 What are the roles and responsibilities of a locally elected official? Once you have taken the oath of office, clarity about your roles and responsibilities at the beginning of your relationship with local government staff can help to create a healthy working relationship during your time in elected office. The roles and responsibilities of elected officials and local government staff are separate but interdependent. The role of elected officials is that of governance. They make collective decisions based on the needs and wants of the community. Staff's role is the management and implementation of the Council or Board's policies and direction. The Council or Board's work involves developing and setting its strategic direction, allocating resources and adopting the financial plan, representing citizens, engaging the community and deciding what services are delivered. Staff's work involves working within the Council or Board's strategies, policies and direction to implement and manage the local government's resources. You have to appreciate and support your staff because they are the foundation. Politicians come and go a lot more than staff does and they are the history. When you have a vision and you collectively set the strategic plan in place and then you're able to find the funding and then to finally get that accomplished, what you're doing is setting legacies for your community for the future. Under local government legislation, the Mayor and Board Chair are responsible for facilitating collective decision-making, overseeing meetings and maintaining the order and conduct of debate. Liaising with staff and providing general direction about implementing policies and programs. The Mayor has the additional responsibility of creating standing committees and appointing people to these committees. So as the Mayor, something I find that's really important is my role as a facilitator and it's my responsibility to help set the table, if you will, for an environment that is conducive to respectful conversation and decision-making. It's the responsibility of every single person at the table to help hold that space, but as the Mayor, I'm the one who's truly facilitating and and keeping an eye on all of the conversation, calling on those members of council who perhaps have not spoken yet, asking the tough questions that sometimes need to be asked, but something that's really important in that is is encouraging every member of council to truly, actively listen. How elected officials fulfill their responsibilities also contributes to the culture of an effective organization. Elected officials are expected to behave in a manner that builds and inspires public trust in local government. This means calmly facing challenges and providing direction on issues while empowering colleagues and staff to do the same and creating space for open expression by others. They are transparent in how they make decisions, conduct their business and carry out their duties. They take responsibility for their actions and reactions and accept the decisions of the majority. And they make collective decisions for the corporation in an ethical manner by following the rule set out in local government legislation. Take a moment to reflect on what you think the rule of an elected official is. Are you able to help set strategic direction and let others implement that direction? Are you able to participate in collective decision-making and empower others to carry out those decisions? What are some actions you can take to prepare yourself to be effective in this rule if you are elected? It's important that a board or council shows their work to the public that when an item is discussed, debated or what have you, that all sides are visibly being considered because it's not just respect between the members of the board or the council, it's respect for the people that we lead as well. So we need to show our work and that's partly the job of the chair, but that's also the job of the members there as well. A healthy relationship between the mayor or board chair and the local government chief administrative officer or CAO is essential for effective elected official and staff relations and a strong organizational culture. Your CAO needs to get you all the information you need to make a really good policy decision. So I would suggest to people coming into politics, first of all, get to know your CAO, the most important person in your organization, quite frankly, does all the directing of traffic. Let your CAO know where your gaps and knowledge are. If the CAO will have a wealth of information to share with you. These relationships need to be strong because the mayor and board chair serve as a formal channel of information from the council and board to the CAO and the CAO in turn provides direction to staff. Our job is there to help them achieve the government that they want to achieve. So it's a lot about communications. It's a lot about talking and getting to know each other and setting out those expectations upfront and understanding each other's role. Your CAO needs to get you all the information you need to make a really good policy decision. As a CAO and a chair, it's really important that the process for meetings goes smooth. People expect to come there and be involved and engaged in there. And it's really important that the chair and the CAO ensure that those conversations start off on the right foot. I think it's important to take the time to understand each other. To talk, get to know each other, know the intricacies of how they like to work. Get to know your CAO. They'll serve you well.