1) WL Council Budget Process
Last night, Mayor Cook expressed a concern she had prior to adopting the budget, that namely being, the public will not have an opportunity to comment on the full 2010 Budget & 5-Year Financial Plan prior to adoption. I agree with her that it was unfortunate but perhaps this can rectified for the 2011 Budget Process and she indicated that the 2011 Budget Process will be amended accordingly
2) Amending the Council Procedure Bylaw
Last night, Council gave 3 readings to an amendment bylaw which amends Council Procedure Bylaw #1940, 2004. Debate centered around two items:
1) Language on rotating Committee of the Whole Chairs (Mayor/Monthly Acting Mayor)
2) Time which a Council Meeting will start
I was absolutely disgusted when Councillor Montoya said this:
"No one has given me a reason as to why Council meetings' should not start at 6:00pm"
Now, let me give her plenty of reasons why Council should not mess with its' meeting time
1) Council serves at the pleasure of the public and not the other way around, as Councillor Montoya would have you believe. And while I'm at it, if she doesn't like the fact Council meets until 10:00pm, there are solutions to be used by Council including scheduling In-Camera meetings on a different day
2) The public has a right to attend and observe a Council at a time that is reasonable to the public (ie: 6:30 at mininum, but 7:00pm would be the best). For Councillor Bourdon to say that Council is hung up on changing the meeting time because of only 2 people is absolutely "beyond the pale". Sure, most times not many members of the public attend, but there is the odd time that an issue turns the public's crank and given that Council meeting times are not well advertised, meeting at 6:00pm will allow Council to decide on a controversial issue without the public observing what their elected officials decided and that is contrary to the public good which requires that Council either consults with the public or meets in public at a reasonable hour (ie - 7:00pm)
WL Council also directed at the time of adoption, that a review take place of the new meeting time in 3 months. But given that this Council took almost 15 months to actually get a look at the re-write of the Procedure Bylaw, I believe the next Council will take up the matter of the new meeting time and when the local government elections occur next fall, I intend to propose that Council Meetings be reverted back to 7:00pm and when Public Hearings occur on the same night, then there would not be a wait as the Public Hearing would be held and then the Council Meeting would occur and a decision could be rendered immediately on a bylaw referred from the Public Hearing and that would go a long way towards meeting efficiency - a major reason as to why this Council made the meeting time change in the first place
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