Council Committees

A typical question I get asked is how many committees I sit on and how much time that takes up. The amount of time is a difficult question to answer because it varies from week to week and month to month. I think it's easier to list the committees, meeting frequencies and approximate durations. I find that it's difficult to determine how much time it takes to prepare for meetings, but the meetings themselves are easy to track because they occur fairly regularly.

1. City Council Meeting - Every 2nd Monday (2 hrs)

2. Council Information Exchange Sessions - Every 2nd Monday (2 hrs)

3. Public Works Committee - Every 2nd Tuesday (2 hrs)

4. Protective Services Committee - Every 2nd Tuesday (2 hrs)

5. Environment Committee (Chair) - Every 4th Monday (2 hrs)

6. Council Committee of the Whole - Once or twice a month (1 hr)

7. Arts Development Committee - Quarterly (1-1/2 hrs)

8. Combative Sports Committee - Once every 2 months (2 hrs)

9. Multiplex Regional Resource Committee - Once a month (1 hr)

10. City-County Joint Meeting - Quarterly (3 hrs)

11. Regional Recreation Committee - Quarterly (2 hrs)

12. Aquatera USA Review Committee - Every 6 weeks (2 hrs)

13. Community Futures - Every 3rd Thursday of the month (4 hrs)

14. GP Regional Tourism Association - Every 3rd Friday of the month (2 hrs)

15. Materials Recycling Task Force - First Wednesday of the month (2 hrs)

16. Wapiti Corridor Planning Society - Every 3rd Thursday of the month (3 hrs)

I did a quick calculation and ended up with 8.8hrs per week in meetings and an average of 4 meetings per week that I have been assigned to. Then there are the additional/optional meetings that make up City Council work as well as sub-committees that I didn't include in this list as they are unofficial, although they take up a substantial amount of time. I would estimate another 4 hours per week on those.

Finally, there are a number of time commitments that a person forgets to consider when they run for office. These are the events, phone calls, emails and personal meetings with community members and organizations as well as the time it takes to read and do some research on all the reports you receive. Events such as ribbon cuttings, ceremonies, mixers, etc. are really great to attend, but regularly take up about 3-6 hrs per week. The rest can take up about an hour a day. So the grand total is between 21 and 25 hrs per week as a minimum. There are months when it's possible to put in 40 hours a week, but that only happens about 3 or 4 times a year.

So there you have it. A quick accounting of the time commitments on City Council from my perspective. I feel that we're not quite at a full-time level, but things are consistently busy. As a part-time position, my only other comment is that I end up losing a bunch of time to driving back and forth between my regular job and the meetings which take place all over the city. Don't get me wrong, I love the experience of being busy, connected with information and able to make a difference in my community.