City council is set to meet Monday and debate its procedure bylaw which lays down rules on how business is conducted. - NEWS FILE PHOTO
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Council has proceeded with some fits and starts through almost two years after the 2021 election, including a 12-month period in which an interim chief operating officer conducted review of organizational culture before a full-time replacement was hired last February.
In the meantime, several key issues, such as a utility rate review, remain in limbo after councillors referred them back to administrators.
During meetings, there has been confusion at times about which committee would take on items referred by council, or whether they should be taken up immediately by the committee level, or put on a priorities list.
Most recently, council instituted speaking terms for both presenters and council members.
A changeover in city clerks has also led to substantial changes on how agendas are formatted and the order in which items are approved, causing confusion at some points.
The new bylaw would standardize that process, give authority to committee chairs to call or cancel meetings, similar to new mayoral powers to schedule council gatherings.
It would also set down rules for using a “committee of the whole” format – a relatively common occurrence this term but rarely used in the past.
The new bylaw would also expand the definition of standing committee to include not only the traditional committees that oversee each of the four main divisions at city hall (public, corporate, energy and infrastructure), but also committees considered minor in the past.
That includes the audit, administrative and legislative review committee and the Emergency Advisory Committee.
The latter is a relatively new creation and requirement from the province to ensure emergency response plans are being devised.
The mayor may no longer be a voting member of each committee (a status known as ex-officio), but would have full membership and therefore voting privileges on the public services committee.
It would have four members, while others have three, so as to better ensure a quorum of three is met when dealing with appeal issues.
City councillors are prepared to debate and recommend changes to a proposed bylaw that governs how they conduct business.
That long-promised piece of legislation was introduced at the end of the July 4 meeting and will reappear Monday for second reading of the updated rules that determine how and when meetings are held, which committee deals with which issues, and lays out a protocol to deal with disputes.
Mayor Linnsie Clark called it updating the Procedure Bylaw a key requirement to improving transparency and operations at the council level, both in her election campaign and an interview in January looking to the year ahead.
“Ultimately people will be able to follow what’s happening in a council meeting, for a person to look at a council package and knowing what’s going on, and having more meetings in public,” she told the News earlier this year.
“Transparency increases people’s abilities to hold us accountable.”
Several councillors the News spoke to this week said the draft bylaw is less than advertised, and they’ll comment further when changes are proposed on Monday.
Some of the changes are made necessary because of changes to the Municipal Government Act – which includes provincially-set operating rules for municipal government.
According to a memo from the city’s legal department, the changes update language, moves to gender neutral terms, and for it would replace “Bourinot’s rules” with the more-commonly known “Robert’s Rules of Order” for the chair to schedule votes and deal with motions.
The bylaw was drafted by the city solicitors office, and flowed directly to council earlier this month. Council could amend it, approve it, refer it back to administrators or to the council’s administrative and legislative committee.
That group, chaired by Coun. Andy McGrogan, has dealt with several bylaw updates so far this term.
He told the News on Friday that he supports a full discussion at council before it is either passed or reconsidered.
“Everyone has had a chance to read the revisions and put some questions to our legal department,” said McGrogan. “I think there are some (additional) changes that may have the ability to improve how we’re doing business.”
The city’s procedure bylaw dates to the early 1980s, but has been amended over the years, most recently last year to make conditions for councillors to attend meetings via video conferencing.
Proposed changes would also restate the framework for public participation at meetings and provide scope of responsibilities for committees (an overarching review has been eluded to since the term began).
