WHAT IT TAKES to be a good Municipal Councillor

1° Have the health and leisure time necessary to be able to attend the numerous Council and Commission meetings. There are 150 to 180 meetings per year. Each Councillor is part of one or more Commissions.

2° Have very varied skills and at the same time an ability to quickly grasp the meaning of the matters submitted.

3° Have enough character to free oneself from personal concerns and interests to see only the general interest.

4° Be able to make a report on behalf of the Commission of which one is a member.

5° Without being an orator. be able to clearly and lucidly present one's opinion, not only within the four walls of a small Commission room, but also and especially in the Municipal Council room, very large, too high, with deplorable acoustics, which requires a very clear voice and impeccable diction.

6° Have the possibility of leaving his business to attend the meetings of Commissions and the Council.

7° Forget his political opinions, except on the day of the election of senatorial delegates.

8° Be master of his nerves, and be modest enough not to make interventions at the Municipal Council, for the sole concern of the gallery and the minutes.

9° Have the legitimate ambition to become mayor or deputy, but go slowly, learn his trade; do not forget that in sitting for the first time on the Council, the new Councilor is only an apprentice, a sort of amateur and that he has almost everything to learn in municipal matters.

10° For the mayor and the deputies, these qualities must be much more accentuated; as for their time, it must be devoted in large part to municipal administration.