By far the best part of my job is that I get to work with some fabulous people, and Mayor Diane Langman is no exception.
I met Diane when my consulting firm, Strategic Leadership Solutions, was hired to facilitate the Village of Warfield’s strategic planning process. She was a newly elected Councillor who displayed the extraordinary quality of being open-minded and inquisitive. Two years later, Diane stepped up to the plate and embraced the mantle of leadership vacated by the Mayor to become the first woman to hold the title in her community. By default, that made her the youngest female mayor in BC. I was thrilled to return to Warfield and work with her again. Not being one to shy away from the complexity of her new role, I was pleased to see that Diane maintained her keen interest in learning what not only what the job entailed but how she could do it better. She is well on her way to becoming a skilled and thoughtful leader.
Mayor Diane Langman has lived in the Village of Warfield for 14 years with her husband, Jason and their two kids, Kaitlyn and Carter. She loves to be in the outdoors with her family doing things such as hiking, biking, camping, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing.
It’s hard putting yourself out there and to take risks, but that’s where all of the action happens! Life is too short to live thinking about “what if’s”.
What inspired you to run for Mayor?
When I first entered municipal politics in 2014 as a Municipal Councillor, I knew that eventually, I would want to run for Mayor. I had previously toyed with the idea of running for Council in the 2011 election but with a 2 and 6-year old, the timing just didn’t feel right – so I waited. What I did not know was just how much I would love politics. A year and a half after being elected as a Councillor, our Mayor was laid off from his job due to restructuring and ended up accepting a job across the country. I loved the direction that our Council had taken, and we were working hard towards achieving our strategic goals. After some encouragement from the Mayor, I decided to run in the by-election for the Mayoral position in February 2017. Being able to continue to lead our team in a positive direction for the remaining 18 months of our term was very important to me.
What had your experience been like so far?
Everything has been remarkably positive. Being a part of a team that is working towards the betterment of our community is a very rewarding experience in itself.
It’s great to see a community come together behind their Council as well!
I am very fortunate to have an amazing support network. I would not have been able to run for Mayor without my husband’s support along with my parents and my mother-in-law. With a husband who works shift work as a career Fire Fighter and so many more meetings both on the municipal and regional level, I would never be able to juggle our schedule without the support of our family. There have been many days where my husband is going to night shift, I’m running to a Regional District meeting, our daughter is playing fastball 3 towns away, and our son is at baseball in the opposite direction.
It’s a juggling act some days, but we make it work because of how important we, as a family, see this role.
One adjustment I had to make was to create “office hours” for myself. With how easily accessible we are now, whether it’s through the phone, email, social media, text, etc., I was finding that my family and personal life were suffering. As a mom, we often put everyone ahead of ourselves and put ourselves last. Once elected, I began to place a municipality ahead of myself as well, which was really hard. I was no longer doing anything for me because I didn’t have the time or energy.
I take my role as Mayor very seriously, and I felt that by not answering that email within the hour, I was failing as a Mayor and letting my community down. From this, I have learned to take time for myself. Go for a walk and clear your head, go for a run or a bike ride, swim at the pool, go coach your kids’ sports, take the weekend off and go camping. Not everything has to be answered immediately!
I have found that we are becoming a very impatient and reactive society and I find that by taking the time for myself, to think things through, to act within those “office hours”, I am better equipped and have things more thought out. We all deserve down time to regroup and prepare ourselves for the next day.
What has been the biggest surprise?
I think the biggest surprise for me is what the public believes municipal politicians do vs. what our actual role is. I don’t think that is different from any job, but the lines have been misconstrued for a long time.
Just after being elected, I started receiving phone calls from residents to complain about anything from street sweeping to dog poop – each one, of course, felt that their issue was top priority, and I needed to do something about it right away. It’s hard because, on one hand, you understand the frustration and want to help, but on the other hand, these are staff issues, not a Council issue. While my Council and staff were busy ensuring we were meeting the statutory requirements for our municipality along with dealing with Spring flooding issues in other sections of town, we could not make those residents happy and just send out the street sweeper to clean their road when they wanted it. Unfortunately, this was when I came to the reality that you cannot and will not ever please everyone. All you can do is try your very best and listen to people.
Municipal politicians are to set policy and procedure, yet as a small community with limited staff, it was easy for us to step into an elected position and start trying to “help out”. By doing that, Council was overstepping boundaries and complicating things for staff. By defining our role as elected officials and what our responsibilities are, Council now has a clear direction, and more work is accomplished with these clearer goals.
What are you most excited about right now?
Right now we are in the process of working on our asset management plan. I never thought I would be so excited about documentation and data-collecting but it is very interesting. Sometimes a sewer pipe is documented on its size and age, other times, we are making an educated guess. We are putting an age, size and replacement cost to what’s underground and coming up with some timelines [as to when they will need to be replaced]. While it is completely daunting to see the replacement costs for all of this infrastructure, at the same time, it’s a starting point. And, it’s setting things up for the future of our community! By working on this plan, the next Council will be able to see the direction of our current Council and the work that we did to get there. Continuity and efficiency of effort yield traction.
What has been your most interesting challenge thus far?
The most interesting challenge is balancing a budget and having to say no. As a municipality, we have statutory requirements that we have to meet along with basic needs for the community.
With a limited tax base and a small staff, our community expects a certain level of service that is no longer affordable both due to financial and time constraints. With aging infrastructure and safety identified as a priority, our budget is committed to big ticket items such as pressure reducing valves and fire hydrants, and there is not a lot of room for extras. So that’s a challenge because of course, infrastructure is not necessarily “ribbon cutting” worthy but it’s essential for the development, growth, and well-being of our community.
Do you have any advice for other young women who may be considering getting involved in politics at the local level in the future?
It is incredibly hard to put your name out there, but there is so much possibility when we push out of our comfort zone. Learn to separate your political life and personal life, build up a support network behind you, take risks, go into everything with an open mind and be willing to think outside the box.
This begs the question to the larger audience, why not YOU?
Approximately 28% of the mayors in BC are women and the overall number of female elected officials in local government is 37%. Not bad numbers compared to other parts of the country. However, if 50% of the population is female, then it still is not enough. One of the greatest barriers I hear vocalized by women when they are asked to consider entering politics is their own beliefs about themselves. It is a belief about not being good enough or not knowing enough. We are often our own worst enemy. Politics is not for “special people”. One of my missions as a woman with 12 years’ experience in local government is to inspire other women to consider the need for their participation in the political process and to realize that they can do it and be relevant! I want women to see themselves in me; I am not unique, and neither is Diane.
What is unique is our voice. If you have an inkling for politics, don’t let the voice in your head be your enemy. Your voice is critical and needs to be part of the political mosaic of your community. If you are curious, there are so many resources out there, including the PowHERhouse network of community builders.
Christina Benty, Strategic Leadership Solutions
