City councillors met briefly Monday evening to approve a motion to send outstanding loose ends to a related committee for a further deep dive. The city also announced it will publicly broadcast and save those meetings on YouTube moving forward.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
In an effort to catch up on loose ends left by the previous councils and receive helpful information, all outstanding council motions, budget capital projects and major operating expenses will be reviewed in detail at upcoming committee meetings.
During a brief public meeting Monday councillors thanked city staff for efforts to compile the large amount of data, which has been separated by applicable committee and can now be reviewed by members of council at committee meetings, providing more time to gain a grasp of all details and how decisions will impact the city moving forward.
“It is quite comprehensive,” said Coun. Dan Reynish. “It’s very jam-packed full of information … quite extensive and quite thorough, so thank you for you.”
On Monday, council voted to present information to committees related to the development and infrastructure committee meeting minutes on Jan. 8, capital and one-time operating projects, policies and bylaws in force and outstanding council motions from 2025.
Mayor Linnsie Clark told reporters committees keep track of all items within scope and appointed councillors then report relevant information and proposed motions back to council as a whole to make a decision.
“So we can ensure that we’re on top of what’s going on and relevant to each standing committee, and ensure that our policies and bylaws get reviewed in a timely and consistent manner,” said Clark.
Items that remain on council’s consent agenda – those that do not get discussed unless pulled out for discussion – include the rural renewal program status, 2025 Economic Development Report for the second half of the year and action items from the Jan. 8 development and infrastructure committee meeting.
Hoping to make decisions that happen at city hall more accessible to residents, council announced Monday moving forward that committee meetings will be broadcasted and saved online, similar to city council meetings.
“We’ll be recording those, uploading them to YouTube, so that anybody can easily go and find those meetings,” said Coun. Stuart Young, who thanked the community for feedback on access. “Just another opportunity for people to see the work that we’re doing.”
Clark says the public record of committee meetings will also be useful for other councillors who are not committee members.
“I think it’s a great step forward in terms of helping both the public awareness about what’s going on, but also even for council. Not every council member can attend every standing committee meeting, but they can still be just as informed,” said Clark.
The next planned committee meeting is energy, land and environment committee, which will meet at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday and should be broadcast on the City of Medicine Hat’s YouTube page.
