1) Ethics
As I noted in my Council Highlights - Council had two items in which a conflict of interest either was declared or should have been declared. In the "bad news" department - Mayor Cook once again failed to declare a conflict when it came to the 2nd Delegation - TRU Student Union reps asking Council for a letter of support for their "Drop Fees" campaign. This given that Kerry Cook works for TRU. A clear example of how not to conduct yourself ethically as a member of Williams Lake City Council, especially as the most senior member of Williams Lake Council as Mayor of Williams Lake
In the "good news" department, during consideration of submitting a Victim Impact Statement for drug cases, Councillor Natalie Hébert chose to declare a ethical conflict, given her role as a defence lawyer. She did not have to do this as you only have to declare a conflict if you stand to benefit financially from an item before Council. So I give her "two thumbs up" for that move
2) Length of Meeting
The Council meeting of Dec 7th was 2.5 hours and could have easily been an hour or less, if Mayor Cook chose to exercise her power to have an efficient meeting. I don't think adding items to the Agenda lends itself to an efficient meeting (new Council Information Package)
3) New Standing Committees
Last night, Council appointed the 3 Standing Committees for 2011. It appears that Mayor Cook & WL City Staff were not in a position to fully address concerns expressed by Councillors Bourdon, Barr and Rathor. If you can't address all questions without stating "good point" or "I don't know", it's better to leave the status quo in place, rather than charging into a new situation and bluffing your way through it
4) Councillor Walters statement
Some in the public gallery let it be known to me that they felt the statement of Councillor Walters invoking the personal side of her life at a Council meeting was inappropriate. I tend to agree - if you are reviewing the successes or failures in a Council year, restrict it to your political activities and leave the personal side either to the campaign trail or invite Councillors/Mayor to your home. While I'm at it - Councillor Walters re-addressed her comments in November about being weak on process and while she tried to proclaim herself as understanding process, her actions to date do not match her words. I believe when it comes to Arts and Culture and other matters - she will be called a hypocrite and she will fully deserve the title
I'm fully looking forward to the 2011 Election Campaign - City of Williams Lake :)
4 comments:
The Council meeting of Dec 7th was 2.5 hours and could have easily been an hour or less
You are ridiculous.....people are to be allowed to be heard and questioned in City Council (delegations) and the two delegations alone took up 45 minutes, were very informative, and educated the CITIZENS OF WILLIAMS LAKE as to what the issues were. Please stop armchair quarterbacking things and just report on the facts. you are a walking contradiction steve, you want them to hurry up and then when they go through things speedily you whine that they didnt take enough time to consider things......
If you like quesnel so much, i encourage you to move there, im sure alot of us would appreciate that.
AMEN.
Thanks for your comments
The truth is Delegation #1 took 8 mins to address WL Council and they (Mead, Beltgens and Stefan) made clear what they wanted Council to do and Council debated action for another 15-20 mins
Delegation #2 was a PowerPoint Presentation that took another 10-12 mins to complete with Council taking another 5-7 mins to ask questions.
In short - Council started at 6:00pm and ended the 2 Delegations at 7:15pm when Council could have been done with delegations at 6:40pm or even better Council could refer delegations to a Committee of the Whole Meeting to allow for more fulsome debate and leave Council meetings for focused decision making. Not only does Quesnel use this model but others do as well like Cranbrook
Finally - I fully intend to report out on what local governments are doing and provide my commentary and that will continue. Also, I have no plans to move away. As I've said before - if you don't like what is posted here, you can read other material like "Welcome to Williams Lake", Williams Lake Tribune or the Cariboo Advisor. I'm sure the publishers of those media sources would love your attention
Oh yes - May all my blog readers' have a Merry Christmas season and a successful 2011 :)
I think the commenter above makes a good point Steve, is it not the purpose of the meeting to allow for some discussion especially if there is a delegation? I mean, from what i read in the papers and online, the Pellet plant is quite a contentious issue to many within the public. If i was presenting to Council i would want to know that they "heard me" and that i was being taken seriously. Now i missed the presentation due to work obligations but if i was able to attend i would have liked to watch a human exchange not a "political" one.
Apehanger.
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