plans are in place for approved developments, CAOs state that it is difficult to explain to residents exactly how the development will impact their current lifestyle and the face of the community in which they live. As a result of the pace of development in certain communities, municipal administrators have been faced with a growing level of public inquiries and complaints that CAOs feel were handled outside of the scope of municipal government in the past.

“People aren’t willing to accept things that twenty years ago they might have . . . there won’t be an apartment within a half a mile, they oppose basement suites in a college

area, they oppose a guy who has his private land that is undeveloped, they expect that land to stay undeveloped for their view. Back in the old days they use to work it out

between themselves mostly or tolerate activities. Now it is straight to town office. This is an explosive issue for them.”

Overall, CAOs struggle with the conflict that residents expect real estate development to be regulated, but oppose the regulation itself.

“Before we used to have single family and that is it. From smaller to bigger lots at least in our community. Now condos are coming and apartments. They say there is so much

traffic and what is going to happen? They can’t accept that and I think that it is changing their life too. They can’t have the big yard with all of that stuff. They can

only afford a condo and mentally it is an adjustment in a way.”

In addition, some CAOs have difficulty dealing with service expectations for new acreages being developed in the municipalities. In these situations, CAOs explain that ratepayers on acreages pay less tax, yet expect the same service levels as are provided to neighbouring urban neighbourhoods. CAOs comment that they do not have the funds, however, to be able to service the land and provide the infrastructure requested by ratepayers on acreages.

“Where do we find the money to deal with these major infrastructure costs? We can’t do it with just per capita funding.”

“We’re caught between being too small and too large to get funding to address these growth issues.”


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Addressing Growth Issues

Additional funding is required.

CAOs are finding it difficult to address growth issues in the manner in which they would like to handle these situations. With limited funding to respond to rapid growth, CAOs find themselves apologizing for delayed needed infrastructure and services. Generally speaking, they are frustrated and attempt to explain that they are doing their best – fully realizing they will also have to deal with frustrated ratepayers.

CAOs explain that additional finances are required to address these issues either via:

Raising taxes;

Raising user/consumption fees; or

Improved provincial-municipal cooperation to fund required infrastructure.

TTiimmee RReessttrraaiinnttss

An overriding theme that touches the ability of CAOs to address many of the issues raised in the workshops involves time constraints that CAOs face. Particular CAOs who represent smaller municipalities explain that due to the multiple roles they must play as CAOs in their respective communities, it is difficult to respond to everyone’s needs. For some, the time constraints are also a result of what they feel is a lack of resources.

“We are so busy building and doing stuff that I am behind in the paper work. There just isn’t time to catch up. There are time constraints. I refuse to work 15-hours a day.”

“In a small municipality, the scope of the position is different than it is in a larger municipality. There are fewer resources of people. The expertise in a small municipality

is simply not there.”

Addressing Time Restraints

Prioritize efforts and acknowledge limitations.

In the present environment, CAOs say they must learn to prioritize their efforts, even if this means they cannot fully address certain issues to the extent to which they would prefer. Acknowledging limitations, even at a personal professional level, helps some CAOs remain at peace with not being able to be “all things to all people”.


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DDeecciissiioonn--MMaakkiinngg PPrroocceesssseess

Certain CAOs are concerned with the current decision-making processes in their municipalities. According to these CAOs, some procedures are followed, others are not, some are pushed through too quickly and others are painstakingly slow. Ultimately, CAOs mention that decision-making processes should be in place and followed to respect the attention that each matter needs before choices are made. As well, they explain that processes should be followed to respond to residents that each matter received due-diligence before a resolution was reached.

“Our council made a decision on a big chunk of iron worth $40,000 in one hour. That is not how it should happen, but it did.”

“Even if you have to make a decision on simple things, there is no process. How is it going to effect the customer and certain income groups? There is no process on how to reach a decision. A vote of four to three is sometimes how a decision is made instead of

studying it.”

“Decisions are made too fast. They are made before I even know about them and before it gets to council . . . I had no time to check out the pros and cons or to try and

steer them straight.”

In some smaller municipalities, CAOs indicate that decision-making processes take place outside of regular debate sessions. These additional meetings were referred to as “coffee shop meetings” wherein council members meet informally, discuss the issues, come to a consensus and move forward without allowing the CAO to have an opportunity to provide input during the decision-making process. CAOs are frustrated by these occurrences, indicating that they need an opportunity to review the issues at hand in order to be responsive to the community they serve.

Addressing Decision-Making Processes

CAO recommendations are required line items in the agenda.

Municipal administrators stress the importance of having an opportunity to provide advice and/or recommendations to council during decision-making processes. To this end, certain CAOs have implemented a policy that in any agenda involving decisions, CAO recommendations must be included to allow CAOs an opportunity to present their feedback either in written or oral format. CAOs explain that this also allows council members to ask questions or provide comments on the information provided by municipal administrators and thus, helps clarify the issues prior to decisions being made.


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Understand the personality traits of all decision makers.

Some CAOs have found it beneficial to participate in psychological or personality profiling exercises in order to better understand the characteristics of those involved in decision-making processes. For example, knowing how to best communicate with others who carry specific personality traits has helped some CAOs formulate smoother debate processes, more effective sharing of information, clearer discussions and higher quality mediation during council meetings. In general, knowing how to best approach and deal with unique personality traits helps each individual team member learn how to best work together.

“If you are going to have a decision made, you might have a more productive conversation if you can steer it appropriately.”

Spend time with the decision-making team outside of the office doors.

The nature of the positions as CAO and/or council members lends itself to having to deal with conflict and debates. Given this situation, tensions can build among team members as debates occur during decision-making processes. Spending time together informally can help build relationships between all team members and, in turn, respect for each others’ opinions and the ability to better achieve consensus during decision-making processes.

Learn how to come to a consensus and support that decision.

