Review of COW Items

As I noted last night, there was no Committee of the Whole meeting, due to the developing fire situation close to the City boundaries

However, for my blog readers, I thought I would take a moment to review the Agenda Items and indicate what Council would have been considering Tuesday evening:

Delegations:

1) Fred McMechan/Sue Hemphill from Scout Island Nature Centre were to ask Council to endorse a request for $40,000 in joint financial support (City of WL/CRD) to Scout Island. Their rationale for their request is that their operating costs have gone up and noted the Museum of the Cariboo-Chilcotin gets joint funding and Scout Island should get similar consideration. This request was likely to be referred to the Central Cariboo Joint Committee. See Mr. McMechan's letter here and see City Councillor Natalie Hebert's Portfolio recommendation on this item here

2) Ken Day (UBC-Alex Fraser Research Forest) was to appear before the Committee to review the Draft Statements of Intent, with regard to the local community forest. See the Statements of Intent here

3) Imogen Thompson (City's Greenhouse Gas Planning Technician) was to review with the Committee the final numbers on the Greenhouse Gas Inventory - see her presentation here

Business:

1) 2nd Quarter Report - read the report here

Major Highlights:

* 40.7% of Revenue received as of June 30th, 2010
* 25.4% of Expenses accounted for as of June 30th, 2010
* Courthouse Square Project over budget by $3,740 at June 30th, 2010
* New Firehall Project over budget by $171,845 as of June 30th, 2010. City Staff project that an additional $20,000 needed to finish the New Fire Hall project
* Review of Mayor & Councillors' Expenditures dated June 30th, 2010 (half-way through City's 2010 Fiscal Year)

Mayor Cook - Budget of $10,600 with $5,133 left available
Councillor Barr - Budget of $6,360 with $4,792 left available
Councillor Bourdon - Budget of $5,560 with $5,103 left available
Councillor Hebert - Budget of $5,560 with $5,990 left available (refund from UBCM Registration)
Councillor Rathor - Budget of $5,560 with $4,861 left available
Councillor Walters - Budget of $5,560 with $4,877 left available
Councillor Zacharias - Budget of $5,560 with $5,800 left available (refund from UBCM Registration)

Total for Mayor & Councillors Travel & Expenses Budget for 2010 - $44,760 with $36,556 left available or Council has used 18.33% of their overall travel & expense budget for 2010 as of June 30th, 2010

2) 2010 Interim Financial Statements - read the statements here

Review of City's Financial Numbers as of June 30th, 2010 for all City of WL Funds (General, Water, Sewer, Airport, etc)

3) Integrated Community Sustainability Plan - Adopting of ICSP - read the ICSP Final Document here

This ICSP Final Plan is a coronation of the work done in the community on the ICSP over the last year. This document will be used to measure the City's work to make this community the very best it can be

4) Expansion of Williams Lake HandyDART Service in September - read the CAO's report on this item here

Major Points:

* Cost to implement for remainder of 2010 - $7,000
* Cost to implement in 2011 - $16,000
* Cost to homeowner in 2011 - $1.05 per $100,000 of assessment, on basis of land & improvements

I'm personally disappointed in this report for three reasons:

1) No formal request from Accessibility Committee directly to Council on need to expand HandyDART
2) No appearance of coordination between City/CRD on HandyDART, given the CRD is going to be having a referendum on HandyDART & Transit on September 25th
3) This request should be evaluated in the context of a full 2011 Budget