'No Goldilocks number' in determining best size of city council

Trying to determine the number of citycouncillors that would make local governancethe most efficient is certainly not an exact science, some experts say, as defining what makes council effectivecan besubjective.

"There is no Goldilocks number," saidGabriel Eidelman, director of the Urban Policy Lab at University of Toronto'sMunk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

"We don't really have good answers in the academic researchthat saysthis is the number you should be shooting for,[that] 60,000is the magic number of how many constituents an individual councillor should represent and anythingless than that is an affront to democracy."

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The reason, saysEidelman, is there's very little research about this issue or researchthat has setout a definingset of principles or criteria.

"How would you judge what is more or less democratic or more or less effective or more or less efficient?And then actually take the number and look at an institutional structure and say 'OK, if you have this number, or this structure it will lead to better decisions.'"

On Friday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced he would introduce legislation to cutthe size of Toronto city council almost in half, from 47councillors to 25. Ford argued that the council has become dysfunctional and inefficient because of its size.

Eidelman, who said he will be holding a symposium on this very topic later this year, said that, empirically, there are no grounds to say whether Ford iswrong or right.

"You can make the argument, sure cut the number of talking heads on thecouncil floor in half but increase the resources for their office and thenyouhave more responsivenessand service delivery to your constituents."

In his 2017 report, The Potential and Consequences of Municipal and Electoral Reform, associate politicalscience professor Aaron Moore said research indicatedthatexpanding the size of council "may lead to better representation of certain marginalized communities and encourage greater voter turnout and engagement come election time."

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However, a larger council may also pose"significant drawbacks,"he wrote. Large councils tend to spend much more per capita than municipalities with small councils and lead to greater levels of "pork barrel" spending.

As well, a large number of councillors makes it more difficult for the media and residents to hold them accountable, as most of the focus is usually on the mayor.

But Moore told CBC News that thereare valid concerns that, the smaller council becomes, "the less representative it's going to be."

'Goes out the window'

And when ward sizes get too large, "the whole notion of local democracy at that point kind of goes out the window," he said.

However,Andrew Sancton,a retired Western Universitypolitical science professor and former director of its Local Government Program, said councillors too often getinvolved in issues that would be better left to city administration officials.

Sancton, whohas argued in favour of cutting Toronto's city council to 25 members, said when it comes to issues like fixing potholes, garbage collection, or what shapethelocal park is in, "there's no reason why you have to call your councillor about these concerns."

Councillors should instead be focused on cityplanning,transit projectsand broader issues, he said.

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He said it can be difficult to define "effective"when there are competing stakeholders.

One may base effectiveness on how long it takes for council to approve development applications, for example. That might be a great measure for a developer who wants applicationsapproved quickly, he said.

But if the measure is based on the amount of debate on the development, the amount of citizen engagement, "you're going to have an entirely different definition of effectiveness."

As for council size, Sancton said itshould be somewhere between seven and 25 members.

"It's sort of the amount of people you can get around the table who can have a discussion among themselves and work things out by looking at each other by listening to each other."

L.A. has 15 councillors

In defending his move to cut council, Ford referred toLos Angeles, a city with four million people, that has only 15 citycouncillors. However the city does have 97 neighbourhood councils.

RaphaelSonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at California State University,said the city's number of councillors has remained the same since the mid-1920s, And because of council's small size,L.A. possibly hasthe strongest city council in the U.S.

ButSonenshein, who is the author of three books on Los Angeles politics and government, doubted the size of the council determines whether thecityruns better.

"I think the biggest question that's always been raised about the L.A. council is are the districts too large to be as representative and responsive as they need to be," he said.

"I don't think it's a badly run city. Idon't know that it's not badly runbecause of the size of the council."

While people may complain thatthe districts are too large, voters, in the past, have nixed the idea ofhiring more politicians,Sonensheinsaid.