Submitted by Derek Lackey, Councillor, Ward 1, Village of Fundy Albert
Most people meet their local council through a problem. The plow missed your street. A culvert is backing up. Someone was short with you on the phone at the village office. So you call your councillor, because that is the name and face you know, and you expect them to fix it.
Here is the part that surprises people: your councillor cannot fix that, at least not the way you would think. And the reason is not laziness or red tape. It is the way local government is built in New Brunswick, and once you see the design, it makes good sense.
Most people meet their local council through a problem. The plow missed your street. A culvert is backing up. Someone was short with you on the phone at the village office. So you call your councillor, because that is the name and face you know, and you expect them to fix it.
Here is the part that surprises people: your councillor cannot fix that, at least not the way you would think. And the reason is not laziness or red tape. It is the way local government is built in New Brunswick, and once you see the design, it makes good sense.
Two jobs, one clear line
Throughout all of the recent orientations and training sessions for Councillors, a consistent theme arises: A village runs on two different jobs that are easy to mix up.
The first job is governing. That means setting direction. What are our priorities this year? What will we spend money on? What are the rules, the bylaws, the service levels? That is council's job. Councillors, a deputy mayor, and a mayor, deciding together.
The second job is managing. That means running the day to day. Who plows which street first. How a complaint gets handled. Whether the truck gets fixed this week or next. That is staff's job, led by one person: the Chief Administrative Officer, or CAO.
New Brunswick's Local Governance Act draws this line on purpose. Council governs. Staff manage. Or as I like to put it, council decides which road we are on, and staff drive the truck. There is no good picking up speed if you are on the wrong road, so council's job is to make sure we are pointed the right way. Where exactly the truck turns left or stops along that road is not council's call to make.
Only one employee
Here is the piece almost nobody knows. Council's direct reporting relationship is generally with the CAO. The CAO is responsible for supervising and directing municipal staff on behalf of Council. Again, council governs. Staff manage.
That is on purpose too. Picture what happens if all of us could walk into the village office and start handing out orders. Staff would be pulled in every direction at once, and the loudest councillor, or the one with the most friends on staff, would quietly run the place. Instead, council speaks to staff through one door, the CAO. We set the direction as a group, and the CAO carries it out.
This is also why a single councillor has so little power on their own. I cannot order a staff member to do anything. I cannot promise a resident that a job will get done a certain way. The only real pull a councillor has comes from the table, from a decision council makes together. In practice a Councillor can:
They simply cannot direct staff individually.
Council provides direction to staff through one door: the CAO. That does not mean councillors cannot speak with staff. Councillors often communicate with staff to gather information, ask questions, better understand issues before Council, or receive updates on municipal projects and services.
The distinction is that councillors do not individually direct or supervise staff. Operational direction, work assignments, and day-to-day management responsibilities flow through the CAO. Council sets the direction as a group, and the CAO is responsible for ensuring that direction is carried out through the municipality's administration.
A council is a team, not a row of bosses
That word, together, is the whole thing. A council does not act as a handful of individuals. It acts as one body, and only when it votes on specific issues.
I am elected by Ward 1, and I take that seriously, as I am sure my fellow Councillors do. But on my own, I am one vote. I cannot pass a bylaw. I cannot set the budget. I cannot speak for the village. None of us can. We have power only when we are sitting at the table and a majority agrees.
The mayor included. People often assume the mayor is the boss, the way a company has a CEO. They are not. The mayor chairs the meeting and is the public face of the village, but on a vote the mayor is one voice like the rest of us. The job comes with a bigger microphone, not bigger power.
Why this protects you
If this all sounds like a lot of fences, here is what the fences are for: you.
When staff answer to one chain of command instead of many, you get service that is fair and consistent, not service that depends on which councillor you happen to know. When councillors stick to setting direction and leave operations to trained staff, the day-to-day calls get made by the people whose actual job it is, not by whoever was loudest at the last meeting. And when the big decisions have to be made out loud, at a public table, by a majority, you get to watch it happen and hold the whole group to account.