Decisions are not always unanimous. This situation can create animosity between council members and/or CAOs, as well as with the general public. To address this issue, CAOs recommend that municipalities learn how to better achieve a consensus – a decision with which every team member can live with but may not 100% support. Following a consensus decision, CAOs indicate that each team member should actively and vocally support the decision of the team, rather than voicing their opposition to any particular component of the decision.

Consult with municipal staff members before making recommendations to council.

As discussed, one challenge facing CAOs is to reach consensus with council members on decisions. On the other hand, CAOs further note that municipal employees who will be affected by decisions also need to be involved in the decision-making process. CAOs explain that in order to implement or operationalize the decisions made by council, it is prudent to first seek approval from municipal colleagues on the proposed resolutions


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being debated. This approach also shows that municipal employees’ views are valued and incorporated in the overall decision-making process.

Allow citizens to sit on committees to study issues at hand.

For some CAOs, having citizens sit on committees established by council has assisted in promoting the fairness of decisions and citizen engagement in community issues. Another positive spin-off effect of this approach is that engaged citizens may ultimately become future council member candidates, creating a pool of resources that appears to be quite shallow at this time.

RReeggiioonnaalliizzaattiioonn

Another trend emerging for many CAOs in smaller municipalities deals with the implementation of regional approaches. Regionalization is not a foreign concept to Alberta CAOs. Many have learned that to address the needs of individual municipalities within existing resources, especially smaller municipalities, building partnerships with neighbouring municipalities to share resources, services and staff is crucial. However, CAOs acknowledge that regional sharing is not always easily achieved because some individual municipalities fear losing their sense of autonomy.

“The smaller municipalities, in order to survive, have to team up with other counties to share resources. It’s starting to occur already.”

“A large rural issue is depopulation. The majority of municipalities have a downward trend in their total population. Regionalization is a result, but the protectionism that is

fighting regionalization is related to building the walls to survive.”

Addressing Regionalization

Develop regionalization models.

CAOs are looking to Municipal Affairs for guidance and leadership to encourage and facilitate regional alliances to address priority issues facing CAOs today. Indeed, many smaller municipalities are currently sharing and working with regional neighbours at the present time. Regionalization, according to these CAOs, is an eventuality that should be proactively adopted where appropriate.

“Provide leadership on inter-municipal cooperation/collaboration of regional services and regional alliances.”


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RReeccrruuiittmmeenntt ooff SSttaaffff

CAOs are also finding it increasingly difficult to recruit new staff to work in municipal government. While these issues will primarily be addressed in the Succession Planning section of this report, it is important to note that recruitment issues arose spontaneously in the workshops as an area of concern to CAOs.


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IINNFFOORRMMAATTIIOONN SSOOUURRCCEESS

Given the array of issues and challenges facing municipal administrators today, CAOs participating in the workshops indicate that they are constantly seeking information and guidance on a variety of matters. The sources of information used are also varied yet, are targeted in an ad-hoc manner according to the network of resources available to the CAO.

OOtthheerr AAddmmiinniissttrraattoorrss

CAOs trust their fellow colleagues in other municipalities to provide sage advice and/or information when needed. Mostly, CAOs consult other municipal administrators within their region. Some CAOs, however, also consult CAOs with whom they have established relationships or who are known to have information on a particular topic area. To follow “protocol”, CAOs will always contact the CAO of another municipality first, even if they truly need to speak with the manager or director of a certain operational area. Reliance on cooperation between municipal administrators to mutually assist one another with information is crucial for many CAOs.

“It’s a matter of survival. It is inherent in our position. There is no way that one person can know how to do everything that a CAO is expected to do in this day and age.”

“We bounce ideas off of each other. I tend to contact those who are in the same geographic region, or those who I have met in meetings.”

RReeggiioonnaall OOrrggaanniizzaattiioonnss

Some CAOs also referenced former regional planning commissions as past positive sources of information for land use planning issues. Currently, several smaller municipalities use the various association zone meetings to address issues and share ideas and resources.

IInntteerrpprreettaattiioonn ooff LLeeggiissllaattiioonn

With respect to legislation and the interpretation of legislation, some CAOs asked if Municipal Affairs could provide “plain language” interpretations of certain Acts and their provisions (e.g. Municipal Government Act). Further, explanations related to the constraints of legislation or real-life examples of how municipalities have used provisions would be useful to several municipal administrators present in the workshop.


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MMuunniicciippaall AAffffaaiirrss AAddvviissoorryy SSttaaffff

Municipal Affairs advisors are a “go-to” source of information for many matters for many CAOs. In general, municipalities located in the southern portion of the province were less likely to indicate they have frequent interaction with Municipal Affairs Advisory staff. These CAOs feel that “Municipal Affairs is centralized in Edmonton” and describe their communication with the ministry as “minimal” or “as needed” for questions regarding the Act or for a referral contact, for example.

Municipal administrators indicate that they find it difficult to get council members to read information that they provide. In the same light, CAOs in one of the four workshops were asked to describe what Municipal Affairs could do to encourage them to read the information provided to them from the ministry. Municipal administrators suggest making reading material “exciting” and to keep documents simple in nature with contact information for further detail if required. The use of email in the dissemination of information can also prompt CAOs to read materials and be given a “head’s up” on information that is forthcoming.

“Email us on ministerial orders. It keeps you in tune with what’s changing.”

IInntteerrnneett aanndd MMuunniicciippaall EExxcceelllleennccee NNeettwwoorrkk

CAOs use on-line information sources a great deal, specifically the provincial government website. For some, the staff directory helps CAOs target an individual for a question rather than pursuing general lines of inquiry with ministry receptionists.

When specifically asked if they had accessed the Municipal Excellence Network, not all CAOs had used this tool, some because of their lack of awareness of the site. CAOs who have been exposed to the tool indicate that ‘MEnet’ is a “good idea” as a potential platform for an array of information for municipal administrators. Municipal administrators caution the ministry, however, to not expect municipalities to actively volunteer information for the network but to rather proactively seek information from municipalities that would expand and add to the site.

