PEOPLE wonder what a normal week looks like for a Councillor.

So I thought I’d give you a glimpse.

Councillors normally get their Business Papers – or Agenda – for the Council Meetings late on the Friday before the next Meeting.

These Business Papers can be between 100 to 2,000 pages long.

Of course, some of that may relate to a lot of detailed planning reports and studies.

So Councillors then have the weekend to digest a lot of that information and then on Monday they may start their enquiries into clarifying some of the content.

On a Tuesday afternoon around 4pm we meet for the Councillor Briefing with staff and thrash out the detail of what may be in front of us.

There can be around 30 people in the room and it can take a couple of hours.

But we can also get unscheduled briefings on short notice.

This is where a good Councillor can do most of his or her research and makes it so much easier at the Meetings.

In my opinion the Briefings are where you really attain efficiency in working out what needs to be understood before the Meeting – the Council Meetings should really be for voting, not research.

During the week, a Councillor may have committee meetings to attend and they can happen at all times of the day.

Of course we all also receive lots of correspondence from community members that we work through and respond.

There are also functions that Councillors attend on behalf of the city, or on behalf of the Mayor if they can’t attend.

Councillors also have the opportunity to put together something called a Notice of Motion which is an item that they want to put forward into the next Council Meeting Business Papers.

This has to be done thirteen days in advance.

On top of that, as soon as you’re elected you have to become as expert as possible in a huge number of complex fields like planning and environmental legislation, local government finance, building regulation and construction, government policies and relations, community engagement, waste management, grant applications, economic development, public water and sewer systems, transport – and the list goes on.

In summary, to be a good Councillor takes a lot of your time.

It’s as simple as that.

Councillors should be respected for the contribution they make to their community.

We can’t agree with everyone all the time, but a good Councillor is worth their weight in gold for the community.

By Mayor Paul AMOS