Power and influence of the Mayor

Based on what I can see of the Municipal Act and my observation, the head of council (in our case the mayor) has little formal power granted to him. He promotes and represents the City. The mayor only gets one vote, and while he chairs the council meetings that only gives him limited influence over the decision making power of council. Mayors (and honestly any elected politician) need to use influencing skills. Our mayor derives a certain amount of power from the fact that he was elected to that office but officially no "special" powers are granted to him as mayor. He has to work with Council to get things done. It seems to me to bit a delicate balance because the public perception, I think, is that a mayor has power to make decisions and control council. The reality is not as clear cut. Definitely not an easy job.

I believe that the relationship is working reasonably well between the City's administrative structure and the Library's administrative structure. This is something that the previous CEO set out to improve and the current CEO has continued to work hard to make things work smoothly. The most obvious evidence that this is working is that the Library CEO is invited to the City Management meetings and is therefore included in these discussions. This is helpful in terms of both keeping the Library informed about high level issues and plans at the municipal level and keeping the administrative level of the City informed about what the Library is doing and in some cases, how the Library can assist with various departments plans or events. While the two administrative structures are quite separate in terms of personnel, the library is quite integrated in terms of many processes that happen at the City. For instance the Library participates like the rest of the departments in the budget process and meets all City deadlines and directives (although the Library Board approves the budget before it goes to Council unlike other City departments). We have been working hard to develop relationships that benefit both City and Library so that services are not duplicated and understanding between various departments is clear. For example the CEO meets regularly with the Director of Culture and Recreation. This has meant that relationships can be improved with other levels of staff in the Culture and Recreation department which has benefitted both parties. This has meant more joint events and mutual support of various initiatives. Of course this is not to say that the relationship between the Administrative structure in the Library and that of the City is without problems. Sometimes the Library is forgotten when all other City Departments are consulted and sometimes the Library forgets to share information with City admin that would be useful to them, but overall the relationship is generally one of mutual respect and benefit and this makes both the City and the Library function more smoothly.