AAssssoocciiaattiioonnss

CAOs regularly consult with and rely upon information provided by associations with which they are members. The LGAA is mentioned most often as a quality source of information, in addition to the AAMDC and AUMA. As well, with respect to information and training, certain CAOs make the observation that the SLGM has taken a much stronger role of holding workshops.


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RREELLAATTIIOONNSSHHIIPPSS WWIITTHH NNEEIIGGHHBBOOUURRIINNGG MMUUNNIICCIIPPAALLIITTIIEESS

Building and expanding relationships with neighbouring municipalities and councils is an important responsibility according to CAOs. To operate efficiently and in an accountable fashion, these relationships must be strong.

CAOs feel that their relationships with neighbouring municipalities are decent. These CAOs highlight that their relationships with neighbouring municipal administrators is better than with neighbouring elected officials. Certain CAOs hold joint meetings with neighbouring municipalities that they feel have strengthened relations via direct communication with their municipal colleagues.

Urban-Rural Relations

For some CAOs dealing with a neighbouring urban/rural counterpart, relations appear to be strained. When attempting to address issues, especially with respect to land use planning, these CAOs indicate that it is difficult to reach a compromise that suits both the urban and rural municipality. To this end, CAOs encourage Municipal Affairs to further define “urban” and “rural” to assist with negotiations and promote cooperation among the various types of municipalities.

“We’re competing against each other instead of working together.”

“It’s the us vs. them phenomena.”


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GGRRAANNTTSS

In all workshops, CAOs raised the issue of not having enough funding. Grants are one of the few ways in which CAOs search for additional funding to address their community’s needs and, therefore, discussions surrounding grants spontaneously arose and were spirited given the importance of grants to municipalities.

CAOs express frustration with respect to some grant programs not ultimately providing full funding. The issue of being denied is less prevalent than the issue of receiving less funding than expected based on the terms of some grants. Certain CAOs perceive that the review process of specific grants, such as the Legacy Grant, may not be fair and reasonable, stating that while some municipalities received funds for projects in the past, other municipalities are now receiving decreased amounts from this grant program for the same proposed projects.

Certain barriers to accessing grants were also mentioned, including:

The inability to match the required funding for the grant;

The complexity of the application process;

The time required to prepare the applications; and

The conditions applied to the grant application.

“If you are poorer, then you can’t access these programs.”

“Every municipality has different needs. Why are there so many strings attached to how we spend it?”

“It’s like having a sale on something but placing so many conditions on the sale purchase that you can’t access the sale.”

“In some cases, if you don’t partner, you won’t get any money.”

“The grants aren’t often worth the time to fill out the paperwork. It could get us $1,500 from the grant, but just the complexity of trying to get the grant will cost us $3,000.”


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Many CAOs would appreciate more flexibility with respect to the grant qualification, application and disbursement processes. Some CAOs feel that the ministry should place a higher level of trust in individual municipalities to use the grant appropriately, knowing that the ministry will follow-up to ensure the monies were properly allocated. With what CAOs feel has been a significant reduction in municipal funding over the past decade, access to grants is crucial for municipalities to be able to maintain the same service levels as was provided to their communities in previous years.

“Streamline grants into one unconditional Municipal Assistance Grant.”

“The department can offer a five-year municipal assistance program with minimal guidelines.”

“Just get rid of the red tape.”

“There is a lack of trust. They think the municipality doesn’t have the knowledge to make decisions for themselves.”


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EEDDUUCCAATTIIOONN AANNDD TTRRAAIINNIINNGG

In certain workshops, education and training was also briefly discussed. The most salient finding emerging from these focused discussions relates to the lack of awareness of seminars and workshops offered by Municipal Affairs, despite communications being sent to municipal administrators. Awareness of association education and training programs is more pronounced (AUMA, LGAA).

In future communications regarding seminars and workshops sponsored by Municipal Affairs, CAOs ask the ministry to send out a calendar of events in advance so that they can plan their schedules accordingly. Short notice will typically act as a barrier to participation.

CAOs participating in the workshop express a desire for additional training and education in the following areas:

Performance management;

Accountability issues;

Media training;

Conflict resolution/mediation;

Consensus building;

Leadership training;

Legislative changes; and

Municipal policies and procedures.

“Give me a skill set to deal with diverging opinions and wants, so I could move into a systematic approach to deal with it rather than react to it.”


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Training for councillors

As noted previously when discussing the issues of developing councillors, CAOs also state that it is important for Municipal Affairs to provide the proper training to new council members. To assist with such training, some CAOs mention the usefulness of preparing a municipal councillors handbook that will provide a clear definition of the role of council and councillors, as well as the role of municipal administrators. CAOs further feel that leadership training would be useful to provide to councillors.

Replacements need

In one of the four workshops, CAOs were asked to identify the training they would like to see their “replacement” CAO receive. The following training areas were noted:

Mediation;

Facilitation;

Negotiation;

Management practices;

Finance – municipal accounting;

Leadership;

Customer service;

Public relations;

Media relations;

Change management;

Business planning;

Succession planning;

Strategic planning; and

Risk management.


28

MMUUNNIICCIIPPAALL IINNTTEERRNNSSHHIIPP PPRROOGGRRAAMM

Two of the four CAO workshops included discussions regarding the Municipal Internship Program. The recent re-introduction of the Municipal Internship Program is viewed positively by CAOs participating in these workshops. CAOs mention that this Program will be productive in assisting with recruitment and training strategies for municipal administrators in the province. In terms of involvement, however, larger municipalities tend to be more likely to either apply or be involved with the Program than are smaller municipalities.

“You’ll benefit from having their energies and you have an opportunity to promote municipal government as a career option. The community benefits from having projects

completed.”

BBaarrrriieerrss ttoo PPaarrttiicciippaattiioonn

Several barriers prohibit municipalities from participating in the Municipal Internship Program. CAOs cite the following:

Lack of funding to pay the intern’s salary;

Lack of support from Council;

Lack of resources to mentor an intern; and

The inability to offer employment to an intern following the Program.