Staying in your lane
Good councils are not the ones with no disagreements. They are the ones where everybody knows their lane and stays in it. Council sets the where. Staff handle the how. The mayor runs the room. And the residents get a village that runs on rules, not on favours.
It is a simple design. The hard part is living it, week after week, when a neighbour is frustrated and you want to reach in and fix it yourself. But the design is sound, and it is worth understanding, because it belongs to you. You elected the people at that table, and knowing how the table is meant to work is the first step to making sure it does.
Throughout all of the recent orientations and training sessions for Councillors, a consistent theme arises: A village runs on two different jobs that are easy to mix up.
The first job is governing. That means setting direction. What are our priorities this year? What will we spend money on? What are the rules, the bylaws, the service levels? That is council's job. Councillors, a deputy mayor, and a mayor, deciding together.
The second job is managing. That means running the day to day. Who plows which street first. How a complaint gets handled. Whether the truck gets fixed this week or next. That is staff's job, led by one person: the Chief Administrative Officer, or CAO.
New Brunswick's Local Governance Act draws this line on purpose. Council governs. Staff manage. Or as I like to put it, council decides which road we are on, and staff drive the truck. There is no good picking up speed if you are on the wrong road, so council's job is to make sure we are pointed the right way. Where exactly the truck turns left or stops along that road is not council's call to make.
Only one employee
Here is the piece almost nobody knows. Council's direct reporting relationship is generally with the CAO. The CAO is responsible for supervising and directing municipal staff on behalf of Council. Again, council governs. Staff manage.
That is on purpose too. Picture what happens if all of us could walk into the village office and start handing out orders. Staff would be pulled in every direction at once, and the loudest councillor, or the one with the most friends on staff, would quietly run the place. Instead, council speaks to staff through one door, the CAO. We set the direction as a group, and the CAO carries it out.
This is also why a single councillor has so little power on their own. I cannot order a staff member to do anything. I cannot promise a resident that a job will get done a certain way. The only real pull a councillor has comes from the table, from a decision council makes together. In practice a Councillor can:
- Advocate for residents;
- Bring issues to administration;
- Request information;
- Raise matters at Council.
They simply cannot direct staff individually.
Council provides direction to staff through one door: the CAO. That does not mean councillors cannot speak with staff. Councillors often communicate with staff to gather information, ask questions, better understand issues before Council, or receive updates on municipal projects and services.
The distinction is that councillors do not individually direct or supervise staff. Operational direction, work assignments, and day-to-day management responsibilities flow through the CAO. Council sets the direction as a group, and the CAO is responsible for ensuring that direction is carried out through the municipality's administration.
A council is a team, not a row of bosses
That word, together, is the whole thing. A council does not act as a handful of individuals. It acts as one body, and only when it votes on specific issues.
I am elected by Ward 1, and I take that seriously, as I am sure my fellow Councillors do. But on my own, I am one vote. I cannot pass a bylaw. I cannot set the budget. I cannot speak for the village. None of us can. We have power only when we are sitting at the table and a majority agrees.
The mayor included. People often assume the mayor is the boss, the way a company has a CEO. They are not. The mayor chairs the meeting and is the public face of the village, but on a vote the mayor is one voice like the rest of us. The job comes with a bigger microphone, not bigger power.
Why this protects you
If this all sounds like a lot of fences, here is what the fences are for: you.
When staff answer to one chain of command instead of many, you get service that is fair and consistent, not service that depends on which councillor you happen to know. When councillors stick to setting direction and leave operations to trained staff, the day-to-day calls get made by the people whose actual job it is, not by whoever was loudest at the last meeting. And when the big decisions have to be made out loud, at a public table, by a majority, you get to watch it happen and hold the whole group to account.
Staying in your lane
Good councils are not the ones with no disagreements. They are the ones where everybody knows their lane and stays in it. Council sets the where. Staff handle the how. The mayor runs the room. And the residents get a village that runs on rules, not on favours.
It is a simple design. The hard part is living it, week after week, when a neighbour is frustrated and you want to reach in and fix it yourself. But the design is sound, and it is worth understanding, because it belongs to you. You elected the people at that table, and knowing how the table is meant to work is the first step to making sure it does.
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