Municipal Governments and Civil Services

Within the first class of Urban Policy, an aspect that I found interesting was related to lesson two and six that was included in the structures of municipal governments. In particular, while I remembered from Governance and Institutions that municipal governments acted as both the executive and the legislative branch, I didn't take into account what this structure means for the municipal civil service.

Since public servants essentially work for all city council members (as all members compose the entirety of local governments), the logistics of completing assigned tasks, as mentioned in class, I imagine, can be quite busy and at times perhaps even conflicting. This is compared to public servants only fulfilling the requests of those who compose the executive branch of government at the provincial and federal levels.

I have personally experienced the urgency associated with receiving projects from Cabinet Office with my experience working for the provincial public service. Under municipalities' contexts, I imagine even higher pressures of receiving numerous requests at once from various council members— especially when proposals are intended to address similar issues but in different ways. Based on this, it seems as though municipal public servants truly act according to “loyal implementation” and “fearless advice,” considering the necessary research and analysis that must be conducted on proposed programs and policies that may be at odds with one another from time to time.

This fluid relationship between city council members and the municipal public service is something that I would be really curious to learn more about from those immersed within the field. Specifically, I would be interested in how this plays out on the ground level and whether there are any related challenges associated with dealing with the potential for conflicting policy and program proposals put forth by numerous council members.