Many of the smaller municipalities mention they cannot find the funds required to participate in this program, or find it difficult to convince council that this program would be beneficial. For these smaller municipalities, it also appears to be difficult to provide the proper supervision for an intern with limited staff who already find it difficult to keep up with their daily tasks. Further, some small municipalities indicate that they would be prohibited to host an intern solely based on the lack of workspace in cramped quarters.

“The places where they are needed are places that can’t afford the program. It doesn’t achieve the objective of helping smaller municipalities.”

“Council didn’t want to pay for it.”

“It takes a great deal of human capital to take on an intern.”


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CAOs in smaller municipalities feel that they should be offered financial incentives to participate in the Program, because they ultimately will provide training, but will then lose the intern to another municipality. At the end of the Program, such smaller municipalities cannot guarantee that a position will be available to the intern who they spent a year training and, therefore, these municipalities shy away from participating.

“You’ve spent money to train someone for somebody else. You can’t hire them back.”

“The municipalities bringing them in are growing and adding to their workforce, so they can place interns in a full-time position following the program.”

SSeelleeccttiioonn PPrroocceessss

CAOs acknowledge and appreciate that Municipal Affairs has undertaken a significant task to create a selection pool of internship candidates from which to draw. CAOs also indicate that their municipalities have undertaken a “fair amount of work” to go through this selection process themselves. CAOs with human resource departments will delegate the selection task to their in-house municipal human resource professionals. As well, certain municipalities have joined forces in the selection process to conduct intern interviews collaboratively at the same time in an effort to make the selection process more efficient.

Several CAOs indicate that while technical skills are important, a “culture fit” is more important stating, “Training is a piece of cake if the attitude and shared values for the culture are there.” One municipality has even taken steps to conduct a meeting with Westjet to learn from their experiences in creating corporate culture.


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IInntteerrnn WWoorrkkppllaann

CAOs who are familiar with the workplan find it to be comprehensive. Differing views emerge, however, with respect to whether the workplan should focus more directly on specific areas of training or more broadly on all areas of training required for municipal management.

Those who feel that the workplan should allow interns to focus more directly on specific areas of training feel that it would be better for an intern to be well trained in certain facets of the position rather than broadly trained in many areas. These CAOs state:

“Two months may not be as quality of an experience in each individual area.”

“I don’t think you have to have experience in every level of the organization.”

“I think they’d learn more if they took on a project and learned from it. There are not many projects out there that are only one month in duration.”

“They’re not going to get meaty issues; they’re going to get fringe issues that don’t take much time to address.”

“It seems like the internship program is trying to train mini-CAO positions. What is wrong with having them train in just the area they are interested in? If it’s planning,

maybe try to take the focused approach.”

Conversely, some CAOs believe that the workplan should ensure that interns are exposed to all facets of municipal government, even if this is completed at a peripheral level. These CAOs state:

“You have to move them through the organization and not harbour them too much in one department.”

“They just need to get a flavour of the organization.”

“You can’t come out with the expectation that they’ll know everything at the end.”

CAOs believe that it would be useful to also include focused leadership and strategic planning training in the workplan. In addition, other CAOs feel that interns should be exposed as much as possible to actual scenarios, such as going before council to discuss issues, or dealing directly with the public on matters.


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IInntteerrnnsshhiipp PPrrooggrraamm DDuurraattiioonn

Overall, most CAOs feel that a one-year internship duration is sufficient for the purposes of the Program. Certain CAOs, on the other hand, feel that the Program should be extended from one-year to two years to accommodate the extent of training required.

“One year is a decent amount of time for them to get a flavour for the organization.”

“Probably even six months is fine to know if someone has the aptitude and desire to work in municipal management.”

“It should be a 2-year program. In Year 1, it’s the “Learning Mode” about what municipalities do. In Year 2, it’s the “Working Mode” where they can apply the skills

they learned.”

MMuunniicciippaall AAffffaaiirrss RRoollee

In addition to the current responsibilities undertaken by the ministry related to the Municipal Internship Program, CAOs express a strong desire for Municipal Affairs to communicate the benefits of the Program to elected officials. Given that CAOs need council to approve the expenditure of taking on an intern, any assistance from the ministry to help provide a clear consistent message to gain elected officials’ support would be appreciated.

“Municipal Affairs could help educate elected officials to learn about the importance of it. It’s council that needs to buy into it.”

“Go to conventions and give presentations and let the elected people know the pros and cons. They [elected officials] can’t get past the costs. Show them the statistics [refers

to the succession planning fact sheet].”

To encourage interns to stay and work in smaller municipalities, some CAOs suggest that Municipal Affairs create an incentive program, such as a bursary in the same manner in which the Rural Physician Program is based. This, of course, applies only to those smaller municipalities that can offer full-time employment to an intern following completion of the Program.

Alternatively, smaller municipalities encourage the ministry to help facilitate the sharing of an intern among two or more municipalities to allow otherwise cash-strapped municipalities to participate in the Program.


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SSUUCCCCEESSSSIIOONN PPLLAANNNNIINNGG

The previous CAO survey (2001) revealed that succession issues would be prominent on the agenda based on CAO responses to specific questions. These responses were compiled in a “fact sheet” that was distributed to CAOs in two of the four workshops.

CAOs identified succession planning and recruitment issues when discussing current emerging challenges facing municipalities. With these facts in hand, CAOs were even more likely to feel that succession planning will be important to address in the immediate future.

“I’m surprised at the number of CAOs who are going to be gone. Young people today are different from our generation. Someone coming out of school now won’t necessarily look for a CAO job. Young people aren’t willing to take the crap our generation takes.”

Fact Sheet: Results from the January 2001 CAO Survey Turnover is expected.

Approximately one-third (34%) of all CAOs in Alberta reported that theyexpected to no longer be CAOs within the next six years (by 2007).

Six-in-ten (59%) CAOs indicated that they expect to remain in their positionas CAO for no longer than 10 years (until 2011).

