Subject: 2006-2010 Board Composition
Prepared by: Linda Sonley, Chair, Governance
Committee
Prepared for: Ottawa Public Library Board
Meeting of: October 16, 2006
Date of preparation: August 25, 2006
Recommendations
1. That the OPL
Board recommend to City Council the following, to be used at Council’s
discretion as a guide in selecting the composition of the next Library Board,
to be appointed after the November 13, 2006 municipal election.
§
Maintain the current Board size of 14 trustees.
§
Recognize the commitment to provide library services in
both official languages.
§
Make reasonable efforts to ensure that applications for
board members are sought and considered from a diversity of:
-
Geographic areas of the municipality and its urban/rural
make-up
-
Language and cultural groups representing the demographic
nature of the municipality
-
Age distribution representing the demographic nature of
the municipality
-
Applicants showing a clear interest in public libraries
and in public service
-
Applicants providing a mixture of professional and other
skills related to the work of the library board or issues dealt with by the
board
-
Applicants from a variety socio-economic backgrounds
representing the demographic nature of the municipality
§
Make reasonable efforts to ensure that candidates
selected have one or more of the following competencies/skills.
-
Commitment
to and strong interest in public libraries
-
Independence
of judgement
-
Policy
Development
-
Facilitator
/ consensus building
-
Public
issue campaigning
-
Commitment
to group decision-making and listening to others
-
Ability
to effectively engage in dialogue
-
Previous
board experience
-
Public
consultation / involvement
-
Public
relations experience
-
Visionary,
conceptual thinker
-
Ability
to see the big picture and put minor considerations in perspective
-
Technology
background
-
Financial
/ business background
-
Government
/ public servant background
-
Community
organization background
-
Library
background (professional or as a trustee)
-
Knowledge
of municipal affairs
-
Knowledge
of fundraising
-
Understanding
budget development and the budget process
References
§
Ontario Public Libraries Act
§
City of Ottawa By-Law 2003-607, Library Board Size Amendment By-law
§
City of Ottawa
By-Law 2001-11, Bylaw Respecting Size and Composition of the Ottawa Public
Library Board
§
Board
Policy B.4, Board’s Role
§
Board
Policy B.21, Trustee and Board Responsibilities and Accountabilities
§
Board
Composition Committee (Doc. 06-027)
Background
At its March
meeting, the Board requested that Doc. 06-027 be referred to the Governance
Committee for review and deliberation. The attached report details the
Committee’s discussions and recommendations.
The Ottawa
Public Library Board serves the citizens of Ottawa to ensure they have the best
possible library service within the available finances. Ottawa is a diverse city. It has strong geographic, linguistic, ethno-cultural,
socio-economic and other differentiations.
Trustees must reflect and understand these in order to provide a link to
the entire community.
The Library
Board also has a varied workload in governing the library. As well as ensuring smooth operation of the
Board, the Chair and Vice-Chair must also represent the Board to the public, to
Council and related committees, and at public events. Board members have ongoing work on policy development and
strategic planning, developing links to related organizations, special projects
(for example, planning for the eventual New Central Library), as well as ad-hoc
work on specific issues.
Based on current
practice, board members could be expected to contribute to one or more of the
following, which have varying workloads:
In looking at
board size, the Governance Committee considered the following factors:
The first
post-amalgamation OPL Board consisted of 15 trustees, (i.e. 7
citizens-at-large, 2 school board representatives [ who are no longer required
due to a change in legislation] and 6 city councillors). That composition changed with the
appointment of the 2004-2006 Board, which has 14 trustees (8 citizens at large
and 6 city councillors). Increasing the
number of trustees on the Board is not recommended at this time. The larger the board, the more difficult it
is to schedule meetings. With a larger
Board, each trustees has less opportunity to speak at meetings, and/or the
length of meetings increases.
The by-law
currently in place is permissive, in that City Council may consider creating a smaller
library board. In order to compare the
OPL experience to that of other systems, libraries across Ontario and Canada
were polled. For comparable cities,
board sizes ranged from 7 to 14 (see Appendix A.)
The Governance
Committee believes that given the current size of the city, a board of 14
trustees is appropriate. In this way,
there are a sufficient number of people with varied skill sets to meet the
effort needed for board committee or liaison work.
