Motion calls for more police commission members
By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on March 9, 2024.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com More members could be appointed to the Lethbridge Police Commission if an official business motion to be presented Tuesday to Lethbridge city council is approved. Councillor Jeff Carlson will present the OBM calling on council to direct administration to prepare an amending bylaw to Bylaw 5969 to revise the number of public members on the commission to seven and “also incorporate any appropriate housekeeping bylaw amendment requests from the Police Commission that were presented to the Governance Standing Policy committee in March 2023and referred to Administration, and return to a city council meeting by the end of Q1 2024 for consideration for first reading.” Presently, the commission has nine members which include two representatives of city council – Nick Paladino and Jenn Schmidt-Rempel being those currently serving. The rest are citizens at large and include chair Doug Thonton, vice chair Matthew McHugh, public complaints director Jen Visser, Brett Carlson, human resources committee chair Clement Esene, policy and governance committee chair Noella Piquette and Hunter Heggie. The motion states that the Alberta Police Act states the maximum number of appointees to a municipal police commission can be 12. It notes there is a desire to increase the size of the local commission “to better represent the work and activities of this body, which has seen an escalation in their work in the last few years and as well has three subcommittees reporting to it.” The commission submitted a letter to council on Dec. 4 requesting changes to Bylaw 5969 to facilitate as many as two additional appointments. The motion calls for administration to report back to council by the end of the first quarter of this year with an amending bylaw for consideration of first reading. 8-7