It’s not just a retirement issue.

A total of 29% of the CAOs who expected to leave their positions as CAO within the next six years indicated that they would likely seek work outsideof municipal government prior to retiring.

Further, since the survey was conducted, some CAOs who did not expect toleave their positions have departed unexpectedly as a result of burnout,health or other factors.

All municipalities can be affected by competitive jockeying for current CAOs.

In municipalities where CAOs are expected to depart by 2007 (34% of allAlberta municipalities), 52% of the CAOs indicated that their replacement will likely be from the ranks of CAOs in other Alberta municipalities.


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“Many people are very capable, yet become frustrated with the scope of their responsibilities. They then find the job ungratifying and we lose them.”

“We need more thought in middle-management (Department Heads) in smaller urban cities.”

“We also need room for entry-level positions so there are growth opportunities within the organization.”

DDeevveellooppmmeenntt ooff SSuucccceessssiioonn PPllaannss

Despite the apparent need to have succession plans in place, very few CAOs who participated in the workshops have a formal succession strategy for their municipality. Certain CAOs mention having “informal” succession plans (i.e. referred to as “back-up contingency plans”), and a few CAOs indicate that they are currently working on creating a formal succession plan for their administration.

CAOs explain that they have not yet developed a formal succession plan for the following reasons:

Their focus is on their immediate short-term municipal plan which does not factor in potential turn-over in the long-term;

They are not aware of who will be leaving when;

They are too busy focusing on other priority issues at hand; and

For some, the impact upon their municipality if a succession plan is not in place is not “top-of-mind”.

Smaller municipalities are least likely to be creating formal succession plans. As an alternative to a succession plan, some of these CAOs explain that they train municipal administrators to be able to handle roles other than their own to compensate for absences throughout the year.

“Because we are small, we cross-train and educate them to be able to fill in other roles. We don’t have resources otherwise.”

“When our accountant is not there and we don’t have cross-training, we can’t get things done.”


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For municipalities actively developing succession plans, steps have already been taken to involve council in decisions. The planning process, however, for some of these CAOs will respond to short-term “fixes” rather than focusing on long-term succession planning.

“We made a presentation to council about succession planning. We were talking about the pension issue. We showed them a chart on who is leaving and when. I asked who they would like to take over. They named names of replacements – all of whom will be

leaving soon as well.”

RReeccrruuiittmmeenntt SSttrraatteeggiieess

In order to address succession planning and recruitment issues, participating CAOs in two of the workshops were asked to share their experiences in what could be successful in recruiting new municipal managers.

Sell the location and work environment.

CAOs consider the “corridor” (Highway 2) to be the optimal location for potential recruits. When situated outside of the corridor, CAOs indicate that they must sell the unique features of their municipality and the lifestyle in their community to attract individuals to live and work in their area. These features can include the corporate culture, flexible work schedule, community values, and shared ancestry.

“Stress the corporate culture component to draw new recruits into the field.”

“Allow for flexible hours, daycares, work-life balance options.”

“Some have trouble attracting people into a certain position, whereas we have trouble attracting people into the region. There is fierce competition for people within the

corridor because it’s hard to get people to move.”

“We’ve been focusing on people who have roots and family in the area. We haven’t had any turnover in staff for eight years.”

Look internally to retain potential management candidates.

For larger municipalities, CAOs mention that retention strategies are used most often to assure that positions are filled with qualified personnel. During annual performance evaluations, discussions are held with respect to outcomes achieved. Individuals exceeding expectations are then informed that they could become managers within the organization. While not all individuals are interested in taking on added responsibility, others will be targeted in the succession planning process.


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“They are made aware that they are likely to make a step in the organization. Some are told they are going to make that step, but they are not interested. Some say, ‘this is as

far’ as they want to go. Issues are discussed, but no one is tagged.”

“You need to talk to your staff to find out what their future plans are.”

Increase compensation strategies.

Several municipalities indicate they have had to increase the compensation packages from what the “grid” indicates should be paid for certain positions. This is particularly true for “hard to fill” positions, including IT specialists, for example. CAOs pay attention to the compensation being provided in the competitive landscape and certain CAOs go so far as to pay retention bonuses, especially in smaller municipalities.

“There is a survey done every year or couple of years and we peg our scales within those scales.”

“In order to get people to move to our region, we offer bonuses in compensation – “stay with us an extra 6 months and we’ll offer you $X.”

Find a position for the recruit’s significant other.

One CAO explained that their municipality actively acknowledges that a potential municipal administrator will have personal considerations to address when assessing his or her’s ability and/or interest in accepting a position. To this end, this municipality will not only offer the recruit a position, but will liaise with appropriate employers to investigate the possibility of referring the recruit’s partner/spouse to a potential employer.

“When you hire a professional, keep in mind that the partner is also a professional. We try to place the spouse if the candidate is the right person. Relocation relies a lot on the

partner’s employment opportunities as well. They won’t relocate if their partner can’t get a job there.”

Create pride in the profession.

When discussing issues facing them as CAOs, participants explained that there is a certain “disrespect” of municipal government in the overall environment. Thus, CAOs feel that efforts should be undertaken to promote pride in working in municipal government. These efforts would not only help dissipate the disrespect they observe, but would also serve to assist with recruitment efforts.


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“Use the media to inform the public about why we are important. We need to remind the public about the impact of our work upon the quality of life of our citizens. Council

takes too much credit; we need to celebrate our successes.”

“We have such a huge impact that it should be easy to promote the importance of the municipal professions, but we don’t promote this. Other careers advertise, but we

don’t.”

Offer training opportunities.

Some CAOs are able to work with their respective councils to adopt a healthy training budget for municipal staff. This strategy helps to be able to promote the ongoing educational opportunities as a benefit to current and potential staff who seek continuous learning in their career.

“We’re building our own people. We send them to school.”

Market at job fairs and high schools.

