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New council term kicks off with first post-election meeting tonight

A new council term begins tonight, and Mayor Ted Clugston is clarifying a campaign statement that the next four years will be “boring.”

Clugston, who will be sworn in along with eight councillors at a city hall ceremony Monday night, vowed before this month’s election that he saw the coming term as a time to rein in municipal construction projects.

Clugston said that he has heard some criticism of his use of the term “boring” which he says some people construe as not accomplishing anything.

“I took a little heat,” he said. “It’s not the correct word, but in terms of municipal capital construction, don’t expect a lot.”

Former alderman Phil Turnbull and Darren Hirsch will join five successful incumbents that were returned to council in the Oct. 16 election.

Council veterans Robert Dumanowski and Julie Friesen were re-elected along with Jim Turner, Brian Varga, and Jamie McIntosh, who each enter their second term.

They are joined by first-time candidate Kris Samraj who was the second highest vote getter among council candidates.

In terms of the council make-up, Clugston told the

News on Friday that he thinks it has the potential to accomplish great things.

“There are three new councillors, but one I’ve worked with before and another I know quite well,” said Clugston of the reelected former aldermen.

“I’ve been quite impressed with everybody’s attitude about working together and moving forward same as the last team.”

Friesen and Dumanowski have also each worked with Turnbull and Hirsch before, either separately or on the same council group.

Hirsch told the News on Friday that he is looking forward to beginning the term.

“It’s certainly exciting that we’re going to the next step and getting down to work,” said Hirsch.

“We’ve been lucky to have an oil and gas dividend but we haven’t been able to rely on it.”

The Financially Fit budget program aims to match cuts, new revenue and taxes to cut $23 million in resource revenue out of the operations budget.

In the second year of the plan in 2018, about $16 million in reserves with be used to bridge the gap.

Administrators will start working on the 2019-20 city budget early in the new year.

Regular council business will begin on Nov. 2, when council resumes its regular schedule of convening on the first and third Mondays of each month.

At that time committee work will also begin during the month.

A schedule of meetings as well as a list of committee appointments is expected to be approved on Monday evening.

A council strategic planning session, to outline priorities and goals for the next four years, is tentatively scheduled to take place in January.