Wrap on May 3rd WL Council Meeting

A number of issues were greatly perused at last night's WL Council Meeting:

1) DVP #3-2011

A fair bit of discussion on this item but Councillor Barr had it right when he suggested that the DVP be referred back to the City's Advisory Planning Commission (APC)for review, given it didn't have quorum when this matter was reviewed by the APC at its' April 26th meeting and might have had a different result, had the City's APC its' full 6 members available to discuss this item.  Council can, at its' pleasure, refer an item (DVP/Bylaw) back to Staff or an Advisory Committee if it so wishes for reasons expressed by Council.  In fact, Director Bischoff did the same on an Agriculture Land Commission (ALC) application with the Area 'D' APC because new information came to light and the Area 'D' Director wanted to ensure that, given the new information, the Area 'D' APC was still comfortable with this recommendation to approve the ALC application. Interesting that Councillor Zacharias stood by City Staff, which is fine in most cases, however Council has the moral duty to take all (public, APC, Staff)input and then make an appropriate decision.  Staff, like anyone else, is not always correct

2) Secondary Suites

Given the comments on my blog regarding the 20% utility fee for secondary suites, Councillor Natalie Hebert said the following while discussing adopting the Secondary Suites Bylaws:

It's only another $8.50 a month while water meters are $400"

Nice of her to say that while she's not sticking around for November's civic elections.  If the City makes new home construction include water meters then old homes should also include water meters at City expense.  Let's call it for what it is - a money grab under the file of "Safety". 

Secondary Suites Policy in Williams Lake + Affordable Housing + WL Council = Hypocrisy

3) Public Information Day (May 7th) + Mayor Cook

WL City Hall recently published a change to its' meeting schedule, namely moving the May 10th WL Council meeting to last night.  However, I was approached by an individual who was upset that the City didn't advertise this "outside" of WL City Hall (ie: Local Media/City's webpage).  I informed this invididual that I had suggested previously to Mayor Cook that all notices of Council meetings (Regular, Closed or In-Camera and Joint Committee) should be published either in the local papers and on the City website.  While Regular Meeting dates are currently posted on the local papers, changes to the meeting dates are not as widely advertised as they could, Joint Committee Meetings are not advertised and neither is In-Camera Meetings.  Also, Mayor Cook, in her typical "I don't care" fashion, skipped "Roundtable Comments" as laid out in the City's Procedure Bylaw.  If she wanted to skip it, she only  needed to ask for a motion to set aside that portion of the Agenda. 

Does Mayor Cook think she's above the law (Procedure Bylaw)?

Given Public Information Day in the City of Williams Lake is on May 7th - Mayor Cook should re-dedicate herself to the following and this could be done before the end of the term and may get her new supporters prior to November's election but I sincerely doubt she will do this:

1) Publish Dates of All Regular Meetings of WL Council/Central Cariboo Joint Committee and any changes thereto in the local papers, City Website and at WL City Hall

2) Publish In-Camera Agendas (City of Castlegar does this already and has done for a number of years)