City considers rescheduling of council meeting

City council candidates heard loud and clear during last year’s election campaign that citizens want changes to council meetings.

On Monday, the first steps were taken: regular Tuesday meetings could start at 4 p.m. – or even 3 p.m. – in the future to accommodate more agenda items. The current start time is 6 p.m. for Tuesday meetings.

The deadline to receive correspondence would be moved to 4 p.m. on Mondays from 8 a.m. on Tuesdays to give councillors more time to receive and review public input on public hearing items.

Tuesday regular meetings and public hearings would be combined, and would have to conclude after four hours at 8 p.m. However, a majority of councillors could extend the meeting past 8 p.m. but it would take two-thirds to extend it past 8:30 p.m. and unanimous consent to extend it past 9 p.m. The current requirement is to end meetings at 11 p.m.

Posting of regular meeting agendas would occur a day earlier so Monday council agendas, for example, would be posted on the city website on the Wednesday before the meeting. The topic of “Issues arising” would be moved from the Monday morning agenda to the 1:30 p.m. or afternoon meeting under Mayor and Councillor Items. The Monday morning meeting usually includes an in-camera meeting which is closed to the public and rarely does any public attend.

Staff in the city clerk’s office will now prepare a bylaw changing council procedures but another change for a public question period or presentation opportunity will be discussed in a separate report to council.

During the election, voters asked for an opportunity for the public to ask questions of council during a Monday council meeting once or twice a month about matters not on the agenda, said Mayor Tom Dyas.