Some CAOs are actively seeking opportunities to market to high school students by taking on speaking opportunities during career weeks or as part of the curriculum for career courses. These CAOs feel that espousing the importance and benefits of municipal administration directly to young recruits is an essential strategy to ensure they are aware of and consider municipal government in their decision-making process.

CAOs generally feel that municipal government should be more prominent in the required post-secondary curriculum in Alberta. According to CAOs, placing a greater emphasis on the need and role of municipal government should, in turn, raise the profile and importance of working in this sector.

Offer job-shadowing and summer co-op positions.

Bringing kids to work or offering job-shadowing opportunities is yet another strategy used by certain CAOs to help inform potential recruits about careers in municipal government. This strategy tends to be beneficial to show the day-to-day activities of municipal managers and to allow potential recruits to gain a true sense of the work environment. Further, some CAOs encourage summer co-op positions to allow individuals to get a feel for certain positions, hoping to hire them following completion of their schooling.


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Hire young and promote job mobility.

Several CAOs comment that they find it useful to recruit young employees and to promote the various opportunities available through careers in municipal government.

“We hire young and try to show that there is movement through the organization and there is a future here. But, it’s hard since money is always an issue.”

“Municipalities don’t do a good enough job of telling people about the opportunities available in municipal government.”

BBaarrrriieerrss ttoo RReeccrruuiittmmeenntt

CAOs in two of the four workshops discussed the barriers they face in recruiting new staff, including the following:

Lack of funding to offer competitive salaries;

Unwillingness to work with the public/deal with public demands;

Difficulty in attracting people to move to smaller communities;

Prohibitive cost of living/relocation in larger communities;

Inability to offer continuous training/growth opportunities in some smaller municipalities; and

Lack of support from council.

“Many start very green and need training on basic municipal issues. But, we need money to send them to training. Small communities are one-person operations, so we

can’t afford to send them away for training.”

“Young people today are not as attracted to public service.”

“Council already thinks people get paid too much. We’re not respected. There is no vision. They want to reduce staff to save money.”

DDiiffffiiccuulltt--ttoo--FFiillll PPoossiittiioonnss

CAOs in two of the four workshops were asked to identify which positions, if any, have been difficult to fill in recent years. Most commonly, CAOs refer to emerging difficulties in finding qualified individuals for assessment and safety code officer positions.

“We need someone with an agricultural assessment background rather than an urban assessment background. It’s very different.”


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“Difficult to replace the existing assessor when he soon retires because he only works two days per week and not many individuals are seeking part-time employment.”

Some smaller municipalities have joined forces to create regional alliances for these difficult-to-fill positions. Certain CAOs encourage Municipal Affairs to re-introduce regional assessors to assist with this challenge, as well as to create a program through which safety code officers could easily access training to qualify for the position.

“We have a regional plan which works well. We accessed Municipal Affairs grant funding to explore other possibilities to approach areas regionally. Assessment was

identified in this study as a viable regional approach.”

Other positions identified as challenging to fill include:

Public works supervisor/foreman;

Utility officers in water treatment plants;

Heavy equipment operators;

IT specialists;

Financial experts;

Land use planners; and

Mid to upper management level positions as ‘Department Heads’.

“We need to really think of middle-management. You’d normally like to look from within, but there’s not always an appropriate pool there.”


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SSuuggggeesstteedd MMuunniicciippaall AAffffaaiirrss AAssssiissttaannccee

What can Municipal Affairs do to assist with succession planning and recruitment issues facing CAOs today and in future? While CAOs acknowledge that the ministry is also constrained by financial limitations, several suggestions arose with respect to potential strategies to assist with these human resource challenges.

1. Assist smaller municipalities to access training. As noted by many smaller participating municipalities, “Small communities can’t afford the training courses offered by Municipal Affairs.” These CAOs encourage Municipal Affairs to put grants or subsidies in place for them to be able to attend valuable educational workshops and seminars. Alternatively, certain CAOs comment that Municipal Affairs could travel to various regions in the province to provide training for smaller municipalities that do not have travel budgets to accommodate staff travel for education.

2. Facilitate regional approaches/alliances. Several CAOs have already explored the possibility of partnering to share “difficult-to-find” positions in specific regional zones. To this end, they believe that Municipal Affairs could help facilitate municipalities working with one another to share resources or recruitment strategies that meet specific regional needs, citing, “We need to aggregate resources, but it involves a lot of sensitivity.”

3. Educate elected officials. CAOs recommend that when the ministry provides training to new council members, that the role of municipal administration is promoted in this orientation training. To ensure the viability of communities that elected officials serve, CAOs comment that Municipal Affairs needs to stress the importance of having a stable municipal government, citing, “You have to have support of council. You can talk about anything, but without council support, you are dead in the water.”

4. Promote the value of municipal government. Given the sense of “disrespect” many CAOs feel currently exists towards municipal administration, several CAOs suggest that Municipal Affairs put forth efforts whenever possible to promote the value of working in municipal government. This promotion is suggested to occur internally within the provincial government to raise the profile of Municipal Affairs on the overall agenda, as well as externally to the general public to encourage recruitment and address issues related to citizen engagement and public expectations.


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5. Continue the Municipal Internship Program. CAOs value the Municipal Internship Program and encourage the ministry to continue with these efforts to promote careers in municipal management. However, smaller municipalities would appreciate more opportunities to become involved in an otherwise hard to access program that could benefit their administrations.

6. Set standard qualifications for CAOs. Some CAOs debated the necessity to apply standard qualifications for the role of CAO. While certain CAOs believe that individuals who have an aptitude for the role can be trained on-the-job, others feel that incoming CAOs should have minimum qualifications, such as educational backgrounds or specific courses and/or seminars/workshops. “You can’t hire a librarian without a certain level of education, but a CAO can be someone with only a Gr. 10 education.”

7. Establish a recruitment network for municipalities. Knowing that some positions have been difficult to fill for many municipalities, CAOs suggest that Municipal Affairs create an electronic network for CAOs and/or HR Departments to access that could list potential candidates and/or individuals who are looking to move to another location in a similar role. This way, municipalities could use the network to refer staff to one another in an efficient manner.

