How to get your way and their way....

                In Local Government (LG) often there are challenges with one or more parties. At times it will be between the Board members, the public, special interest groups, or other government agencies. The conference was how to understand some the basics of negotiation. This sort of thing would be useful in all the dealings with government and the community as well as at home.

INTEREST BASED NOGATION for LOCAL GOVERNEMENTS this is about enhancing capacity to negotiate by using problem solving. There is no one way to negotiate; often it is experimenting while the negotiating is going on.  We as human beings get in positions of disagreement; politicians are prone more than most to find themselves in these positions.

Issues: any means of solving what is the problem, we deal with difference.  

The word conflict broken down into; Con) together) flict (strike)- striking together; it is a difference of goals, expectations, values or objectives these situations are going on all the time. Conflict exists in different states; it is not always fully expressed, they are latent (under the surface) to emerge and become fully expressed which results in a dispute. At this point are the people willing to tackle their differences and do they have the skills (or the knowledge) to solve the problems created by the dispute.  

Dispute can resolved in different ways: negotiation, mediations (assisted by a third party), legal (bringing it to a judge) and legislate.  In mediation the solution is solved by the parties themselves. Out comes in mediations, are more agreeable and will last longer; then when people are told

In Negotiating there is:

-             No cost

-          May create more information that either party may or may not have thought of.

-          Both people arrive at that solution so it is accepted.

-          Finds the underlining position- brings out the main issue.

-          Learn about each other’s position (communication is open).

-          Soften their barriers.

There needs to have some if not of these qualities when negotiating; give and take, potential for conformism, to get a deal, common problem, goals that similar to each other and position of common respect It can influence the unlocking of positions where  people are preoccupied and not interested in not opening up. Other qualities are:

-           Transparency, honesty, integrity, willing to disclose  

-          Build trust and shows common sense

-          Willingness to negotiate /resolve issues.

-          Willing to going back to the problem and looking at it.

-          Buffet of possibilities.

-          Negotiation is the first cut- at problem solving.

-          Parties need to own the problem and invest in negotiation.

-          Remember body language;

50% is how you use your body language 40% is voice tone 10% in actual material. Much of it is reacting to the other person.

Ø  Reasoning

Ø  Strategy to gain something

Ø  Decision making is made with the parties

Ø  Relies on communication= information sharing, reasoning, persuasion, explanation, education.

Ø  Purpose to makes gains/achieve

Ø  Mutually accepted decisions

Ø  Lacks process

Ø  Potential preserve/enhance relation ships

Ø  Diversity of processes and approaches.

Older experienced successful politicians do not get into personalities or use past history when negotiating.

Whatever we deal in our negotiation; it is how we relate the person this is how we start relating with the other side in the negotiation. It is best to have access to a; Best Alternative to Agreement & a Worst Alternative to an Agreement, risk analysis.

People can take positions by; - representing an idea, point of view outcomes and fundamental interests.  The parties involved must have the building blocks below expressed and understand the same for the other parities.

-          Needs

-          Desires

-          Concerns

-          Fears

-          Hopes

….

New Postal Boxs and sites

         In my contact with the different agencies dealing with mail boxes this is what I understood the situation to be. Changes in The community mailbox locations were reviewed by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure to ensure they were safe and met their design criteria.   Some of the specifications required could be one parking spot for up to 80 mailboxes and two parking spots for up to 160 mailboxes.  While a flat location may be preferred, sometimes because of the area layout there is not one available.  

The local post office has discussions with a snow clearance contractor to keep the areas cleared.   Obviously snow clearance and sanding on View road itself is Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure responsibility.  Catchment areas are assigned to each community mailbox location. Residents are assigned to the mailboxes on the basis of safety, proximity to customers, size restrictions at sites, cost, ease of sortation and other factors.  

The View road mail box site (Lee Creek) was installed to reduce the number of customers at the Mabry Road site and to lessen the number of customers having to cross Squilax-Anglemont Road in order to pick up their mail. The View road site only services customers living on Hopwood, Lee Creek and View roads - and no customers on Squilax-Anglemont Road.    As I understood it; MOTI guidelines would suggest that the existing View Road and Mabry Road sites could not be combined at the same location and either a new location would have to be found or customers would have to be moved to a location that is located off-road (such as the site at 2199 Squilax-Anglemont Rd – Tourist Info sign). Any new locations would have to be reviewed by Canada Post and MoTI and approved.

