Introducing Point of Order
If you’ve followed my blog and articles, you know I keep coming back to one idea: local government matters, and it’s worth getting right.
Your municipality maintains the roads and plows them in winter. It runs the water, plans the neighbourhoods and decides how your property tax dollars are spent. The people making those decisions put their names forward to serve, and many of them take their seat with very little sense of how the job actually works.
That isn’t a criticism. It’s simply how it is, and it costs communities valuable time.
Why this series, and why now
I’ve worked in local government from almost every seat at the table: as municipal staff, as a CAO working between Council and administration, and now as a consultant. One pattern keeps showing up. A new council spends its first year, and sometimes two, just figuring out the rules. Who do I talk to? What am I allowed to do? Why can’t I just get that pothole fixed?
In a four-year term, that’s a quarter to half the term gone before anyone really gets going.
Point of Order is about hitting the ground running. It’s a five-part mini-series that takes what you need to know about serving on Council and puts it in plain English, with no jargon and no politics. It’s built for:
Anyone thinking about running
Anyone newly elected who is quietly wondering what they’ve signed up for
Anyone who has sat through a council meeting and wondered what on earth they were watching
What’s coming
The Mayor Is Not Your Boss: who actually runs a municipality, and what Council, the CAO and staff owe each other
How a Decision Actually Gets Made: motions, seconders, staff reports and by-laws, and why skipping a step costs you twice
The Rules That Bite: conflict of interest, codes of conduct, the Integrity Commissioner and closed meetings
The Angry Resident: how to handle the call without over-promising or hiding
Where the Money Actually Goes: one tax bill, several governments, and the sliver of the budget Council really controls
Along the way you’ll meet Councillor Bartholomew Puffington “Mr. P.” He’s our fictional stand-in for every myth the series corrects. He has all the confidence and does none of the homework, and his favourite line is “Consider it fixed.” You’ll see why that line never quite works out for him.
Working with Bryan
I’m proud to be creating this series with Bryan Bilodeau, who hosts each episode. Bryan and I share a belief that good information should be easy to understand. He’s spent years leading and training teams, and he has a way of explaining things that makes people feel capable rather than lost. That plain-English approach is the heart of Point of Order.
Bryan and I are also exploring ways to partner on local government training in the new year, so this is only the beginning.
Join the conversation
You can follow along with this series on YouTube, Facebook & LinkedIn. We’ll be reading the comments on every episode. Ask a question, share what you’ve seen in your own community, or tell us what you’d like us to cover next. We’re happy to respond where we can.
We hope you enjoy the series and find it useful. If it helps you, or someone you know who is serving or thinking about running, please share, share, share away.
General information only. Based on Ontario law; rules and powers vary by municipality.