8. Develop a secondment program. Certain CAOs also suggest that Municipal Affairs could create a secondment program to take individuals who have an interest in a senior level position, allow them to go and work in a municipality who needs staff to “try it out”. They feel this would allow everyone to move people in and out of situations where they could gain experience, while benefiting the municipality in need.


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CCrreeaattiinngg aa JJoobb PPoossttiinngg ffoorr MMuunniicciippaall MMaannaaggeerrss

In two of the four workshops, CAOs completed a one-page sheet to identify what skills they felt municipal managers (i.e. CAOs and/or Department Heads) require, as well as the benefits of working as a municipal manager.

Required Skills

Communication and leadership were mentioned as the two primary skill sets CAOs believe are required for municipal managers. Communication skills refer to public and media relations skills, interpersonal skills, as well as oral presentation and written report writing skills. With respect to leadership skills, this refers to an individual’s experience in management, being a visionary, understanding how to delegate and mentor, and holding team-oriented values. Other skill sets CAOs identify are listed below.

Required Skills

CommunicationLeadership

Strategic PlanningBudgeting/ Finance

Political AcumenLegislative Knowledge

Mediation, Facilitation, Negotiation

Policy DevelopmentCustomer Service

Multi-TaskingAgriculture/ Urban Planning

• Interpersonal skills• Public relations• Media relations• Report writing• Presentation skills

• Experience• Visionary• Delegation• Mentoring• Team-oriented

In addition to identifying specific skill sets required for municipal managers, the following items were often mentioned as desirable qualities in municipal managers:

Analytical; Strong work ethic; Post-secondary education; High energy level;

Adherence to deadlines; Dedicated/committed; Positive attitude/confident; and People person.


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Rewards/Benefits of Serving as a Municipal Manager

CAOs recognize that there are many rewards and benefits from serving as a municipal manager. When identifying these rewards on an individual basis in two of the four workshops, CAOs commonly point to the number one reward of public service to contribute to one’s community in a meaningful way.

Having an interesting and challenging scope of work is another benefit of working as a municipal manager, followed by having continuous educational opportunities (less common in smaller municipalities). CAOs also believe that municipal managers are offered competitive compensation packages when the benefits are also taken into account. The location or community profile plays a role in the rewards as to enjoy living in unique communities in the province, as well as working in a positive corporate culture and work environment. Finally, other rewards mentioned by CAOs point to job security and the opportunity to meet many people.

Rewards/ BenefitsMaking your community a

better place

Interesting and challenging scope of work

Competitive compensation package

Positive corporate culture and work environment

Opportunity to meet people

Continuous educational opportunities

Location/community profile

Job security

Less important - Importance of re

wards and benefits -

More important


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SSUURRVVEEYY AADDVVIICCEE

Importantly, the first workshop conducted in November 2003 also served to allow CAOs to provide input into the design and content of the 2004 CAO survey. Prior to discussing the CAO survey, participants wished to first express some concerns about the existing satisfaction survey they had recently (Fall 2003) completed for Municipal Affairs.

SSaattiissffaaccttiioonn SSuurrvveeyy

According to CAOs, the satisfaction survey does not appear to be objective and is negatively affecting response rates and the credibility of the exercise. CAOs are willing to participate in surveys sponsored by Municipal Affairs in so long as they provide usable results in an objective manner. Many CAOs comment that the satisfaction survey they completed this fall did not meet this criteria. Thus, certain CAOs did not complete the survey and others are now unwilling to complete the survey in future.

“On the satisfaction survey, some of the questions that are asked there really appear, to a lot of us, to be impossible to answer in a negative tone.”

“Frankly, I felt that the survey was a waste of my time.”

“I breezed through it and decided not to do it.”

“I went through it, but I doubt seriously that I would do it again. If those were the questions that were being asked, I would push it to the side. I really didn’t see any

benefit to it.”

CAOs feel that a satisfaction survey should be addressing their level of satisfaction with specific areas of interest. However, CAOs express that the recent satisfaction survey focused on “how important is it to you” rather than “how satisfied are you with” types of question areas. CAOs ask for an opportunity to provide constructive feedback and open-ended comments to help improve their experiences with Advisory Services through questions that ask both about positive and negative experiences.

“The rest of them were what degree are we going to pat you on the back for what a great job you are doing. In some cases you are and in some cases you aren’t. We

didn’t have the ability to say that in that survey.”


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“How important is it to you that the Municipal Affairs staff that works at Advisory Services is competent and has knowledge that is up to date? Well, obviously it is

important right? That survey feeds answers that you already know.”

CAOs remind Municipal Affairs that they are dealing with serious time constraints to complete any surveys, yet are pleased to do so if it ultimately benefits processes or services they deal with and need.

CCAAOO SSuurrvveeyy

CAOs participating in the first workshop (November 2003) did not spontaneously recall receiving the report from the previous CAO survey conducted three years ago. Nonetheless, these CAOs were informed that the survey took place, what was done with the results of the survey, and that the survey will be fielded again in 2004.

This first workshop allowed for an opportunity to ask CAOs directly what they felt was important to include in the survey. To this end, each CAO was provided with a one-page outline of the question topic areas that were proposed for the 2004 CAO survey. With this list, CAOs rank-ordered the most to least important question areas for the upcoming research study. The feedback provided in this ranking exercise resulted in:

1. CAO responsibilities

2. Municipal priorities and planning

3. Education and training

4. Future needs

5. Municipal partnerships

6. Grants

7. Land use planning

8. Business plans

9. Municipal Excellence Network

10. Employment profiling

11. Municipal Internship Program

12. Succession planning


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In addition, CAOs provided advice on the design of the survey to ensure that the questions addressed all types of municipalities, captured information related to the allocation of CAOs’ time and segmented responses by types of municipalities.

Proposed additions to the topic areas for the survey include:

How do other CAOs add revenue to their community?