If people are receiving their mail late; it may be because all of the delivery personnel in Chase have had their routes redone. Canada Post wants their employees to be in as safe an environment as possible. It is why they want them not to cross the road, make right hand turns and avoid crossing lanes.  

MoTI is still working with Canada Post reviewing proposed locations, and if  they are deemed unsafe, there would be a  recommendation to revise the proposal, prior to issuing a permit.  Both agencies have to work together to find a solution that addresses the safety issues of the residents, MoTI and Canada Post.

Final budget highlights

This is the final budget process with a different approach to the 2011 CSRD budget. Historical the Directors received an 85 page document on budget day and previous time to study it was limited. As well Directors would be involved in individual creation of budgets on specific functions but not see the impacts to the whole budget In this budget workshop the order of  review was to go the through the region wide functions, then electoral areas functions , joint(shared) functions and finally areas of specific electoral functions.  This way of doing the budget uses much more time but allows better decisions to be made

Highlights:

                Over all the budget decreased by 16%, over all taxation increased by 1.7%, Payroll increased by 13%,  much of the reason for the increase is that there were retiring people in management and these now have been replaced.  As well there were increases such as MSP, WCB, etc.

Recycling – increased from $940,000 to 1.2 million. This is an expensive function, people have to understand this. Cost of recycling is related to how much people are recycling. The cost of Solid Waste Plan (SWP) has been expensive but over the long run has been cost effective. In other areas the North Okanagan Regional District (NORD) has not put any money away for closure of their land fill sites and their tipping fees are going in to the $100.00s with increases going up 10-15% per year.  The system we have now is property owners pay for recycling and tipping fees pay for SWP.  Geographical Information System (GIS) is a high tech function utilizes a lot of expensive hard ware. It will over the long term be returning profits of a sort. In the near term it will provide better service to the public, improving tracking and correspondence. A leased vehicle is apportioned through 3 functions; by law enforcement 30%, Planning Services 40% and building inspection 30%. Truck expenses such as leasing, ICBC, fuels and servicing will be equally shared at those previous percentages. The reason for leasing a vehicle is that the cost of paying vehicle costs from employees is calculated to be sustainable savings. The leasing arrangement will be tracked to see if it is an actual savings in the end.   Search & rescue- increase in costs went to a new facility and rescue equipment. The volunteers they do a very good job there are about 2,400 volunteer hours dedicated to Shuswap Search rescue the cost comes to about $2.80 per residence.

Fire Departments have a different way of calculating their costs.  SCBAs, turn out gear, anything that costs less $10,000 will now be “minor capital”. Major Capital will now be; building, trucks, the large items over $10,000. Supplies would things that wear out quickly or are disposable such as name tags, gloves and boots to name a few items.

                Budgets are complicated and I have only offered a small insight to how it is laid out but I hope it helps a small bit in understanding how it works.

Liquor, Lights and wild wild adminstration costs

            Liquor-primary license applications bylaw currently says that the CSRD will not comment on liquor applications but wishes to be advised of applications. Formal participation in the application process would require some allocation of staff time to review the initial application. As well as the advertising for public comment, review of any responses and the development of a recommendation brought to the Board for consideration. The Board decided against that it is important to have local input towards the change in liquor license that it be sufficient that they contact the CSRD when applications are made. A letter will be sent to the BCLCB to ask that they contact us about applications.

Restructuring the costs of what CSRD functions pay for has caused a new look at the Administration charges to users of that function. The Administration Charges to specific CSRD functions for overhead, fees and how those functions are charged were changed. Directors agreed that insufficient overhead costs are being rolling back to General Government costs. Committees believe that the administration fees are too high (for their committees). Administration charges will now be readjusted to allocate General Government costs to reflect actual use of the functions. These changes will have the Municipal Board Members (at 80%) and Electoral Areas(at 18%) paying towards the General Government funds, in a more equitable way. These costs will be reviewed annually and will be in the previous year's budget unless there is a significant change to the function. The amendment will also provide a better understanding of the overall impact of budget decisions to CSRD committees (such as water and fire department).

