In Quesnel:
* Quesnel Council, in Committee, will consider a report on truck parking in Quesnel. See various items on this subject here. A very touchy subject, given a recent decision by the Provincial Ministry of Transportation on truck parking on Highway #97 North (Front Street) and hopefully Quesnel Council can come up with a workable solution that satifies everyone in Quesnel
In Williams Lake:
* Local school teacher proposes walkway for 3rd Avenue North, in Glendale - see here. A good proposal in my opinion and City Staff have recommended approval so I don't think Council will vote no to this
* City of WL CAO reports out on recent Citizen Survey. See his report here. Some noteworthy items from the survey of 400 residents:
a) Crime continues to be #1 issue with local economy #2
b) 69% of those survey say taxes/services are appropriate at current levels and a further 18% say taxes could rise with no complaints from them
* City looks at Bulk Water Dispensing Plant at Stampede Grounds - see here. I agree, though, with the City Manager of Waste/Sewer that this plant should be at Stampede Grounds, rather than City Works Yard. The wildfires of 2010 demonstrated the necessity of having such a plant close to a highway rather than deep in the City. Also - Mr. Engelberts mentioned in his report that a Bulk Water charge does not exist in the City's Water Bylaw and Council will need to address in the near future. Given it is an election year - WL Council will need to tread the issue of a bulk water charge very carefully, given local's views on the selling of water. But I believe there is a difference between charging just enough to cover the cost to provide the servics vs charging a bulk water rate to recoup costs and make a few dollars on the side. The latter (cost-recovery basis) will be, I believe, preferred by the public than the former (cost recovery + a little profit)
* New Event Hosting Grant Policy - see here. Because the proposed Policy makes reference to the CRD Recreation Function - Council should give some thought to receive/refer this Policy to Joint Committee before adopting it so it doesn't ruffle any feathers with their CRD Director colleagues
In the Cariboo Regional District:
On Thursday at the Policy Session:
a) Board to look at different Options for holding Town Halls meetings either in Spring or Fall rather than in Jan/Feb which makes travel difficult - see the CRD Administrator's report here. I congratulate Ms. Bell for this report and I believe it'll make the Town Hall process more meaningful for CRD Residents' and making budgeting more holistic for CRD Directors as they have more information at their fingertips as they set budgets for an upcoming year
b) Board to look for Insurance for CRD Directors and Volunteers
At the May 27th CRD Board Meeting - the following Resolution was adopted:
Liability Insurance Coverage for CRD Directors
11-05C-71
Moved Director Sorley;
Seconded Director Sjostrom:
“That staff be requested to report back to the Board on the current liability insurance coverage for Directors of the Cariboo Regional District Board and what other options might be available.”
See a report on this from the CRD's Chief Financial Officer here. In reviewing the report, Staff suggest that there are 3 different types of coverage for Directors' and their Alternates, Senior CRD Staff and Regional District Volunteers (maximum 50). I would support this for Senior CRD Staff but I can't for Directors and Volunteers for the following reasons:
1) For Directors - if they want Life Insurance/Dental & Health Coverage - they should have this paid for out of their own pockets and not taxpayers'. CRD Directors already get a decent stipend package around $1300 per month, depending on how far you reside from Williams Lake (majority of CRD Board Meetings' are held there). Also, no reasonable explanation as to why CRD taxpayers' should cover insurance for CRD Directors or Alternate Directors, however for the record, when asked, CRD Area 'F' Director Joan Sorley said this on the topic:
This is a follow-up to our realization that elected officials and volunteers other than firefighters are not covered under WorkSafe BC in case of injury, and the intent of the motion was for staff to research what options might be available for insurance coverage.
2) For Volunteers - no defintion here. And given you have 12 APC's (Advisory Planning Commission) with some having 4 members (Area 'D' APC) and some having the maximum at 10 members with some Electoral Areas having an APC and a Community Commission together so you could be opening a can of worms of providing coverage for as many as 150+ people. Finally - this is not something residents' have asked for. In fact - some Area 'F' residents' have suggested that taxes are too high and needed to be scaled back at previous Town Hall meetings
c) New Social Media Policy - see the Policy here. This Policy is proposed by the CRD's Manager of Communications and she wrote a good Policy here and hopefully the Board will adopt it. WL Council adopted their Social Media Policy earlier this year and local governments will get into the Social Media world, as a tool, given lots of people are now on Twitter/Facebook but you'll still the traditional tools of newspaper/radio continued to be used. A good policy for communicating with the people is when you use all tools available - social media, newspaper, door to door, etc
On Friday at the CRD Board (Regular) Meeting:
a) Update on New Solid Waste Plan - Public Consultation. See here. The plan is to engage the public this fall - September/October of 2011
b) 911 Cost Recovery - see here. Board at their last meeting asked CRD Staff to give numbers on charge with "improvements only". Board will need to make a decision soon as a decision needs to be arrived at as to how to charge (improvements only or land & improvvements) for 911 in 2012
c) Area 'E' Director to raise concern about Rural Fire Protection and Building Inspection. See here. According to Director Mazur - requisition for Rural Fire Protection has risen a whopping 211% year over year as the rate has gone from 1.0671 per $1,000 of assessed value to $2.1802 per $1,000 with no consultation. Translated - that's from $106.71 per $100,000 of assessed value to $218.02 per $100,000 of assessed value. So, on a typical house of $200,000 - the rate for fire protection in Area 'E' has gone from $213.42 to $436.04. I can see why he is so concerned
d) Board to receive Building Stats Reports for April. See here. According to this report - the City of Williams Lake:
In April of 2010 - Value of Building Permits equalling $2,095,500
In April of 2011 - Value of Building Permits equalling $1,840,466
For Jan-April 2010 - Value of Building Permits equalling $7,168,100
For Jan-April 2011 - Value of Building Permits equalling $3,763,466
This, in spite of the fact that individual Building Permit Numbers are up from 2010 to 2011
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