A Public Interview of 4 Candidates for City Mayor
A JOB INTERVIEW offers a different method of getting to know our Candidates for Mayor.
MY NOTES for the Event…
WELCOME to our public interview for a new Mayor, conducted by citizens for all residents of the City of Kawartha Lakes.
My name is Gene Balfour and I am your moderator this evening.
THANK YOU to Brian Henry, Dr. Kerstin Kelly and the Woodville Freedom Group for hosting this event and providing these facilities.
Also a BIG THANK YOU goes to our 4 Candidates for participating this evening. Bill Denby, Patrick Dunn, Jim Riches, Kathleen Seymour-Fagan. Unfortunately, the 2 other Candidates - Doug Elmslie and Faye McGee - were unable to participate.
ABOUT OUR HOST.
The Woodville Freedom Group is a “grass roots” voluntary organization currently with ~ 700 members. It emerged early in 2020 as both an information centre and a mutual-aid community to help others cope in the challenging pandemic times.
INTRODUCTION
Change is coming to City Council on October 25, but who’s version of change do we want?
Tonight, 4 candidates for Mayor will help us to answer that question.
Since change is the theme of our times, we are introducing a fundamental change to the “all candidates” format that we usually see at election times. This event is based on a job interview of the candidates. Why?
I am a retired professional recruiter who has interviewed over 10,000 job candidates for hundreds of different organizations over my 36 year career. I know something about job interviews.
I have been a candidate in 9 elections and participated in many “all candidates” events. I found most of them to be too superficial and often raised more questions about the candidates than they answered. I know something about being a politician in these events.
I was a partner in a business for 14 years (until January 2022) and a member of the Board for 6 years. I think of City Council as the government equivalent of a corporate Board with the Mayor as its Chairman. Both groups as decision-making bodies and they decide upon how to deployment the resources of their organizations to serve the shareholders and stakeholders. The resources are labour, money, assets and regulations. I understand how these groups function.
Yes, as voters, you can read all candidates web sites and election pamphlets to get some information about who they are, their policy ideas, and what competencies they may bring to the position. A job interview, however, can add greatly to your research to decide who to vote for.
Elements of a JOB INTERVIEW
Job description,,, responsibilities and expectations
Candidate Requirements… minimum and “nice to have” (ideal candidate) qualifications are defined.
Candidate resume …. work history and achievements …. personal attributes. Unfortunately, Resumes are not available in political elections.
Selection Committee … you, the voters, will decide who with become the next Mayor.
Interviewer …. I am a City resident, taxpayer and consumer of City services. By proxy, I am acting as your representative to conduct the interviews.
Interview format …. Somewhat unique given that we are attempting to interview 4 Candidates at the same time in a public forum.
Preparation …. A week ago, all 6 Candidates were invited to participate and given the 4 interview questions. This was done so that they would come well-prepared for their interview. Instructions and advice were also provided regarding how they may prepare themselves.
About the Interview Questions
Each of the 4 questions was designed with a specific objective - to reveal some aspect of their experience, beliefs, their values and their character so that voters can get a closer look at the person behind the election campaign.
Question#1 is the most challenging. It was designed to:
Determine the Candidate can lead the change that they all claim is needed and what will that change will look like if they are elected Mayor. Past successes at being an organizational Agent of Change will help their case.
Test their creativity in generating and justifying new ideas to solve complex problems without increasing the size, cost and scope of authority within the City of Kawartha Lakes existing bureacacy.
Test their willingness to consider methods and approaches that they have never used but are standard practice in other professional organizations like the consulting industry from where I came.
The other 3 questions are easier to answer. Their purpose will be revealed later.
Each question is preceded by a preamble to explain its purpose and context. It will also help the Candidates to stay focussed and not stray off topic.
All interview questions represent the kind that any good Executive Search Consultant might employ to help his client - you the voter in this case - to make an informed decision.
Let’s begin the QUESTION & ANSWER section.
QUESTION#1
Inspiration for this question: In 2012, I conducted an executive search for the EVP of the CANADA PENSION PLAN Investment Board. He engaged me on retainer to find 5 Senior Managers that would form a new corporate Business Transformation department. This team of experts were proven leaders with a successful track record in planning and executing changes to organizational structures, business processes and the Information Systems that supported them. This new department was essential for the Corporation to achieve the 5 year corporate plan.
I see parallels between that search and our selection of the next Mayor who will spearhead the changes that are coming to our city. Our changes will likely be incremental and achieved one step at a time. They could involve the introduction of new ideas, processes, practices and systems.
Purpose: Is the Candidate a Creative Problem Solver? Time to answer is allowed Up to 5 minutes. A written response of 400 words maximum is expected by every Candidate.
Preamble: The rising cost of living affects everyone and is arguably the #1 issue we face. Inflation has many causes and affects people differently according to their socio-economic status.
Question#1: Within the powers and constraints facing the City of Kawartha Lakes and its City Council, tell the voters about your best proposal to mitigate this threat WITHOUT increasing taxes, or hiring new personnel or passing new regulations. Explain your proposal and your supporting analysis using the SWOT+ Analysis framework. Recall your prior instructions: Please prepare for this brainstorming session and bring to the meeting a written analysis of your proposal using SWOT+ (400 words maximum).
ABOUT SWOT+ …..
I used SWOT often in my past job as Director, Talent Supply Chain of the international division of a Systems Integration consulting company. SWOT+ stands for…
Strengths - What are the merits of the idea being proposed to address a problem.
