Council crush gives big issues short shrift

Saskatoon city council’s latest transportation committee meeting started at 2 p.m. on June

11. It will end, one hopes, this Wednesday — 16 days later.

The original meeting ended after more than four hours with a To Be Continued notice. Those who wanted to speak on ride sharing and taxis were told to come back on June 19 at 9 a.m.

Coun. Zach Jeffries determined, correctly, that there was insufficient time to handle the taxi-related items, so the 20 or so speakers were asked to come back a week later.

Part 2 of the transportation committee meeting stretched more than four and a half hours before it was decided to finish the meeting this Wednesday at noon.

Is council trying to cram too much into the month of June because there’s just a single council meeting and no committee meetings in July?

Or is it just a coincidence that all these big issues — ride sharing, transit improvements, bike lanes, trash collection — are coming up at the same time?

The governance and priorities committee, an awkwardly named body that includes all council members, met for nearly five hours on Monday. Then, on Wednesday, the same committee held a special meeting to discuss the little matter of the city’s plan for growth to a population of 500,000.

That meeting went five hours. Mayor Charlie Clark solicited nervous laughter when he told the dozens assembled at 1 p.m. that the meeting could go as late as 11 p.m.

It seems Clark was mistaken about how long the meeting could last, but the five-hour length of that meeting forced the postponement of a meeting between council and the board of police commissioners.

The confluence of so many issues at once clearly strains the ability of the public to follow, the media to cover and even the councillors to attend.

Four councillors missed Wednesday’s meeting on the growth plan — arguably the most consequential of this council term. Councillors who miss meetings can watch online videos of most of them, as can the public, but they can’t ask questions of speakers.

On Monday, council will hold two meetings. At the afternoon session, council will debate the controversial proposal to start charging fees based on volume for trash collection.

In the evening, at a public hearing where anyone can speak about any topic on the agenda, council will tackle zoning laws for legalized marijuana shops.

The evening session could become a marathon. A proposal to permanently restrict traffic on Glasgow Street in the Avalon neighbourhood — even though a temporary barrier has not even been in place for a year — could draw many speakers.

Was there a way to prevent all of these big issues from landing on council’s desk at the same time? A balmy June after a miserably cold and long winter seems an odd time to expect residents to pay close attention.

It seems like council spent most of the winter debating what to do about backyard fires.

Council set the 2018 meeting schedule last October, and for the second straight year, backed a July free of most meetings.

Coun. Darren Hill argued for a full slate of July meetings that could be cancelled if they’re not needed. “We are no longer a sleepy little town,” he said last fall.

Council voted down Hill’s idea for July meetings. As it is, ride sharing will land at council’s sole July meeting.

On Monday, Hill will seek support for a further study of the way council goes about its business, including prioritizing agenda items and considering the possibility of more council meetings. More meetings may sound boring, but this council crush has a dampening effect on public input.

Two of the speakers who wanted to talk about taxis/ride sharing were unable to make Part 2 of that committee meeting.

Vancouver-based Uber executive Michael van Hemmen planned to talk at Part 1 of the same meeting and had to return a week later for Part

2. Uber executives don’t rank high on the sympathy scale, but hearing from the ride-sharing giant is vital.

Finding a better way for city hall is vital, too.