What it takes to be a mayor on P.E.I.
'Municipal politicians are the closest politicians to the people — and their issues are real'
There will be some fresh faces in the mayor's office for several municipalities on P.E.I. this fall as some current mayors won't be re-offering.
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With that in mind, the three outgoing mayors representing the province's largest municipalities — Summerside, Stratford and Charlottetown — had a few words of advice for those interested in the mayor's chair.
Among them are over 25 years of experience and each had a different approach as to what people need to know to be a mayor on the Island.
Here's what they had to say.
Bill Martin: 'Their issues are real'
After one term as mayor of Summerside, Bill Martin is moving back into private life. Without prior experience on council, Martin said there was a "steep" learning curve when he began as mayor.
"The first year was tough, the learning curve was pretty steep in terms of understanding process and understanding council and understanding my role," he said. "Beyond that it continued to get a whole heck of a lot easier."
For those interested in becoming mayor, Martin said people have to realize that "even though you have this title, you have very little overall authority" as council is the primary driver behind decisions.
"You have influence," he said, "but I only voted twice in four years."
Learning the role of mayor will come with time but from the jump, some of the most important things for future mayors, Martin said, are to be accessible, transparent and open to council's ideas.
"In my case, you just need to be yourself. You can't be successful trying to be something you're not. You need to be honest, you need to be transparent, you need to recognize that council has every right to think differently than you do," he said.
"You just need to recognize the City of Summerside has 16,000 residents, I have 16,000 bosses."
And you need to answer the phone when it rings and meet with your constituents whenever possible.
"Municipal politicians are the closest politicians to the people — and their issues are real," he said. "It could be a pothole, it could be a requirement for a ditch to be filled, it could be a street light that needs to be replaced or installed, so you just need to be accessible."
David Dunphy: 'There's a lot of balancing to do'
After two terms as mayor of one of P.E.I.'s fastest-growing communities, David Dunphy's name won't be on the ballot come Nov. 5.
In running his town, like most elected officials on P.E.I., he still has a day job and said mayors have to have a well of energy for what can be a round-the-clock job.
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"What many people don't understand is that most elected officials at the municipal level have day jobs," he said.
"The municipal government that we work with it's almost like a part-time job, or an after-hours job, so it's over and above what you do in your day-time job.… There's a lot of balancing to do and obviously prioritizing your work and trying to be available as much as possible."
With that in mind, mayor and council need to lean on municipal staff to stay organized and get stuff done.
"The biggest help to me has been having an excellent council to work with ... as well, probably more important, is the staff," he said.
"Let the staff do their job, and let council handle the policy and those kinds of things, the overall high-level master plan for the town for the year or long term, and let staff do their job because they're a good help to elected officials."
It's also important to keep in mind, Dunphy added, that you don't have to make decisions alone and it isn't always about what you think is the right decision because, on many issues, feedback from the constituents is a necessity.
"It can't always be about what you think is the right thing to do or what you want to do, you have to get that feedback and input from many people … and use that to make the best decision possible," he said.
"It's not a dictatorship, it's not an autocratic government, it's a team working together to make the best decisions for the residents of the town."
Clifford Lee: 'You need to have a long-range vision'
Being mayor isn't something Clifford Lee ever thought about before he took the seat in 2003 but after 15 years as boss of the capital he won't be re-offering.
For him, one of the top requirements for the job is "enjoying people," he said, because if you can't do that with everyone "you're not going to be very successful" as a mayor.
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"Being prepared to talk to people, being prepared to visit people in their homes, their workplaces. Make yourself available. And doing it all because you want to make the quality of life for these people a little better than it is today," he said.
But perhaps just as important as that, "you need to have a long-range vision" before you're elected. Just as significant is knowing the ideas you want to accomplish as mayor need to fit the city, he said, not the other way around.
"One of the things I wanted to do when I became mayor, and quite successfully we achieved it, was make Charlottetown an event-hosting destination," he said. "If I look at this 15 years later ... I say without hesitation that Charlottetown has become the leader in the province for hosting events."
And that wasn't accomplished, he said, by changing the city to fit that vision.
His goal had to be met by taking advantage of what the city already had and that meant, he said, meeting with residents, tourism operators and working with business owners.
"For any municipality to be successful you need to have the support of the residents, you need to have the support of the business community," he said.
It also meant understanding what infrastructure the city had to host events, and then becoming an ambassador for the city and selling it as an important place on P.E.I. to host events — a major role all mayors have to take on.
Another important thing to keep in mind in seeing out your vision, Lee said, is that a mayor doesn't fulfil their goals by competing with other municipalities along the way.
"That's not good city government for anybody, it's not how you work together with other municipalities in the province," he said.
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