The "St. Lves Street Lighting Specified Area" bylaw was established in 1985". There is a need to change the amount of money to keep the street lights working. Costs have steadily gone up over the years for street lighting. The maximum amount of money that may be requisitioned annually for the St Ives Street lights will be brought up to $2,750.

Making trails work in the Shuswap, regional trail strategy

Regional trails are assets that can provide business opportunities and economic benefit through tourism as well as contribute to people getting out and walking, enjoying the beauty of the area (plus they feed a lot of bugs, with those soft city skins). Regional trails initiative discussion and support has come from the BC Trails Manager, local recreation officers, Local First Nations, Local Governments, and Stewardship Groups. No cohesive action or formal commitment has been made by anyone to solve the problems that a variety of users are creating in the backwoods. The study would not be just for foot trails but for motorized users who are often accused of destroying the environment. There are reported cases where sensitive areas are being destroyed by ATVs, bikes, motor bikes, and horse riders. As importantly First Nation interests to land are being ignored without their consultations.  Recreationist of both the peidphiles and motorphiles have been putting in trails without proper consultation or though in some cases. Resulting problems have resulted in conflicts and potential liability issues.   This study will start looking at the Shuswap area in a holistic way not just trails. The Shuswap Trails Alliance, First Nations, CSRD Parks Department and Shuswap Tourism have come together to start connecting all users of the land to work together.

       The total budget for this project is $85,000. Through a Memorandum of Understanding with the CSRD, the Province has contributed $35,000 toward this initiative. Shuswap Tourism is contributing $25,000 and the remaining $25,000 is being proposed from Community Works Funds shared equally ($6,250 each) between Electoral Areas C, D, E, and F.

            The key objectives of this project are to develop a regional model and process for collaboration with First Nations, local governments, stewardship groups and community leadership regarding trail management. Strengthened tenures and authorized trails are critical for long term security and incentive for local investment in trails throughout the region. There needs to be different ways for environmental protection, restoration and management of sensitive sites to be done. The project is hoped to widespread buy-in from local trail stewardship and user groups. In the end there is a wish to create a formal commitment and mandate from local, regional, provincial and First Nations governments. When that is accomplished, we will then go to a simpler plan of creating world peace!

2nd Reading for zoning change in Magna Bay

The Board gave first and second reading to Magna Bay Zoning Bylaw No. 800-15.  A property in Magna Bay that is in the General Commercial Zone which permits uses such as campground, marina, motel, nursery, office, restaurant, retail store, either a dwelling unit or a single family dwelling for the use of the owner, operator or caretaker and accessory use. The owner has applied to rezone the parcel from General Commercial to Residential use. The proposal is consistent with the policies of the Electoral Area 'F' OCP. Although the historical commercial use of the property was a campground, the owner does not intend to continue that use and instead wants to use the property for residential purposes. The proposed use would be a single family dwelling and residential campsite, including two RV camping units.

Leadership Forum – for EAD’s

               at the EAD meeting in Richmond we had; Major Naheed Nenshi; the new Mayor from Calgary reflected on his election and leadership style.  His use of the social media was pivotal in communicating with his electorate and winning the election. In the social media there’s almost a hyper/ evangelical type of responders in the engagement on both sides of an issues. Often we hear from the loudest voices, the internet brings a balance that is not just for those with axes to grind. When dealing with issues, try to find partners – other people on the other side of the fence (with a different outlook on the issues), most important is, be authentic about when dealing with public concerns. As public representatives we often think the moral or right thing to do is the right way to go; even when a majority your electorate does not want to go in that direction? We as politicians have democratic expectation that is to do what people want.  Of course one should do what the majority of people want done even though it is wrong; this is more important do even if they are wrong.  In Calgary there were 19 people running for mayor’s seat and only 2 who were clearly insane. Naheed laid out the strategy that was needed to turn this into a race that was between 19 to 3 people.   Politicians should temper the expectations of the public; we cannot do everything for everyone.