What can Municipal Affairs do for us? What can the province do?

What is the true job description of CAOs?

What are some innovative ways of accessing grants?

Where can I access examples of business plans?

Do municipalities have procedural by-laws?

Finally, CAOs remind Municipal Affairs that it is important to communicate how the results of the survey will be used or how the results could benefit CAOs individually. Knowing the value of any survey’s results will ultimately help improve response rates, the quality of the information CAOs will be willing to provide and the credibility of the entire exercise.

The results of the 2004 CAO Survey will be presented in a separate report document.


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CCOOMMMMEENNTTSS FFOORR MMUUNNIICCIIPPAALL AAFFFFAAIIRRSS

Become more involved with municipalities.

Certain CAOs who have worked within municipal government structures for many years indicate that Municipal Affairs was much more involved with local governments in previous years. Today, “there is a feeling that the ministry in some respects neglects municipalities. There is no real strong evidence that they want municipalities to grow stronger.”

Evidence could be in the form of on-site visits which prove to show that Municipal Affairs has expressed an interest in seeing first-hand what individual municipalities are dealing with while gaining a “feel” for the municipality itself. Face-to-face interaction can be a powerful, albeit time consuming, tool. To simplify having to visit all municipalities, CAOs suggest at the very least sending senior officials to attend and participate in conventions or regional meetings.

One CAO responded by reminding other CAOs that much like municipal administrators have limited resources to address their scope of responsibilities, Municipal Affairs also has limited resources to serve the needs of the many municipalities in Alberta.

“Deputy Ministers could go to administration meetings just like Ministers go to Council meetings.”

“Come out to different zone meetings.”

“Come to our Association meetings and listen to us.”

Market your services.

While Municipal Affairs may currently be informing municipalities in Alberta of the array of services and information they can provide, many CAOs are still not aware of all services available. Much like advertising needs to capture the attention of its target market, Municipal Affairs may wish to review the mediums through which communications about its services are disseminated. CAOs state that if they knew more about the services available, they would be more proactively involved with the ministry.


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Advocate on behalf of municipalities to the provincial government.

Some CAOs are seeking to have a spokesperson to voice their concerns internally to the provincial government to raise municipal issues on the provincial agenda. These CAOs wish that Municipal Affairs would undertake an advocacy role on their behalf to build a sense of cohesiveness among municipalities and bring forward issues of concern to provincial government decision-makers.

“The ministry should be a Champion, offering a comprehensive municipal voice.”

“Deliver a provincial interest, communicate it and stick to it.”

“The province must ensure that municipalities are healthy to ensure the continued success/sustainability of the province. We’re too far down the list right now.”

“Provide us with a provincial vision of where municipalities fit into the big picture.”

“Ensure municipalities have adequate resources to provide services.”

Create regional bodies to address regional and urban-rural issues.

Smaller municipalities explain that they can benefit from shared service agreements, shared decision-making and shared information from other similar municipalities within their region. Currently, municipalities share software contracts or consult their association to discuss deregulation, for example. Thus, some regional cooperation is already taking place based on proactive initiatives from certain municipalities. Additional regional consultation appears to be desired by municipal administrators to help them streamline certain processes and decisions and to alleviate the time constraints it would otherwise take to address the issue in question.

In the same sense, several CAOs would like to see Municipal Affairs facilitate urban-rural relations.

“We’re neighbours and we have to work together. Facilitate urban-rural relations.”

“There should be separate MGA legislation rules for major cities vs. the rest of Alberta.”

“We obviously need to develop some vehicle to eliminate or reduce friction between rural and urban communities. Some form of inter-municipal planning system is needed

to facilitate orderly growth and minimize conflict.”


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Expand your scope of advisory expertise beyond municipal issues.

Advisory Services is appreciated by CAOs seeking information or clarification on municipal issues. However, CAOs also express that they often require assistance with provincial or even federal matters that impact their roles and/or decision-making processes within their individual municipalities. Having added advisory expertise to provide counsel on provincial or federal legislation or initiatives would be appreciated by many CAOs (e.g. environmental legislation).

Follow-up with CAOs.

After providing advice or information to municipal administrators, CAOs would appreciate municipal advisors following-up on the outcomes of the guidance offered. For example, receiving a phone call or email to the effect of, “How did it go? How did things turn out for you? Is there anything else I can do to help?”

“Try to maintain an air of partnership in communications – not top down.”

Promote the benefits of working in the public sector.

Given the apparent lack of respect for government, the image of working in this sector may not appeal to the masses. To help improve the “low credit rating” of this field, CAOs suggest actively promoting the benefits and rewards of careers in the public sector. To help recruit new potential council members, CAOs recommend undertaking a promotional campaign just prior to the next municipal election date to motivate citizens to run for election. In such promotions, CAOs suggest reminding people of the contribution they make to the community, what others have accomplished before them and to promote the entire career, and not just a “one-issue” agenda.


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CCOOMMMMEENNTTSS RREEGGAARRDDIINNGG TTHHEE WWOORRKKSSHHOOPPSS

At the end of each of the four sessions, CAO participants were given an opportunity to comment on their experience in the workshops. Overall, CAOs seem to appreciate having an opportunity to dialogue with each other, with Municipal Affairs representatives, and to express their concerns in an objective forum. CAO comments include:

“You’re making an effort to listen.”

“You have to continue this dialogue. We’re in this together.”

“Good thought-provoking session.”

“What we have done today has been very worthwhile. I hope Municipal Affairs can take to heart these comments and will come back to dialogue with us on these issues.”

“I’ve been in the field for over 30 years and it’s good to know that there is a vehicle for discussion. It’s been nice being able to express my frustrations.”

“I feel encouraged from these discussions. I know we all go through the same frustrations with the politicians. This has helped build my trust.”

Documents

Final Focus Group Report - Alberta Municipal Affairs · CAO Workshops: Report of Focus Group Feedback 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In conjunction with the 2004 CAO Survey conducted by Municipal