One last council meeting for retiring city manager

After more than 36 years working for the City of Saskatoon, city manager Murray Totland closes out his career by witnessing one last fiery debate at city council.

Monday will mark Totland’s last council meeting, and it will likely be highlighted by a vote on the contentious issue of imposing a time limit on the use of backyard firepits.

Monday’s agenda features some other items, too.

PIT STOP

Setting a time limit for backyard fires is pitting those who tout the freedom to do what they want on their property against those with health and nuisance concerns about the smoke.

At the committee level, councillors were split on a time limit, with the 5-11 p.m. range getting the required three votes. At the council meeting on Monday, any proposal will need six votes to pass, provided all councillors and the mayor attend.

Coun. Zach Jeffries wants longer hours during the week and even longer hours on weekends.

Council will vote on a back yard fire prohibition outside the hours of 5-11 p.m., but that could be amended, or defeated.

WASTE CASED

Coun. Mairin Loewen wants to make sure the city is doing all it can to eliminate waste.

Loewen, whose portfolio is environmental sustainability, wants to explore including waste diversion when assessing bids for city contracts. That could mean companies’ waste management plans would be considered when they apply.

Loewen also wants to consider including more information on waste diversion in city reports. Reports currently include a section on environmental impact, often citing the amount of greenhouse gases connected to a venture. Loewen wants to explore adding the amount of waste generated or diverted by programs or capital projects.

MAIN PAIN

Coun. Randy Donauer wants to explore ways to ensure residents’ water supply is restored as quickly as possible when water mains need repair.

His inquiry is timely. The 268 water main breaks as of early December is almost 100 more than last year.

Donauer wants to examine contracts the city issues for water main lining to see if there’s a way to ensure they’re completed as soon as possible. He thinks one way to address this could be to alter contracts so they stipulate that one main be finished before another is started, or to limit how many jobs a contractor can start at once. He also wants to see how much of this work could be done before winter.

SLOW RIDE

The transportation committee unanimously endorsed a plan to take a slow and careful approach to introducing ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft. The unanimous vote puts the item on council’s consent agenda, which includes about 30 items to be approved at once.

However, councillors can pull items off the agenda for reconsideration.

SKY-HIGH BUY

Council will also consider a request to spend $800,000 to buy a small plane to replace the leased police plane.

Police consider the plane, which has been operating for a decade, an unqualified success.

However, some residents have complained about the noise it makes at night.

The money for the purchase would come from a reserve fund that would end up in deficit for a few years.