City councillors
bring invaluable experience and political links to the library board. They
ensure that the board is aware of the fiscal and political constraints of
Council, and that Council understands the needs of Ottawa citizens for library
service.
The councillors
have a heavy workload and intense demands on their time. This creates difficulties in scheduling
board and committee meetings. On more
than one occasion during the current Board term, quorum was lost because of the
heavy demands of councillors’ schedules.
In addition, because councillors have these demands on their time, it is
more difficult for them to participate in the “outside work” of the Board (e.g.
representing the Library at community events, conferences, etc.). This responsibility falls to the citizen
trustees. These difficulties are easier
to handle with only a few councillor-trustees, but are more difficult to
manoeuvre around when councillors comprise 43% of the Board.
Under the Public
Libraries Act, councillors may comprise up to 50% minus 1 of the board
members (6 on a 14-member board). The
committee strongly feels there should be more than one councillor on the Board
because the experience of former boards has shown this puts too much strain on
one councillor.
As such, the Governance Committee offers no recommendation in terms of councillor representation. The Committee respectfully requests that the Board ask Council to take the above into consideration when appointing councillors to the Library Board in order to minimize the impact of councillor workload/scheduling on the work of the Board.
This changing face of Ottawa should be
reflected on the Board. As of the 2001 census, the visible minority population
in Ottawa increased by 27.9% between 1996 and 2001. In 2001 Ottawa’s immigrant population represented 22% of the
City’s total population. (Source: Immigration and Ethno-Cultural Diversity:
1996 and 2001 Census Data Highlights.
Innovation, Development and Partnership Branch, Department of People
Services, City of Ottawa. February 2003) When this report was drafted, the 2006
census data was not available.
|
Name of Library |
Population |
Total
number of trustees |
Number of
councillors |
Number of
citizens |
Rep from
separate school board |
Rep from
public school board |
|
Brampton |
386,000 |
10 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
|
Burlington |
160,550 |
7 |
1 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
|
Calgary |
933,495 |
10 |
2 |
8 |
|
|
|
Edmonton |
666,104 |
10 |
1 |
9 |
|
|
|
Halifax * |
359,183 |
11 |
5 |
6 |
|
|
|
Hamilton |
503,000 |
11 |
2 |
9 |
0 |
0 |
|
Kenora ¨ |
17,638 |
9 |
1 |
8 |
|
|
|
Kingston Frontenac** |
139,407 |
11 |
|
|
|
|
|
Kitchener |
203,417 |
11 |
2 |
9 |
0 |
0 |
|
London |
336,539 |
9 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
|
Markham |
257,419 |
14 |
3 |
11 |
0 |
0 |
|
Mississauga |
690,000 |
10** |
2 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
|
Oshawa |
150,000 |
10 |
2 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
|
Ottawa |
865,550 |
14 |
6 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
|
Regina *** |
191,400 |
10 |
2 |
8 |
|
|
|
Saskatchewan *** |
206,505 |
9 |
2 |
7 |
|
|
|
Sault Ste. Marie |
75,000 |
9 |
0 |
7 |
0 |
2 |
|
St. Catharines |
130,000 |
9 |
2 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
|
Thunder Bay |
109,016 |
9 |
1 |
6 |
1 |
1 |
|
Toronto |
2,481,494 |
13 |
5 |
8 |
|
|
|
Vancouver |
589,296 |
13 |
1 |
12 |
|
|
|
Vaughan |
240,000 |
13 |
3 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
|
Waterloo |
106,951 |
10 |
2 |
8 |
|
|
|
Whitby |
87,413 |
10 |
1 |
9 |
0 |
0 |
|
Winnipeg **** |
619,544 |
11 |
5 |
6 |
|
|
* The Mayor is an ex
officio member (counted in this table as a councillor), and two members are
appointed by the province
(the two provincial reps are captured in the citizen numbers).
** This is a
union board, comprising representatives from the County and the City.
*** The
Mayor also sits on the board, as ex officio member (counted in this table as a
councillor)
**** The Manager of
Library Services, and two non-voting provincial representatives also sit on
this board
Sources: Various Library Websites / E-mails from Chief Librarians
¨ Census 2001