REVIEWING THE RULES
City asked to study the policies around absences by councillors, writes Phil Tank.
Coun. Cynthia Block wants to take a look at the rules around absences by and support for city council members.
Right now, the provincial Cities Act says that if an elected official misses all the council meetings for three straight months without a resolution from council giving the OK, that mayor or councillor is disqualified.
Block is wondering about absences involving childbirth, illness support and compassionate leave. She wants the city’s municipal review commission to explore what options might be available and what other cities do.
“How does council function when life interrupts our duties?” Block asked in an interview. “It’s not really a matter of what’s best for us, it’s a matter of what’s best for the people we represent.”
Ward 7 Coun. Mairin Loewen gave birth to a baby boy May 14, but Block said Loewen’s situation just piqued her interest. She’s not seeking the information on behalf of Loewen, Block stressed.
Block will seek support to further investigate the matter at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
Former city councillor Tiffany Paulsen gave birth twice during her 16-year run as a city councillor and brought both of her children to meetings at city hall. Paulsen said in an interview she only missed one meeting as a result of her children, whom she also nursed at city hall.
But Paulsen did leave some meetings early, she said in an interview. She admitted her approach to try to keep attending all the meetings was not ideal.
“That’s really hard on a new mother,” Paulsen said.
She said she’s unsure whether some sort of leave or flexible accommodation is the answer, but she said having diverse representation on council includes women of child-bearing age who will give birth.
Block wants to hear back from the commission by Halloween.
JAZZ FEST WANTS BREAK
It would cost about $20,000 to waive parking fees for special events if city council endorses the practice, a city report headed to Tuesday’s council meeting says.
The SaskTel Saskatchewan Jazz Festival has asked the city to waive nearly $4,000 in costs to shut down paid parking stalls along Spadina Crescent for the 10-day festival.
The festival is moving its popular free stage to the stretch of Kiwanis Park north of the Delta Bessborough Hotel. Friendship Park, where the free stage has been located for last several years, is unavailable due to ongoing construction of the new Traffic Bridge. Closing Spadina between 22nd and 23rd streets would mean 16 stalls would be dormant for 13 days.
The report says city hall administration estimates closing down parking spaces for other events would total $15,400. The city has always charged for closing down parking stalls, but this year started charging for shuttered stalls within the “enclosure” of an event or festival.
Festival organizers and Downtown Saskatoon, the downtown business improvement district, have suggested the positive economic impact the event brings to the downtown warrants special consideration.
Also, it has been pointed out, the festival had little choice in where it locates its free stage this year.
The festival runs June 23 to July 2. The city’s parking programs raise about $10 million a year, some of which goes to streetscape improvements in the business districts that feature paid on-street parking. Over the past six years, an average of 190 requests a year have been made that parking stalls be closed.
RESTRICTING REQUESTS
Coun. Darren Hill wants the city to stop contributing money to big-ticket projects outside the annual year-end budget process.
Hill had sought a vote by city council last month to rescind a $3-million contribution to the University of Saskatchewan’s $42.9-million twin-pad rink project. Hill had wanted the funding reconsidered in light of a tough provincial budget that left a $9-million hole in the city’s 2017 finances. Ultimately, Hill withdrew his motion, but still supports the principle. On Tuesday, council will consider a followup motion by Hill.
Hill’s motion seeks to restrict requests for third-party projects seeking money more than a certain, to-be-determined amount from being considered outside of budget deliberations.
SEEKING EXCEPTION
Remai Modern Art Gallery of Saskatchewan board chair Alain Gaucher wants to be able to appoint members who live outside Saskatoon.
City council will consider removing the usual stipulation that City of Saskatoon board members reside in the city Tuesday. The board requested in December the number of members be expanded from 12 to 16 and that up to four be permitted who do not live in Saskatoon.
The request was endorsed by a 5-3 vote at Monday’s governance and priorities committee. The discussion about the matter took place in camera. A city report on the request was not available Friday.