If councillors want to have their say, they best keep it to five minutes.
On Monday night during the special initiatives standing committee meeting, councillors considered changes to their procedural bylaw, which included making a recommendation whether they will continue with the existing committee structure, or move to a committee-of-the-whole structure.
The change would have reduced the number of monthly meetings from five to three, however, was defeated by two 5-3 votes that will see council stick with the status quo.
Timing of the monthly strategic initiatives standing committee meeting and the corporate and community services meeting would, however, be swapped.
Coun. Mariane McLeod put forward an amendment that comments by councillors during meetings be limited to five minutes during the course of debate on a motion from each member, and that an additional five minutes could be granted at the discretion of the chair once all members had a chance to speak.
Coun. Yvonne Hamlin spoke against the amendment.
“Our role sitting here is to express views as elected representatives and also provide thoughts from our residents or businesses,” said Hamlin. “We allow our residents 10 minutes to speak, and I don’t know why we need to control this with a timer.”
Coun. Tina Comi agreed with Hamlin.
“I think we need to be wary of any unintended able-ism that could come with that. It’s wonderful when people are succinct, it’s not a requirement,” said Comi. “I really dislike the idea of one elected official having the ability to potentially limit or cut off another elected official’s comments.”
The amendment was passed by a vote of 5-3, with Coun. Deb Doherty, Hamlin and Coun. Tina Comi voting against.
A procedural bylaw outlines rules and responsibilities for councillors, staff and the public regarding how council and committee meetings are held and run.
As of now, members of council sit for three different committees monthly:
- Strategic Initiatives
- Corporate and Community Services
- Development and Operations Services
The existing system divides up the broad range of council responsibility into specialized areas of interest. Not all council members serve on each committee. There are also two regular council meetings at the end of each month to ratify the business discussed at the three meetings.
Council considered whether to switch from the existing structure to a committee of the whole structure, where there would be two committee of the whole meetings at the beginning of the month, and one council meeting at the end to ratify all the month’s business.
The committee-of-the-whole structure recommendation was defeated by a vote of 5-3, with Doherty, Hamlin and Comi voting in favour of the switch.
As part of the discussion, councillors considered allowing hybrid model meetings post-COVID, where staff or the public could participate using virtual options while others attend in-person.
Hamlin asked if a provision could be added to allow councillors to also participate in a hybrid fashion.
“It gives added flexibility and perhaps we’d have an easier time getting volunteers on these boards and committees. I feel the same thing applies to council members,” she said.
Clerk Sara Almas said that it could be added, should council vote in favour of an amendment. Ultimately, Hamlin decided not to put an amendment forward on the subject.
Also as part of Monday’s discussions, councillors considered keeping colour-coded cards for voting once they return to in-person meetings, which were first implemented during the pandemic. The order of business during meetings would also be re-arranged, with in-camera discussions happening at the beginning of meetings.
The length of time council is provided with an agenda package prior to a meeting was also discussed. Currently, agendas are required to be published 120 hours before ta meeting. Under the new procedural bylaw, staff recommended that time be reduced to 96 hours prior to a meeting.
“I feel like we need to balance a bit, the needs of the staff but also the needs of the councillors,” said Hamlin. “It is the councillor’s job to read through the agendas and they’re very lengthy.”
“I feel that we should be getting the agenda a week ahead. I see other municipalities doing that and I don’t know why we have less time,” she said.
An amendment put forward by Hamlin to stick with the status quo and have agendas available 120 hours before meetings was defeated 5-3 with Mayor Brian Saunderson, Hamlin and Comi voting in favour.
The main motion, that the procedural bylaw update be received and recommended for approval with the amendments was passed by a vote of 5-3, with Hamlin, Doherty and Comi opposed.
The bylaw will still need to be ratified by council at a meeting in December before going into effect.
The updated procedural bylaw can be found here.