Weaknesses - What are the potentially negative unintended consequences.
Opportunities - how will this idea open up new possibilities for the City.
Threats - who or what may present obstacles for it to success (example, labour unions or existing provincial legislation may prevent or impede implementation efforts.)
+ Who benefits? - Often, special interest groups actively lobby politicians for money or policies that will exclusively serve their own goals. Council should identify who lobbied for the initiative.
+ Who pays? It’s worth naming which members of the public will foot the bill for all decisions and actions enacted by City Council. For example, sometimes it’s only the “rich” who carries the cost burden and if this is the case, it should be identified and acknowledged.
[Instructions to the audience] »»»>
It may be helpful to all people watching this to IMAGINE that this brainstorming session taking place in City Council with each of the 4 Candidates presenting their prepared SWOT+ Analysis. Note that SWOT is not new. It has been used in many organizations successfully to evaluate alternatives approaches to resolve complex problems.
Your responsibility as the Selection Committee in this exercise is to decide if the performance of these Candidates in problem analysis and creating viable solutions lives up to your expectations for a new Mayor.
AFTER Question#1 has been answered, I explain …
One purpose for question#1 was to introduce the SWOT+ decision analysis tool to everyone here in attendance. It has not been used by the outgoing City Council.
The use of SWOT+ represents a potentially positive change to the way that City Council brainstorms potential solutions to problems while taking into consideration the interests of our demographically diverse community of citizens and stakeholder groups.
I also hope that our new Mayor and City Councillors might adopt the practice writing out their SWOT+ analyses before all brainstorming sessions. Imagine if their written SWOT+ documents were included in the Meeting Minutes and made available online for all interested parties. This would increase Council transparency and accountability for everyone.
========
Question #2
Purpose: To determine how voters might receive greater VALUE for TAXES PAID through INNOVATION & PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENTS. (2 minutes)
Preamble: All citizens are consumers. We consume a variety of public services as well as commercial goods and services. The money we earn represents our sacrifices in the time, effort and resources that we spent to earn it. For example, if the average Canadian remits 50% of his or her annual earnings to all levels of government, this means that they spent half of their life working for others before they begin to work for themselves. Tax Freedom Day tells the story well. For this reason, all consumers expect to receive good value for these sacrifices. So, are we getting good value for our taxes and required fee payments?
Question#2: If you become Mayor, what can you and City Council do about improving the value for money that we can expect in return for our tax and fee payments? Your use of SWOT+ is optional.
=======
Question#3
Purpose: WHY YOU? Why should we believe that you are the best choice to be our next Mayor? Tell us in your own words - 3 minutes
Preamble: I believe in a concept called the Life Lens. It says that every person is shaped by his or her unique personal circumstances, life experiences and lessons learned from from birth until the present moment.
As a professional recruiter, I gained valuable insights into the character and motivations of job candidates by exploring their personal backgrounds and the choices that they made.
Question#3: With this Life Lens concept in mind, tell us about your background and some of the key factors that have shaped who you are today and why you want to be our next mayor. These factors may include influences from your schooling, work history, family circumstances, group affiliations, or any other.
Help us to understand how they shaped your views about the role that governments play in our lives. Explain how and why this makes you a good candidate to be our next mayor. (3 minutes)
======
Question#4:
Purpose: To learn what each Candidate believes about the role that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms should and will play in carrying out the duties of Mayor in order to provide PUBLIC SAFETY for all citizens (2 minutes)
Preamble: Arguably, the most fundamental job of any government is to protect its citizens from harm and aggression. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is that part of the Canadian Constitution which defines what rights and freedoms we wish to be protected. Freedom of informed Choice (“informed consent” for vaccines is an example) is the spirit behind that document and its purpose to protect each one of us.
In recent years, government officials at every level have either mis-interpreted or ignored the Charter. They enacted mandates and policies that harm and aggress against our citizens.
In Sweden, the government leaders obeyed their Constitution during the pandemic. Instead of lockdowns and mandates, they chose to provide high quality information services to their citizens about all relevant aspects of the public health risks and ways to manage them. In other words, the Swedish Public Health Authority placed their trust in every adult citizen to independently make informed choices to protect themselves and their loved ones.
In Canada, we did the opposite. Our elected leaders have imposed mandates for mask-wearing, drug injections, carbon taxes on fossil fuels, and and other forms of harm and aggression. They don’t trust us to make responsible and informed choices.
Question#4: If elected as mayor, how will you protect the residents of our city from future unconstitutional actions by government officials?
========
WRAP UP
Politics has changed dramatically in recent years. It, along with all forms of legacy and alternative media, have fuelled a climate of division, confusion and skepticism in Canadian society.
Trust in our leaders and public institutions has declined. This is very unhealthy for our democracy.
We know that second hand information is often not as valuable as information acquired directly from the source - the candidates themselves. We offered this Event as an opportunity for all mayoral candidates to speak for themselves to let you know who they are, what they stand for, and to demonstrate some of the competencies that they bring to the job.
THE LAST WORD goes to the Candidates along with my THANK YOU for an informative session here tonight.
SUMMATION - (90 seconds). The Candidates will use this time to summarize what was discussed tonight and promote themselves in their bid to win the race.
==========
The YouTube video of the Event ….
Note: Doug Elmslie and Faye McGee were 2 of the Mayoral candidates who were unable to participate but the other 4 made it an informative meeting.
Feel free to share.
Gene
